Canberra doom metal band Pod People the first to perform at Canberra Theatre Centre since COVID-19 closure

The Canberra doom metal band are set to take to the Canberra Theatre Centre stage on August 8, for the venue's first live performance since it shutdown for COVID-19.

In fact, Pod People is the first heavy metal band to play at the theatre since 1985 when Iron Maiden stopped in Canberra on its World Slavery tour there and fans ripped up all the seats.

"I can understand why the Canberra Theatre is not going to let us play in the big hall. They're still getting over the scars!" Nixon says.

However, it's not whether or not their fans will be ripping out theatre seats which leaves the band questioning what to expect from the show.

It's the fact that it will be the first they will play under social distancing restrictions.

To be more specific, it will be the first time that Pod People will play a show for 80 people sitting down.

"This is the most intimate affair of a heavy metal show that I've ever played," Nixon says.

"I've been playing in heavy metal bands for a very long time and a big part of the whole context of a metal performance is that it is a mutual exchange between the audience and the band.

"It's almost like we're going from a standard metal show to playing a stand-up comedy gig.

"That's the only thing I can almost think of where everyone is sitting down.

"It is weird but from a performer's point of view, it is awesome to have the opportunity to play a show at all."

At first glance, some may think that a doom metal band is an odd choice for the first performance back at the Canberra Theatre since its closure.

But the capital has had a long history with heavy metal.

Nixon says Canberra is a huge part of heavy metal history in Australia, with some key seminal bands coming out of the capital in the 1980s such as Armoured Angel.

"This was a time pre-internet and in the early 90s, one of the friends of [Armoured Angel] received a life-changing brain injury out the front of a nightclub in Canberra and a metal festival called Metal for the Brain sprung up to start fundraising for his family," Nixon says.

"That turned into 17 years of the largest domestic heavy metal concert in Australia and what it did, apart from being a great, fun gig to play every year, it brought the pre-internet heavy metal scene across Australia into contact with one another and started forging all of these networks across the country.

"It built and gave a springboard for younger bands - they're quite old now - but even bands like Parkway Drive played a few Metal for the Brains when they were early in their career and then they spring-boarded into touring Europe and overseas."

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For patrons' safety, attendees to the August 8 show will be required to provide their names and phone numbers for contact tracing, and the venue capacity will be strictly limited in line with current health restrictions.

Tickets will be sold in sets of four, with each group seated at their own table.

Tickets are $87.80 for a table of four. For more information go to canberratheatre.com.au.