IN 2013, hometown heroes Trophy Eyes played their first show to 10 people at a house in Adamstown Heights.
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Six years on, they’re filling 3,000 capacity rooms in capital cities around the country and saying hello to extensive amounts of radio airplay, Triple J Hottest 100 placings and commercial acclaim.
Mere kilometres away from where it all started, they jammed 800 people under one roof at the Cambridge Hotel on Saturday, pumping out a hometown show for the ages.
Heralded as the golden child of the 2010’s Newcastle hardcore scene, Trophy Eyes shot to stardom following the release of their 2016 sophomore album Chemical Miracle, a genre-bending masterpiece blurring the lines between pop-punk, emo and hardcore.
Their previous debut record, 2014’s Mend, Move On was powerful, but aimed at a niche market compared to the more accessible track-list of Chemical Miracle, which included the singles Chlorine and Breathe You In.
The band’s third record came out in 2018, and seemingly marked a shift in direction for the band.
Many fans despised the release, claiming the band’s hard-and-fast approach to the style was swapped in favour of a soft-rock arena-style anthems closer to an American pop-emo band like Fall Out Boy than the hardcore powerhouses that came before.
Even the album’s title, The American Dream, signifies that Trophy Eyes chose to move away from their roots, and opt for a sound that felt more current, and a product of the environment they’ve been exposed to.
On first listen, I agreed with the haters. However, finally seeing these tracks live and in the flesh, it all became clear.
While crowd singalongs may sound forced and stale on record, in a live setting they became an opportunity for audience interaction and the album’s full potential opened up.
There was a certain vibe in the room, where everyone felt safe and accepted, and music fans united as one.
Trophy Eyes had come full circle, bringing their American Dream track-list back to their place of origin.
The live show sparkled with professionalism, but you can still see the scuzzy punk boys underneath it all.
They just wanna play their music, and play it loud.
Vocalist John Floreani smiled, looking out across the packed room, and the dreamer inside him came alive.
“It don’t make much sense right now, but it’ll all come together when the lights go out,” he sings on Something Bigger Than This.
As the lights went out and a myriad of Neck Deep [a Welsh pop-punk band] t-shirts left the venue, it felt like Trophy Eyes’ next chapter was ready to begin.
