The Butterfly Effect, Thornhill, Caligula’s Horse at Eatons Hill Hotel, Brendale. 7 October, 2022
Tonight is a home show for the openers and closers of the show tonight, and in early rumblings amongst the crowd they won’t have to work too hard to keep us satisfied.
Caligula’s Horse waste no time to get out and amongst things, bringing the prog party early as they play through a set of their heavier material ensuring no one gets too lazy on the floor. Breaks between tracks are interspersed with front man Jim Grey’s musings on playing such a lush venue, and the odd dad joke works its way into their hour long set time that passes by in a flash. Some of the biggest moments in the set come from Marigold and Rust off their Bloom album.
Thornhill make their way up next with not too much fan fare. Their more ambient metalcore stylings make them the odd ducks on the bill, not helped by their vocalist’s clean vocals being too high in the mix and coming off overpowering like nails down a chalkboard early on in the set and never really dissipating. The heavier parts are excellent although with such a high standard set by Caligula’s Horse they struggle to maintain the energy level set so early.
The Butterfly Effect make their way quietly onto the stage as the instrumental opener from their newest album welcomes them, along with the wall of noise from the heaving venue now packed to what looks like capacity. They waste no time in digging into the energy being fed to them from the floor, playing a set that covers a lot from the Imago and Final Conversation… albums interspersed the heaviest material from IV. So Tired and the punky Nil By Mouth in particular keep the party going just as the floor starts to tire (Hey, most of us look like we have been with the band since the beginning. We are getting old). The opening encore track of Visiting Hours is the only rest ever given in the set.
I have had the pleasure of seeing this band play more than once, including on their original ‘reunion’ tour and they have never looked happier on stage as a unit as they do right now. It feels special to be allowed to witness just how much this excites them to be together on stage right now.