With festival season in full swing and bands touring all over the continent, bands love to come together and put on some headline shows in between all. On June 16th Holding Absence made a stop at Das Bett in Frankfurt. Make Them Suffer, all the way from Australia, opened up the evening. Despite it being a very windy and non-summery day, fans were lined up to get in early and hopefully earn a spot at the front. Doors opened half an hour later than originally planned, but the excitement couldn’t be brought down.
Way before Make Them Suffer made it to the stage, the venue was already packed and fans were lined up at the merch table. Just after 7 pm, the lights dimmed down and it was time for Make Them Suffer to warm up the crowd. The Australian metalcore band from Perth consists of Sean Harmanis (vocals), Nick McLernon (guitar), Jaya Jeffery (bass), Jordan Mather (drums), and Alex Reade (keyboard). They started their set with ‘Ghost Of Me’ and made the venue vibrate from the heavy sounds. The room heated up very quickly and many fans could be seen singing along to the lyrics. During ‘Hollowed Heart’ a mosh pit started to form in the middle of the room, and in mere seconds it took over half of the venue.
Harmanis was very comfortable on stage and had great crowd control, encouraging the fans to mosh and clap during their set and wave along to ‘Ether’. Unfortunately, their short set came to an end in what felt like no time, but not before performing ‘Doomswitch’. They did an amazing job warming up the crowd and the fans could not get enough of the band. After the band left the stage the crowd kept chanting “One more song”, which unfortunately did not come.
It did not take long before Holding Absence came on stage, opening their set with the well-known song ‘Like A Shadow’. Fans were hyped from the first note and instantly sang along. The band from Wales consists of Lucas Woodland (vocals), Scott Carey (guitar), Benjamin Elliott (bass) and Ash Green (drums). Unfortunately Green was not present at this tour, so Scott Waters from Continents was filling in for him.
If you have seen Holding Absence before, you know how energetic their shows are, with Woodland jumping all over the stage and doing high kicks all evening long. The band played Download Festival the day before this show in Frankfurt, Woodland mentioned they had to catch a flight to make it on time and he only slept two hours. This fact was definitely not noticeable since his energy was so high.
Because of the venue being rather small, crowd surfers easily made their way to the stage. During ‘Gravity’ a girl crowd surfed to the front and was caught by Woodland. The fans eagerly clapped and waved along to the songs and a few mosh pits were started. For the song ‘False Dawn’ the lights dimmed down to put the venue in a more intimate setting, and quickly the crowd put on their flashlights on their phone, adding to this mood. During the song ‘In Circles’ some fans got visibly emotional, while still singing along every word.
For this show, they also added ‘Coffin’ to the setlist, a song that usually does not make its way to their live shows. The energy then went back up when they played ‘Aching Longing’, in no time fans were jumping and clapping again.
Woodland then explains “This is a band that runs on emotion, whether it’s hope or sadness, it doesn’t matter. The point of this band is to feel something and I’ve gotta be honest when I don’t feel good or I feel great, I just want you guys to know, I feel amazing tonight thanks to you, so thank you so very much!”.
Continuing, Woodland shouts “Let’s dance!” before kicking into ‘A Crooked Melody’. After this song, he thanked Make Them Suffer for opening the evening and also thanked the crowd for being sensational, even saying his thanks in his best German.
‘Afterlife’, another big song of theirs, made everyone sing along, Woodland often pointing his microphone to the crowd during this song, letting them sing the words. They ended their set with ‘The Angel In The Marble’, during which fans in the front row put their hands on their chests while getting a bit emotional. Once again the fans couldn’t get enough and chanted for “one more song” again.
It was an evening full of energy from both bands, making the rather small venue shake from all the excitement. Holding Absence has been on the rise, and it won’t be long before we see them take over the bigger stages.
Written by: Morana Frey
Photographed by: Morana Frey
Edited by: Marieke Weeda
