Californian metalcore band Being As An Ocean brought their unique blend of hardcore instrumentation and poetic, often spoken word lyrics to Tufnell Park’s The Dome on Friday September 8th.
The band were joined by Senna and Of Virtue, both of which put on exceptional performances that deserved to be witnessed by a much larger crowd. If you’re a fan of Being As An Ocean or the alternative music scene in general, seek these bands out, you’ll thank me later.
Being As An Ocean would stop off at the Dome as part of their ‘Swallowed By The Earth’ tour. The set list of the night featured songs from all of Being As An Oceans albums, including their latest single from the yet to be released album Death Can Wait.
Although the set wasn’t balanced in terms of songs played per album, Being As An Ocean know their fans and so played most heavily off their debut album Dear G-d and their fourth album, first independently published, Waiting For Morning To Come. Despite an underwhelming turn out, the band gave their all to this set in what was a technically brilliant and incredibly crowd interactive performance.
Frontman Joel Quartuccio spent more time in the crowd than he did on stage, which made this one performance feel incredibly intimate, as well as, showcasing the love of the fans Quartuccio has. I’ve never seen a vocalist spend that much time amongst the fans and it’s certainly something I am going to remember for years to come.
Overall, Being As An Ocean perfectly performed a crowd pleasing, career spanning set that also managed to plug their newest work whilst providing a level of intimacy not only displayed in their lyrics, but in their frontman’s stage persona.
This is a band that knows who they are, knows what the fans want and delivers it no matter the circumstances. If you’re looking for new music and/or they are playing near you, check them out, you won’t be disappointed.
Words by Dan Harden + photography by Martina Antonia Liberini
