If you could bottle the feeling of downloading pop-punk anthems off LimeWire and syncing them to a hot pink iPod Nano, As December Falls‘ show at The Lansdowne would be it. The Nottingham quartet rolled into Eora/Sydney for the second stop of their first-ever Australian tour, and if the crowd’s reaction was anything to go by, they might as well move in.
Openers Belle Haven and A Swift Farewell set the tone with a double hit of emo and pop-punk intensity. Naarm/Melbourne’s Belle Haven brought their post-hardcore heart-on-sleeve energy, delivering gut-punching melodies that had the early crowd swaying one moment and screaming the next. A Swift Farewell carried with slick, polished hooks that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Warped Tour compilation CD circa 2006. It was the perfect build-up to the chaos that was about to unfold.
From the first notes of ‘Ride’, it was obvious this was a moment. The energy was electric, and vocalist Bethany Hunter wasted no time throwing herself into it, her voice soaring over a wall of crunchy guitars and breakneck drums. The crowd? Never been more ready.
“How many of you have seen us before?” Hunter asked. A handful of hands shot up. “And how many of you are seeing us for the first time?” The response was deafening. First-time crowds don’t always go this hard, but the entirely independent As December Falls has a reputation that vastly precedes them.
The setlist was a crash course in everything that makes them great. ‘Join the Club’ and ‘Mayday’ hit like old-school scene anthems, dripping with Paramore-meets-We Are The In Crowd attitude. ‘I Don’t Feel Like Feeling Great’ turned into a mass catharsis, with the whole room screaming every word. And then there was ‘Therapy’, the latest single coming from the band, delivered with full-throttle conviction.
Seeing a band on their first-ever run in a new country makes a show feel bigger than the venue itself and the Lansdowne’s intimate, sweat-drenched space amplified the feeling tenfold. By the time ‘Carousel’ closed out the night, it was a pop-punk alt-rock time warp, ripped straight from 2010 and delivered with 2025-level urgency. If this is what As December Falls can pull off on their first Australian tour, they’ll be filling much bigger rooms next time and it’ll be extra special to see them again.
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