Tapestry Launch ‘Growth’ Tour

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Tapestry are a hard one to pigeon hole. They have a little bit of post hardcore screamo, a little bit of pop punk, there’s some post rock/ prog in there as well. If I had to use one word to describe their sound, I’d use the word “space”.

Tapestry are off on a tour of the East Coast to support the launch of their debut EP called Growth. They kicked off the tour in their hometown of Darwin at the Chambers Cresent Theatre in Malak this evening with the help of Joy Greer, Roymackonkey, We Burn Bridges and I, The Burden.

Kicking off the evening was local singer songwriter Joy Greer – just her, her voice and an acoustic guitar. Her style can be described as classic singer songwriter/ folk, with modern influences. Her songs are made up of quietly picked acoustic guitar riffs that ebb and flow into sing along melodic vocal lines about love, life and loss. She has quite a mature sound for someone both so young and only starting her musical journey. Joy opened the night with an intimate set of from-the-heart numbers that pleasantly contrasted the rest of the evening’s boisterous, noisy, distorted offerings.

We Burn Bridges took to the stage next firing on all eleventy pistons. From the opening note to the final shriek, We Burn Bridges gave it everything. Post hardcore/screamo/ whatever you want to call it… I’m not sure if it’s this generations punk, this generations metal or this generations [insert genre here] because it seems to draw from all of these genres, but sounds like none of them. After watching the We Burn Bridges set, I’d say that it’s this generations punk music. Raw, angry, passionate, We Burn Bridges pretty much took to the stage, screamed in its face, did the drop part where everything goes to halftime and huge, then dropped the mic and left the stage. Metaphorically anyway…

Next up was a favourite of mine, Roymackonkey. If ever there was a band that deserved the title “stalwart” it’s these guys. Roymackonkey have been breaking ground in the Darwin music scene for nearly two decades. They have a body of work that covers most of the musical spectrum from soft ballads to full-blown 9 minute epics. Like a true professional band they played to the room and busted out a few older, rockier tracks off earlier releases like Quality Of Meat. The Roys were on fire tonight, delivering an energised powerful performance. The whole set was great and I even got a song dedicated to me, but the best part (for me) was when front man John appealed to the younger crowd with “I know we’re old f@#ks, but thanks for having us”.

Young Australian Of The Year contender and Terrorfest co-creator Ben Masters’ band I, The Burden played next. I, The Burden play dropped down post hardcore to a tee and bring it in spades. It’s been great to see them mature as performers and as a band. With such great songs and motivation behind them, there’s no reason I, The Burden can’t take it as far as they can go.

A great set with plenty of energy. But on to the main event of the evening… Tapestry.

It’s great to see young bands with such an epic work ethic and positive outlook. Tapestry have been working hard on recording their debut EP, mastering it, producing the artwork, and then booking the support tour for it, with a lot of assistance from Ben Masters. Totally this generation’s punk in ethics and spirit, if not necessarily sound. To further this, when the band started their set, they asked everyone to get up the front and join in. They didn’t do it aggressively or tell anyone to “get the f@#k up!” or anything like that. They simply said “We are all here for music. No one is cooler than anyone, let’s all enjoy some music together”.

Tapestry have a sound somewhere in that post hardcore vein, but with way more space. They are somewhere on this generation’s post rock spectrum (if I can butcher this metaphor further), but still with the big drops and heaviness. I like that the vocals are similar to the screamo vibe, but with a little more clarity in the clean parts, and a little less nasal twang in the screamy parts. It’s interesting to note that all the vocals are solid and strong. Tapestry have really been working hard at their sound and performance in preparation for the tour, and it shows. You can always tell when a band is tight by the way they barely even look at each other on stage, but all their heads nod along on the 2 and the 4 (or the 3 and the 6 if it’s in 6 which a lot of it is). Smarter writers than I have labelled this the “Cosmic Nod” and it’s a dead giveaway of a tight band that’s hit their stride.

Tapestry bring the cosmic nod in droves. And the way their songs have so much space in them lends itself to anyone hearing them to nod right along. I can’t mention the space in Tapestry’s work enough.

A great example: when We Burn Bridges played there were blokes with big arms doing this dance thing where they punch, flail and swing their arms while kicking out with their legs and smash into each other. It’s pretty violent if you aren’t into it. And it makes the space where everyone is supposed to share the music and collectively dance and have fun into something that looks like an amateur MMA try out or something. I get it. The music has some pretty aggressive and hardcore energy to it. I guess some blokes with big arms can find it hard sometimes to express any emotion other than rage, even if they are feeling happiness and joy at connecting with something greater than the sum of its parts. So I get it.

It was interesting to see that when Tapestry went off on some of the space-ier/ airy tangents that the same blokes with big arms were dancing way less aggressively. I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make, or even if I’m trying to make one, but it was certainly an interesting observation.

Tapestry played tight, performed liked they meant it, and looked like they could relate to what they meant while they were meaning it. An exciting band that is about to go to interesting places, and I don’t just mean down south because they are about to start touring.

For me, the Tapestry Growth tour premiere was a success. All the bands played great and gave great performances, the sound was massive out the front, but still clear and separated; the light show was bright (so so bright). If this is the level of energy that the band is going to bring to the rest of the tour then look out you down south mob, Tapestry are coming.

Check out Tapestry on bandcamp and buy their debut EP at https://tapestry-au.bandcamp.com/