Three continents came together to rock The Observatory in Santa Ana, California on April 29, 2023. The "Watch The Divide Tour” includes headliner The Plot in You (USA) with support from Holding Absence (Wales), Thornhill (Australia), and Banks Arcade (New Zealand). I’m not going to pretend I know a lot about these bands and fill you with a fluff article. I just heard of The Plot In You a few weeks ago and saw they were playing near us, so let’s go!
I was not expecting what I saw!
Unfortunately, I missed Banks Arcade and the photo op for Thornhill due to a parking issue. If you go to The Observatory OC, make sure you have a card, I didn’t have one, because cash is not accepted for parking, no exceptions. Banks Arcade, originally from New Zealand, but now in Australia, signed with Australian independent record label UNFD. On their website, lead vocalist Joshua O’Donnell said about their single, “Don’t Start,” “We are all trying to do this life thing right and we have to heal from shit, and most of the time people saying negative things are just using that as a way to deal with their own trauma. I just let it roll off my back and choose to focus on getting better at what I do.” I’m really bummed I missed their performance!
I walked into a packed house with Thornhill on stage! The Australian band formed back in 2015 performing in high school Battle of the Bands competitions. They have two studio albums, their first album The Dark Pool released in 2018 and their latest album The Heroine released in 2022 which was nominated for Best New Rock or Heavy Metal Album for ARIA Music Awards. They opened their set with “View From the Sun.” They spilt their setlist evenly between their two albums, playing 4 songs from each. I think my favorite song they performed was “The Hellfire Club.” It was a powerful performance that I could feel way in the back!
Holding Absence is from Wales, also formed in 2015. Lead vocalist Lucas Woodland came out with fire energy, jumping and kicking and getting low to sing in the faces of fans. In between songs, he said we the supporting bands are from three different continents and none of us are on our own continent. They opened with “Awake” and the fans were definitely awake!
I’ve never seen The Observatory pumping with energy like that before!
It was finally time for The Plot in You! Lead singer, Landon Tewers, came strutting out on the stage sporting a Viagra jacket. He said this was their biggest headline show to date. After over a decade of coming to this venue, I don’t think I’ve ever seen The Observatory OC with that much energy! He asked to show hands if you’ve never crowd surfed and about 1/3 of the crowd raised their hand. He said, “Let’s get these people up! I want to give you a fist bump.” The pit was more of a punk rock slam pit, but it looked fun with the sea of crowd surfers. Security did an amazing job of body catching! The pit between the barricade and the stage is really small and doesn’t have a lot of room to brace for impact. Always thank the body catching security, they should really have a tip jar like bartenders! In between songs, Landon would go up to people and ask a random question like, “What do you think about politics?” or “What are you thinking about right now?” It totally caught people off guard. One girl said “Food!” You’re on the rail, Landon Tewers is in your face, and you are only thinking about food? They closed out with their hit, “FEEL NOTHING.”
"Watch The Divide Tour" has only a few remaining tour dates! Don’t miss this show, if they are in your city!
05/03 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
05/04 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
05/06 Grand Junction, CO @ Mesa Theater
05/07 Colorado Springs, CO @ Black Sheep
05/09 Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
05/10 Des Moines, IA @ Wooly's
05/11 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection
05/12 St. Louis, MO @ The Old Rock House
05/13 Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart's
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