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Closure In Moscow Announce ‘Soft Hell’ USA Summer Tour

Closure In Moscow Announce ‘Soft Hell’ USA Summer Tour

Australian alternative rock group Closure in Moscow have announced their return to the USA in July 2024 in support of their new album ‘Soft Hell.’

Following a run of sold out club dates across the US east coast and south east during February, the band will play their biggest ever headline shows during the US summer, kicking off at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles on Friday 12 July.

They will be joined at all shows by fellow Australian prog-pop legends Toehider.

The band are currently in the midst of their ‘Soft Hell’ world tour, touring the UK, Europe and Australia during May.

The band shared the following statement about the announce:

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. We’re back for a Soft Hell summer this July. These will be our biggest headline shows ever, hope you can make it out. Our mates Toehider are along to sweeten the deal too. Tickets on sale Friday. Tell your friends, bring your fam. This will be our last big tour for 2024, so don’t miss out.

‘Soft Hell’ is the band’s third album and their first new album in 9 years, following Pink Lemonade (2014), First Temple (2009) and their debut EP ‘The Penance and the Patience’ (2008). The band have spanned a wide range of genres across their releases – from post-hardcore and earnest punk rock, through to progressive rock, avante-garde and experimental electronic rock.

Produced by Andrei Eremin (G Flip, Tash Sultana, sleepmakeswaves), the new record topped the Australian independent charts on its release and hit #6 on the ARIA Australian Album Chart.

About the new album, the band says:

The new album is called “Soft Hell.”

Getting comfortable with chronic discomfort caused by the choices that fears and trauma lead you to make. This is life in a soft hell. There are enough distractions to stave off facing up to it, you can keep yourself in denial to avoid it, and things can just keep ticking along. Life becomes a fever dream of creature comforts and time killers, floating further into a lake of fire. People come along to pull you out, but they too get burned when you feel too stuck to climb with them.

Thank you to everyone that had been patiently waiting for new music. Everyone involved with working on this went so above and beyond because they believed in it, and we hope you hear what they heard too.

https://linktr.ee/closureinmoscow

Listen/order Soft Hell at www.closureinmoscow.bandcamp.com

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW ‘SOFT HELL’ USA SUMMER TOUR JULY 2024

Friday, 12 July 2024 – Regent Theater (Los Angeles, CA) – TICKETS
Saturday, 13 July 2024 – Bottom of the Hill (San Francisco, CA) – TICKETS
Monday, 15 July 2024 – Hawthorne Theater (Portland, OR) – TICKETS
Tuesday, 16 July 2024 – The Crocodile (Seattle, WA) – TICKETS
Thursday, 18 July 2024 – Urban Lounge (Salt Lake City, UT) – TICKETS
Friday, 19 July 2024 – Marquis Theater (Denver, CO) – TICKETS
Sunday, 21 July 2024 – Bottom Lounge (Chicago, IL) – TICKETS

Tickets on sale from closureinmoscow.com now.

Presented by Sound Talent Group & Bird’s Robe.

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW ‘SOFT HELL’ UK/EU TOUR MAY 2024

Thusday, 2 May 2024 – Underworld (London, UK) – TICKETS
Saturday, 4 May 2024 – Kulturklub Schon Schon (Mainz, GER) – TICKETS
Sunday, 5 May 2024 – Logo (Hamburg, GER) – TICKETS
Tuesday, 7 May 2024 – Durer Kert (Budapest, HU) – TICKETS
Thursday, 9 May 2024 – Poppodium Volt (Sittard, NL) – TICKETS
Saturday, 11 May, 2024 – De Vooruit (Ghent, BEL) – TICKETS*

Tickets on sale from www.closureinmoscow.com & www.birdsrobe.com

Presented by Echelon Talent Agency & Bird’s Robe
*Toehider & Shell Beach not appearing

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW 2024 “SOFT HELL” AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Thursday, 30 May 2024 – Max Watt’s (Melbourne, VIC) – TICKETS
Friday, 31 May 2024 – Manning Bar (Sydney, NSW) – TICKETS
Saturday, 1 June 2024 – The Zoo (Brisbane, QLD) – TICKETS

Tickets on sale from www.closureinmoscow.com & www.birdsrobe.com

‘SOFT HELL’ IS OUT NOW!

#1 AIR 100% Independent Chart
#3 AIR Independent Chart
#6 ARIA Australian Albums Chart
#79 ARIA Albums Chart

Listen/order Soft Hell

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW – ‘SOFT HELL’

1. Jaeger Bomb
2. Primal Sinister
3. Absolute Terror Field
4. Better Way
5. Holy Rush
6. Keeper Of The Lake
7. Lock & key
8. Don Juan Triumphant
9. Soft Hell
10. Fine
11. Lovelash
12. My Dearest Kate

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[Review] Deafheaven @ Max Watts, Melbourne 01/06/2023

Review By Nikki Eenick

For any fans of post-metal, shoegaze (or more accurately, “blackgaze”) or screamo, Deafheaven’s “Infinite Granite” tour is a massive occasion. Performing as part of Dark Mofo and Rising festival, this is a unique experience for any fans. On this tour, they will be performing their 2014 album Sunbather, in full. When I tell you I nearly threw up from excitement – I’m not exaggerating.

Opening the first of two phenomenal shows at underground venue Max Watts, are Melbourne natives: Closure in Moscow. Closure in Moscow tow a weird line between prog-rock, pop-punk and general hardcore-esque tomfoolery. Tonight, they’re in great form. It’s strange walking into an underground venue with a grungy feel, on a typically freezing Melbourne night, and seeing a guy in glistening, Pauly Bleeker levels of skimpy, gold shorts dancing onstage. The dance is a cocktail of Mick Jagger, Jamie Foxx doing an impression of Mick Jagger and high energy bouncing. I love it. Front man Christopher de Clinique clearly knows how to have fun (I mean, with a name like that, I’d expect nothing less). His energy is matched by his band, although they all bring their own special brand of chaotic to the table. Bassist Duncan Miller is decked out in BCF overalls, a sunhat, and no shirt. Incredible. I came to this gig prepared to be transported to an ethereal plane of ambient hardcore, but here I was, grinning ear to ear watching a group of guys flawlessly nail face-melting guitar solo after face-melting guitar solo, as the room is bathed by the light of a disco ball. Next to me is an intimating-looking man with three (three?!) eyebrow piercings, leather jacket and a rats-tail-meets-mohawk. But he’s head-banging his way to happiness as this band of merry bandits takes us through tracks like, Neoprene Byzantine and A Night At the Spleen. God, even their song’s names are fun. Clinique takes the mic, not even remotely out of breath despite the before-mentioned dancing. Dripping with Australiana charm, he greets this crowd hyped up on good vibes and beer; “It’s so good to see so many of you cunts out on… what is it today? Wednesday?” The band kind of murmurs and shuffles their feet. “See none of you fucks have any idea either.” Before we can launch into any more bangers that would make Alex Gaskart weep with joy, guitarist Mansur Zennelli takes the mic. “Are there any Kendrick fans here?” One guy from the mosh whoops. “This one’s for you then.” And we are thrown into Deluge. As the set winds to a close, Clinique steps up, yet again, quietly shushing the crowd with a wave of his hands. “Cheers! This is a new song we released a couple months back. It’s not Pot of Green though.” The audience grumbles. “Anyway, this is Pot of Green” And the crowd goes feral. And I mean that, with the greatest of compliments. Transitioning suddenly into a momentary cover of Hotline Bling, the crowd is confused, and then immediately realises the genius of combining Closure in Moscow’s punk-emo sensibilities with hip-hop jams. Realising the crowd is eating, gobbling, out of his hands – Clinique brings out a voice modulator for their closing track. “Oh, shit yeah. This last one’s a new one. It’s called Primal Sinister” on ‘Sinister’ he modulates his voice to a distorted deep bass. They give this last one their all, heavy on the instrumentation, with voice modulations that border on a 100 gecs tribute – we are bathing in hyper-pop-goes-punk bliss. Finishing with a simple ‘thumbs-up’ from Zennelli and a fart sound into the mic from Clinique, the band saunters off. They move through the crowd, grab drinks, and push towards the front to see what all the fuss is about.

My notes from this point get a bit hazy. The next hour and a half are beautiful, bordering on spiritual. Deafheaven have this incredible stage presence. It’s sort of macabre, sort of beachy… You can tell they’re sad and from San Francisco. Singer/Screamer George Clarke doesn’t say much at all to us, outside of a few shy “Thank you’s”. He’s somewhere else, and somewhere we all end up. Clarke has an incredible voice. He goes from violent screaming to soft shoe-gaze vocals like it’s nothing. And it is not, nothing. I turn my head and see people with their mouths wide-open, eyes almost popping out of their head; he’s amazing. We are all holding our breath, barely moving, in the hopes that we don’t break this spell Deafheaven have cast over us. This voice coupled with the unbelievable dual-guitar work from Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra, they are heavenly, spellbinding. Mehra also sings backing vocals and is able to perfectly match Clarke’s intense energy and leather pants, while he wears a button-up over a white singlet. McCoy’s guitar work has been compared to My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields and Johnny Marr of The Smiths – he cites both as influences. For any fans of screamo, the first half of their set is going to be for you. It’s insanely loud and Clarke screams in a way that is so cathartically wonderful it feels like he is pulling all of the things that make you feel hideous or heavy out of your throat with his bare hands. But the second half is where they really shine, if you ask me (You didn’t, but yet, here you are, reading my review). I think I ascended as tracks bled into tracks bled into tracks, the room bathed first in blue light, then white, then red and purple and then back again. Desperately, I wait to hear The Pecan Tree. And then, it arrives, handed to me on a beautiful, gothic, silver platter. Please, even if you think you don’t like screamo, or hardcore, listen to this track. Skip to 4:19 and just let the rest of it wash over you. Every time I listen to it I feel like I was drowning in a tank, and Deafheaven have just pulled me out, and I can breathe again. A musical baptism, of sorts. Live, it’s even better. I wasn’t even sure I was still here on earth if it wasn’t for the glass in my hand. The band is so in tune with each other – a single organism, and their musicianship, skill and bond are what allows the audience to be carried on such a flawless wave of sound. I might have stopped breathing for those 15 minutes, but I am resuscitated in that room. Even the folks working the merch stand turn to the stage. No one buys anything, everyone is deathly still. And then, Clarke softly places the microphone in its stand and addresses us, unfazed that he might have caused 850 simultaneous cardiac arrests. “Thank you so much. We’re going to watch a DJ tonight at uh… cherry?” The band nods. “Cherry. Everyone should come to cherry.” Then we are into the final few songs, including ambient-emo perfection; Great Mass of Colour. Someone in the crowd pre-emptively screams for an encore. “I can’t actually hear you” Clarke says with a smirk, a twinkle in his eye that wasn’t there before – almost as if he’s surprised people want them to continue after such a long set. “We’ve been Deafheaven. Take care of each other.” And then we get the punching duo of Brought to Water into Dream House. All without missing a beat. As the band shreds their last shreds, and casts their last spells, people pile down into the lower part of the Max Watts dancefloor, and we watch them mosh so hard I’m sure their bones still ache. But despite the fact they look like gladiators in the coliseum, they all take care of each other. And that’s what tonight was all about. Music and Us, it’s community. And I am so happy to be a part of this one.

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[Review] Our First Kiss Festival@ Melbourne Pavillion, Melbourne 7/05/2022

As soon as Our First Kiss festival was announced, as bought to us by the incredible team at Destroy All Lines, the needle in my memory record player became permanently stuck on the monster 3Oh!3 track featuring Kesha, leading to a high school time capsule bursting open. 

Reels of moments in time flooded my temporal lobe from spending way too much time becoming an HTML master coder to create the ultimate MySpace profile (full of mirror snaps with puffy hair and smudged thick black eyeliner, ‘raaawr <3’ captions and the best scene bands as your top friends), religiously attending battle of the bands to discover the next big scene gods, and naturally spending all of my spare cash at Dangerfield on band tees, studded belts and Emily the Strange merch. Ahh the good old days…

Like the generations before us – the rockabillies, the hippies, the punks, the grunge gurus – we all still hold onto that defining period of our formative years, and Our First Kiss was an indicator of that knock-white grasp.

Watching the sea of former scene kids swarm upon Melbourne Pavilion this cold May evening offered two thoughts – one of pure youthful excitement for the stacked lineup and one of comfort in the fact that I was home with my people. We’re all still donning the band tees, the black skinny leg jeans, the tartan, the skater skirts, the fishnet stockings, and a variation of vans, converse, and Dr. Martens. The mega side bangs have evolved but the unconventionally coloured hair and piercings a-plenty remain. The wings on our eyeliner have been tamed but the sentiment is strong – we are emo kids, hear us RAWR.

And we did… to the bands that helped shape, and are continuing to shape, our pop-punk and Emo scene in Australia.

Typically a venue for glamorous weddings and functions, Melbourne Pavilion is a stunning setting thanks to the Sia-worthy swinging chandeliers and dome ceiling. The dance floor which has seen many emotional first dances swept across it was filled with feet ready to jump. Propped up in the corner were giant mirrors marked with lipstick encouragement titled ‘Mirror of Expression’ where patrons could scrawl their own words of wisdom along with a must-have photo booth. Back in the foyer was a free hair and makeup station from the glam team at the Academy of Makeup and a merch desk. Taking a right turn to the outside area was the food truck festival with burger and Mexican menus. For a 5 PM indoor festival setting, Our First Kiss paid attention to the emo hearts’ detail.

From newer addition and revivalist local act Terra to the 2008 tiger stripes of Closure In Moscow, Dream On Dreamer, The Getaway Plan, Short Stack and The Veronicas, adding in the nostalgia noose of DJ sets from Bangs finest DJ’s, Our First Kiss musically could not disappoint.

Terra, who have been sweeping the festival slots and have just launched their latest EP Reverie, delivered a stellar opening set full of swirling hooks and larger-than-life vocals – two key ingredients to the emo music makeup and a damn fine way to start the evening.

A personal favourite, Closure In Moscow, offered a faultless set of tracks from their debut baby First Temple and prog product Pink Lemonade. Wearing a vibrant pink co-ord, Mansur Zennelli, started the wheel rolling for top-notch showmanship. With an exaggerated dramatic flare, including gun hands and nail-biting, Zennelli elevated the impeccable musicianship onstage tenfold. Also if you haven’t heard their EP The Penance and The Patience, quit wasting time and stream that album already! 

Our First Kiss got changeover slots spot on by involving Bang DJ’s Rayve Moor, Maddi Nightmare, Tropical Depression, and Rayden Joy. Between the live sets, these tune-fishers curated the most emo-filled playlists imaginable with belters tracks from Emo Gods My Chemical Romance, Paramore, A Day To Remember, Escape The Fate, Pierce The Veil, AFI, and more inducing monumental sing-alongs across the night. 

The singalongs hit full swing as The Getaway Plan took to the stage. With huge hit ‘Shadows’ opening their set, Matthew Wright and co-performed their guts out, proving range does not age. Teasing that they went overtime and breaking each and every punter’s heart before launching into one of Australia’s most recognizable emo anthems, ‘Where The City Meets The Sea’, The Getaway Plan dominated the Our First Kiss stage.

You want showmanship? You want banter? You want crowd interaction? Oh, hey there Short Stack!

There was nothing short about this show, from walking on to ‘It’s Raining Men’ to covering banger ‘All The Small Things’, these lads were on fire, accurately summing up their set with the following comment: ‘you can see their eyes and ears bleeding from the musical amazingness’.

As the disco ball spun overhead and ‘Freak’ by Australia’s best band Silverchair erupted, the stage filled with smoke. An emergency alarm sounded for an intruder alert. There was a breach in festival security – The Veronicas infiltrated Melbourne Pavilion for an adrenaline animalistic experience. Australia’s twin-pack pop-punk princesses turned pop goddesses may be small in stature but they deliver larger-than-life sets. Our First Kiss was no exception. Whilst no wall-of-death erupted this time around, the crushing weight of their talent hit like a tonne of bricks. ‘4Ever’, ‘Everything I’m Not’, ‘When It All Falls Apart’, screamo star ‘Mother Mother’, ‘Hook Me Up’, ‘This Is How It Feels’, ‘You Ruin Me’, ‘Take Me On The Floor’, ‘In My Blood’ and the national anthem ‘Untouched’; there are no words to describe a set of this proportion. The best of the old, the best of the new – simply, the best!

Our First Kiss could have been sloppy and somewhat awkward but so much thought and love went into it that it left us feeling all fuzzy inside, magical, memorable, and thinking about the next kiss.

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