Pennywise, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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When you’re a band like Pennywise and you’re playing your seminal album from start to finish, it’s fair to say that the bar is set pretty and big things are anticipated. Full Circle, released 20 years ago in April, is the band’s striking tribute to former member Jason Thirsk, whose tragic suicide a year prior shook the Californian four piece and led to a reunion with Randy Bradbury who’d joined the band on bass for a brief stint in 1991.

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Pennywise, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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Pennywise, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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With the Enmore Theatre bursting at the seams from the capacity crowd composed mostly of heavily tattooed men in their late 30s and early 40s, there was a communal sense that something pretty special was about to happen.

Opening the evening were Sydney based Beerwolf, a five piece with a kind of manic density but particularly Australian banter who do a mean cover of the Misfits ‘Where Eagles Dare’.

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The Bronx, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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Taking over from Beerwolf, The Bronx, who are not from the Bronx but who have like 6 albums all called The Bronx or some variation of that play their asses off. Two songs in vocalist Matt Caughthran, unsatisfied with the intensity of the mosh pit jumped into the crowd and made his own. They are a band at their best when their frenzied energy is balanced with a touch of melody. There are plenty of tracks like that and Caughthran who spends most of his time in the pit with the crowd has them in the palm of his hand. Their performance is a full speed, hi powered tour de force from start to finish and in my view they stole the show from Pennywise. With respect to the headliners, The Bronx just brought an unmatchable savagery that was impossible to follow.

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Beerwolf, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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Nonetheless, when Pennywise do get to the stage after a brief delay the audience are at maximum pitch. They play Full Circle from start to finish with the exception of Bro Hymn. The crowd sing along to every lyric and Pennywise are in flawless form as they pound out each track like it was 1997. When ‘Circle is done they play Pennywise from the ’91 eponymous record and follow it up with covers like ‘Wild in the Street’ by the Circle Jerks, a sing a long of Ben E. King’s ‘Stand by Me’ and of course the obligatory Oz rock cover which in this case happens to be AC/DC’ T‘n’T.

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Pennywise, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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Pennywise, Enmore Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Sunday 29 October 2017

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For the finale the band return to Bro Hymn, the tribute to Thirsk, and it is unbelievable. The sweaty, drained crowd summon the last of their energy to sing in unison this moving homage to an album, a band, a movement and of course a fallen brother. It was an incredible moment and a privilege to be a part of. It’s these kinds of moments that make the phenomenon of punk performed live like nothing else on the planet.

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AMNPLIFY – DB