Live Review: Being As An Ocean - Oberhausen 2023

Kulttempel, Oberhausen, Germany
28th August 2023
Being As An Ocean - “Swallowed by the Earth EU Tour 2023” - Special Guests: Of Virtue, Senna

A rather unspectacular Instagram post announced the upcoming European tour of BEING AS AN OCEAN, with the two remaining band members Joel Quartuccio and bassist und clean-singer Michael McGough standing in a snowy, derelict building with the gloomy caption: “See you in 2023! You aren’t ready for what we have. Bring it on.” And fans gladly obliged to see their favourite band in the cozy Kulttempel.


Senna

Opening the evening were SENNA, a newly formed five-piece from Mannheim, Germany. So far, they have released two singles and one EP called ‘A moment of quiet’. Pretty early at 6:45pm SENNA took to the stage and kicked off their set. They name BRING ME THE HORIZON, DON BROCO, AND DANCE, GAVIN DANCE as their influences, and their performance managed to draw a sizeable portion of the audience into the venue. The singer / shouter delivered an energetic set, and the band members excelled in performing the complex arrangements, combined with electronic parts. However, the lack of a live “bass player” left the lower section of their sound spectrum a little too static, which diminished the groove factor of their performance a little. https://www.sennaband.com

Rating
Music: 6
Performance:5
Sound: 6
Light: 5
Total: 5.5 / 10

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Of Virtue

Second in line were OF VIRTUE. They are a Metalcore band from Lansing, Michigan with a long history since their foundation in 2009. So far, they have released three albums, and their fourth one ‘OMEN’ is about to be released end of September 2023. https://ofvirtueband.com

Music & Performance
Shortly after 7:30pm, the lights went red, and OF VIRTUE entered the stage to perform their new song ‘Hypocrite’. Pretty early on it became clear that OF VIRTUE are cut from a different cloth. Frontman and chief screamer / growler Tyler and guitarist Damon worked the crowd up in perfect harmony. Watching them perform made you feel you were watching a truly cohesive band with lots of common mileage together. OF VIRTUE pulled no punches and stirred up the excitement for the main act by using all tools of the trade such as calling for circle pits, engaging in a ‘wall of death’ they were opening for and thanked everyone for coming out early to witness their gig. Singer Tyler also made it is side-job to pluck the occasional crowd-surfer from the hands of the audience, and for the final song he himself took a tour on the hands of his fans through the auditorium.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 5
Total: 7 / 10

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Being As An Ocean

BEING AS AN OCEAN is an American Post-Hardcore band from Alpine, California, formed in 2011. The band’s line-up consists of lead vocalist Joel Quartuccio, rhythm guitarist Michael McGough, and touring musicians lead guitarist David Baqi, and drummer Louis Doran. Their music style is a unique blend of melodic hardcore and post-rock, with Quartuccio’s passionate, often spoken-word vocals being a defining element of their sound. They are known for their intense, emotionally charged performances and deeply personal lyrics that often touch on themes of faith, love, and personal struggle. http://baaoshop.com/



Music & Performance
Shortly before their announced stage time at 8:40pm it was time for the act of the evening. Frenetic cheers greeted the band, as they entered the stage to the clean guitar intro of the first song ‘Find Our Way’. The only downside was the overall bad quality of the sound mix. Singer Joel Quartuccio seemed to have trouble hearing through his earpiece initially, which resulted in him not hitting the melody notes right on top, and the overall guitar sound was pretty slushy. However, what the ignorant dork at the mixing table messed up, the band more than compensated with energetic action. After the first notes, Joel immediately jumped into the front of stage and swirled through the room all while singing and firing up the crowd, which he continued to do throughout the set.



Tour guitarist David Baqi also delivered a quite memorable performance, holding his guitar while playing in artistic ways - and during ‘Thorns’ - taking a tour of the room himself, playing on the bar table in the back of the hall, and - for ‘The Hardest Part Is Forgetting Those You Swore You Would Never Forget’ - doing a little crowd-surf himself. The audience was definitely here for that kind of action, and they were joined by the band members of the two opening acts, who also decided to join in on the fun. Things came to an announced end rather soon as Joel announced the song ‘Dissolve’ after a mere 65 minutes of playing time. The audience - through frantic screaming and clapping - managed to extract one more song from the band - the memorable ‘This Loneliness Won't Be the Death of Me’ - as an encore, but after that it was all over, and the audience was sent off into the night.



Setlist
01. Find Our Way
02. Little Richie
03. Alone
04. L’exquisite Douleur
05. Death’s Great Black Wing Scrapes the Air
06. Humble Servant, Am I
07. Death Can Wait
08. Lost
09. Glow
10. Thorns
11. Swallowed by the Earth
12. The Hardest Part Is Forgetting Those You Swore You Would Never Forget
13. Dear G-d
14. Dissolve
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15. This Loneliness Won’t Be the Death of Me

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 5
Light: 7
Total: 7 / 10

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All Pictures by Andreas Klüppelberg