The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Manning Bar
Sydney, AU
May 6, 2017
After their last tour in 2014, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus returned to the land down under for a headline tour that resembles a victory lap to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their debut album Don’t you fake it in its entirety along with other ditties.
It would be an understatement to say that your humble narrator cannot claim to have ever been overly familiar with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, but the line-up looked intensely diverse both in terms of aesthetics as well as age-wise as they were covering a broad age bracket, with some current members looking like they might have not even been teenagers when Don’t you fake it saw the light of day for the first time.
Musically, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is based on a foundation comprised of alternative rock with pop punk peppered in and served with occasional screamo interludes.
In other words, even though it is not easy to decipher what exactly they are going for, the influence of more refined acts like Jimmy Eat World and The Used is omnipresent in their oeuvre.
The standout songs of the band with the exotic name – both of the evening and the not exactly cohesive album Don’t You Fake It - are Face Down, an anti-domestic violence song, and Guardian Angel, which were enthusiastically eaten up and celebrated by the predominantly young and willing audience that granted Manning Bar a sold out night and radiated appreciation for the band’s Christian beliefs that inform the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ message of hope.
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Photos by KAVV