I Prevail’s Brisbane Riverstage Show Proved Their Biggest Australian Tour Yet Is Hitting Different

If there was any question whether I Prevail could carry an Australian headline run into a new era, Brisbane answered it pretty quickly.

Playing Riverstage as part of their Violent Nature Australian tour, Michigan heavyweights I Prevail delivered a set that felt bigger, louder and more confident than any local appearance they’ve done before.

It also marked a first, this was I Prevail’s first ever amphitheatre performance in Australia, and Riverstage ended up feeling like the perfect fit.

For a first visit to the venue, it immediately made an impression, the outdoor setting gave the show a different energy from the usual arena and theatre runs, creating one of those nights where everything seemed to breathe a little more naturally despite the intensity happening on stage. And intensity wasn’t in short supply.

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From opener NWO through Bow Down and Self-Destruction, the crowd barely stopped moving, with the newer material sitting comfortably beside the established favourites, Violent Nature proving it already belongs among the band’s biggest live moments.

Eric Vanlerberghe looked completely at home leading the show, and midway through the night gave Brisbane something they’ll probably be talking about for a while, not one shoey, but two, and back to back.

Elsewhere, their take on Metallica’s Sad But True landed as one of the standout moments of the night, turning Riverstage into something closer to a festival field than a headline show.

Gabe Helguera’s drum solo

Then there Gabe‘s drum solo, set to a remix of Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction, it somehow managed to be both ridiculous and genuinely impressive at the same time, one of those moments that became one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night.

With Sydney closing out the run tonight at Hordern Pavilion, Brisbane felt like proof that I Prevail’s biggest Australian headline tour yet has arrived exactly when it needed to.

I Prevail – Brisbane, June 21st setlist

• NWO
• Bow Down
• Self-Destruction
• There’s Fear in Letting Go
• Violent Nature
• Blank Space (Taylor Swift cover)
• Into Hell
• Bad Things
• Sad but True (Metallica cover)
• Rain
• Drum Solo (Remix of Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction)
• God (followed by Eric doing back-to-back shoeys)
• Choke
• Come and Get It
• Hurricane
• Gasoline

I for one, already cannot wait for the next one.