Music fans of Australia went into a bit of a frenzy earlier this year when rumours began of a new festival by the name of Harvest, that was supposedly being organised by AJ Maddah, he of Soundwave fame (and also infamous for the utter debacle that was Soundwave Revolution). Though at that point there was nothing set in stone and nobody was really getting their hopes up, the rumours suggested that artists playing at the festival may include the likes of Portishead, Mogwai, Aphex Twin and The Flaming Lips. But in July, all doubts were erased when the official first announcement hit, and yes, at the top of the lineup were a band coming to Australia for the first time in 14 years, the one and only Portishead - with an impressive array of other internationals including The Flaming Lips, The National, Mogwai, Bright Eyes and many more! Billed as a "Civilised Gathering", Harvest set out from the start to be an alternative to the mainstream festivals in this country, and despite a few teething problems, by most accounts it was a very successful first year for the event!
One of the first bands on the main stage of the event - named "The Great Lawn" - were the irrepressibly funky Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Last in the country less than twelve months ago for the Meredith Music Festival, this is a band whose name really says it all - eight brothers and another unrelated who play addictive music centred on brass instruments. Though punters were still arriving and settling in, and weren't really ready to make their way right down the front, plenty of festival earlybirds were clearly enjoying the sounds of this Chicago group, as they should with a band who sound this great. The band were doing their best to get the crowd involved too, at one point engaging in that tried-and-true routine of seeing which side of the crowd was the loudest.
(Hypnotic Brass Ensemble score 8/10)
Over on the Windmill Stage, Oxford quartet This Town Needs Guns were treating a respectable-sized crowd to a solid selection of their math-rock/indie numbers, including plenty of favourites from the band's debut album Animals. Many had enjoyed their performances earlier in the year at the Soundwave Festival, and evidently AJ Maddah had, given that he asked them back for Harvest. Since those performances, the band have undergone a bit of a lineup change, with Pennines' Henry Tremain replacing former vocalist/guitarist Stuart Smith, who has left the band due to the birth of his child. Tremain joked that he had been to so many of the band's gigs as a fan, and had to remind himself not to clap after every song. He certainly gave the crowd many reasons to clap, fitting in very well in the band with a similar vocal style to his predecssor and doing the band's older material justice, and also proving himself quite handy on the guitar with a few songs. However, it was bassist Jamie Cooper that took care of most of the crowd interaction, seeming genuinely humbled by the response his band received but definitely appreciative of it. On the surface of it, This Town Needs Guns' music seems a little bit complex what with all that guitar noodling going on, but there's an underlying pop sensibilty to them that the punters really enjoyed on this particular occasion.
(This Town Needs Guns score 9/10)
Back on the Great Lawn, funk was once again the flavour of the afternoon with legendary act The Family Stone taking to the stage and delighting all in attendance. Despite the notable absence of the group's frontman Sly, the current incarnation of the band boasts a surprising amount of original members, something that they were keen to remind us about several times during the set. Even though there were probably a few in the crowd who couldn't put a song to the band name, there were many looks of recognition and possibly even a few exclamations of "OH! THIS SONG!" as the band worked their way through a selection of timeless material such as Everday People and Family Affair. God knows how Maddah managed to book these guys, but it was certainly an amazing performance from a group that showed no signs of their age!
(The Family Stone score 7/10)
It was then time for a band from a bit closer to home, as Sydney-based electronic experimentalists PVT wowed a packed-out tent at the Big Red Tractor Stage. As they got things going with the title track from last year's very successful Church With No Magic album, the crowd came alive, doing their best to pull off some dance moves despite the glitchy and unpredictable nature of PVT's music! After a surprisingly lacklustre performance at the Corner Hotel last year to launch the album, PVT seemed really in their element today. The trio, made up of Richard Pike on just about EVERYHING (guitar, bass, keys and vocals), his brother Laurence on drums (an absolute force to behold), and Dave Miller on laptop, synths and whatever other electronic gadgets took his fancy, really delivered a standout performance on the day. A selection of Church With No Magic favourites were interspersed with a pair of brand new songs, and even some from their second album O Soundtrack My Heart for the diehard (Pivot?) fans in the audience, with the appropriately-named Didn't I Furious sounding absolutely massive as delivered through a festival sound system, and O Soundtrack My Heart chilling things out a bit toward the end of the set. The crowd's enthusiasm didn't fall at all during the intense 45-minute set by the band; again, perhaps it was the sound system in the tent, perhaps it was the "festival atmosphere", but things just seemed to really go PVT's way on this occasion.
(PVT score 9/10)
It was back to the Great Lawn for the inimitable TV on the Radio. They have long been regarded by many as a band that performs at their absolute best every time, whether it be in the studio while making their excellent albums, or on a live stage as they were today. A highly anticipated act for many on the day, they showcased plenty of new material from their latest release Nine Types of Light as well as dipping into their much-loved back catalogue for fan favourite such as Red Dress, Golden Age and Staring at the Sun. The only complaint heard about their set was that the mix was a bit noisy in places, but overall, this band have a pretty high reputation to uphold when it comes to delivering a good show, and on this occasion, they managed to do so with great success. The set concluded with their arguable "signature song" Wolf Like Me, and although the audience had obviously already been enjoying themselves up until that point, that particular song as a closer really drove it home!
(TV on the Radio score 8.5/10)
The Great Lawn was rapidly filling up at this point, understandable due to the exceptional talent of the acts to come, and to prove the point, it was Conor Oberst and his highly-praised Bright Eyes that were next up on the stage. With such a vast discography, it was always going to be interesting to see how they'd fare with the hour set they were given, but they certainly managed to cover most facets of their career, from 2000's Fevers and Mirrors to their latest release, The People's Key. Oberst showed the crowd he was no slouch on stage, as he switched between guitar and keyboards with great ease, and looked to be having the time of his life the whole set. He even delivered a couple of songs by himself on just acoustic guitar and vocals, which was a nice way of balancing out the set when juxtaposed with the full-band Bright Eyes tracks.
(Bright Eyes score 8/10)
SETLIST:
Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)
Four Winds
Arc of Time (Time Code)
Lover I Don't Have to Love
Jejune Stars
Lua
The Calendar Hung Itself...
Shell Games
Another Travellin' Song
I Believe in Symmetry
Road to Joy
A little later on the Windmill Stage, Scottish post-rock heroes Mogwai drew a full crowd to witness their impressive combination of extreme dynamics, melody and at times, pure fucking noise! Again, an hour set was probably a little short for a band who have been around for quite a while, and who are known for often making some pretty lengthy songs. However, they managed to please all in attendance, balancing out material from this year's brilliantly-titled Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will with a decent selection of past material, even including rarity Ithica 27 Ø 9 from the Ten Rapid compilation. With the aid of a white sheet hung from the stage, the set was complemented nicely by a series of visuals, with geometric shapes and city skylines seeming quite appropriate for their music; however, it wasn't completely dark yet which meant that this probably wasn't as effective as it could've been. It's fair to say that a lot of post-rock bands don't seem all that energetic onstage, and play with focus and concentration rather than attempting to put on "a show". Though for the most part, this seemed to fit Mogwai's approach to live performance, on the right-hand side of the stage Stuart Braithwaite was positively animated, jumping around during the heavier moments of the songs, and thanking the audience heartily between songs, all with a big smile on his face. Given that it was getting very close to a certain headlining performance on the Great Lawn stage, people started to drift off toward the end of their set, but those who stayed around were rewarded with the penultimate performance of the classic Mogwai Fear Satan, delivered with all the intensity and sonic fury of the studio version that was released fourteen years ago! Time flies. At its conclusion, once again Braithwaite thanked the audience for sticking around, before they closed with Mexican Grand Prix and the few stragglers headed over to the Great Lawn.
SETLIST
White Noise
Ithica 27 Ø 9
I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
Rano Pano
Auto Rock
How to be a Werewolf
Hunted by a Freak
Mogwai Fear Satan
Mexican Grand Prix
Though nobody would dare to say that the rest of the lineup had been lacking in quality so far, the real talk of this festival was THE headlining act that was apparently the whole reason the festival was launched in the first place. A band with enormous critical acclaim, who only just re-entered the consciousness of the music world a few years ago after taking a full eleven years of silence between the release of their second and third albums. And tonight, for the first time in fourteen years, Australian audiences were treated to a performance that lived up to all expectations. When the lights went down on the main stage and the video screens flickered into life, the usual applause that happens during the beginning of a concert seemed a little subdued, as the crowd held their collective breath for the great moment to come. Static and abstract imagery crawled across the screens for a few seconds, until it was finally replaced with a very familiar symbol - a big bold letter "P". And then, it began. As the musicians involved with this band's live incarnation - the orginal three members, plus three extras to handle various live tasks - made their way onto the stage, a familiar voice reciting a saying in Brazilian-Portuguese came over the PA, and Portishead began their set with the opening track from 2008's Third, Silence.
The second the incomparable Beth Gibbons stepped up to the microphone, the crowd couldn't contain themselves any longer, almost drowning her out with deafening cheers. But they quickly lapsed back into reverential silence, which continue almost throughout the entirety of the set. Appreciation was shown at the right moments - usually at beginning of songs, such as right after Silence when the familiar eerie theremin intro to Mysterons began - but it was amazing to see how just respectful and appreciative the crowd were. If someone dared to break the mood by talking to his or her friend, they were quickly chastised by other people, something you don't often see at a gig! But, this was fucking Portishead, and so such a level of respect was demanded. The band made up for lost time and really didn't fail to deliver a set high on atmosphere and sonic intensity. Of course, the only way the Bristolians could have delivered a setlist to please everybody would be to play everything they've ever recorded, but of course that wasn't possible. So instead, they opted for a healthy selection of crowd favourites, mostly taken from their groundbreaking 1994 album Dummy, and the aforementioned comeback release Third; unfortunately the band's self-titled second album only got two tracks represented in the set, the stunning Over and Cowboys.
As one would expect, the band didn't really stuff around on stage with any theatrics or over-performing, but simply played their parts and let the music do the talking. With that said, there was really no shortage of things to look out, as the band were accompanied by some stunning visual material, in addition to heavily-effected live footage of themselves performing. The imagery used was abstract, surreal, and at times downright intense, such as during Machine Gun when Tony Abbott appeared with bright red laser beams for eyes! Spontaneous appreciative cheering from the crowd showed that they certainly appreciated this "local" flavour for Portishead's appearance. Machine Gun was definitely an overall highlight in a set that really highlighted the sonic difference between today's Portishead and the band who recorded Dummy all those years ago. From the chilled-out ambience of songs like Sour Times and Glory Box (the latter of which saw the crowd break their vow of silence and join in with their best voices), to the jarring intensity of the likes of Magic Doors and Threads, this is a band with quite a dynamic range. Threads was the last song of the main set, but the entire crowd waited patiently for an encore, and it came in the form of the haunting Roads, and an upbeat conclusion with We Carry On. During the song's climax, Gibbons climbed off the stage and ran along the barrier to high-five and embrace the adoring fans. As the song finally ended, it was clear that it was the end of their set completely, and finally, she spoke, thanking everyone for coming and finishing with "We love Australia!", to an appropriate reaction.
SETLIST
Silence
Mysterons
The Rip
Sour Times
Magic Doors
Wandering Star
Machine Gun
Over
Glory Box
Chase the Tear
Cowboys
Threads
----Encore----
Roads
We Carry On
Over on the Windmill Stage, things were about to get downright freaky, as a naked woman appeared on a semi-circular video screen and began spreading her legs. A strategically-placed door began opening sporadically, with members of the upcoming band making their way out one by one, until finally, a giant bubble was inflated and the man inside it launched himself into a rapturous crowd as his bandmates struck up a cover of Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf - and so began the closing performance of the night, and who else would it be but The Flaming Lips. Pushed for time due to Portishead's insistence on absolute silence on other stages during their set, one got the sense that this wasn't exactly the greatest way to enjoy everything that the Flips could potentially offer, and at the end of a festival day, the energy was dipping considerably. "Come on, come on fuckers!" encouraged Wayne Coyne (who it must be mentioned, had a camera on the end of his microphone stand which allowed for some very extreme close-ups!). "I know it's the end of the festival, but by anybody's standards, it's still really fucking early on a Saturday night!" Despite their time restrictions only allowing seven songs to be played, Coyne and his friends still did their best to make sure everyone left on a high note, getting everyone involved with some fanastically fun singalongs to She Don't Use Jelly, The Yeah Yeah Song, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and of course, the closing Do You Realize?? All this was of course accompanied by the usual Flips theatrics, including giant balloons, confetti and streamers floating out into the delighted audience, while onstage, colourful psychedelic visuals played out on the band's trademark video screen, and some extra costumed bodies danced the night away. Overall, it was still quite an enjoyable performance, but definitely not quite the uplifting extravaganza that many were hoping for. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to be smiling as they slowly made their way out of what seemed to be a very successful first edition of Harvest! Here's to next year!
SETLIST:
Sweet Leaf (Black Sabbath cover)
Worm Mountain
She Don't Use Jelly
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)
Is David Bowie Dying?
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Do You Realize??
Showing posts with label This Town Needs Guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This Town Needs Guns. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
"I wanna be original, I wanna be surrounded by art" - Soundwave Festival 2011, Melbourne Showgrounds, 04/03/11
Well, after a cracking year in 2010 at my first Soundwave Festival, I was definitely looking forward to seeing what AJ Maddah and his team would deliver this year - and when the lineup was released last year, I instantly knew I'd be attending. Soundwave began as a slightly more punk/hardcore/emo oriented festival a few years ago, something I really had no interest in, but in the past few years they've certainly branched out with some great rock and metal acts taking to the festival's many stages (there's now EIGHT of them!). Having Iron Maiden on the bill was a sure-fire way to get me to buy a ticket, even though I didn't actually end up seeing them on the day! Nevertheless, it was still a highly enjoyable day out with several incredible performances.
I wasn't really interested in any of the first couple of acts on any of the stages so I decided not to hurry myself in getting there. When I did, I headed in the direction of the two stage 4s to see Texan stoner metal (a genre that was certainly not in short supply at Soundwave this year) act The Sword. While waiting it out in front of the Stage 4 "annex", Las Vegas's Taking Dawn were doing their thing on the adjacent stage. It comes as no surprise to me while reading up on this band to learn that they've supported Airbourne before, as their music definitely has that old-school revival approach to heavy metal and hard rock. Frontman Chris Babbitt certainly had his 80s frontman showmanship shtick downpat too, as he soloed down on the ground in front of the barrier, climbed up speaker stacks, and even ran over to the annex stage, much to the bemusement of the crowd waiting for The Sword. I never know whether to take bands like this seriously or not, but at least they provided us with some good laughs and good riffs early in the day.
It was perhaps a little early in the day, but there was still a very decent turnout for The Sword, and most of the crowd seemed to be genuine fans; right away, from the opening riffs of Acheron/Unearthing the Orb, long-haired heads began banging and horns were pointed skyward. I'd only listened to one of their albums prior to this set, but Gods of the Earth luckily got a bit of a look-in with the track How Heavy This Axe. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of the ol' doom-stoner-sludge metal in general, so those low-end heavy riffs coming out of Orange amps (of course) sounded pretty damn awesome - and apparently I wasn't the only one that thought so.
SETLIST:
Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
Barael's Blade
Freya
Tres Brujas
How Heavy This Axe
Night City
Winter's Wolves
(The Sword score 8/10.)
I then made my way over to a stage I didn't even go near last year, Stage 5, aka the big shed, for a performance from mathy Oxford quartet This Town Needs Guns. They were certainly a bit out of place on the overall lineup of the day, something vocalist Stuart Smith referred to several times throughout the band's set. "We're not anywhere near as punk as that (referring to whatever band had just come off the stage at the other end of the shed) but hopefully you'll still enjoy us", he noted early on. However, it soon became clear that the crowd weren't simply waiting for the next band on that stage, but were actually genuine fans of TTNG. They did have a pretty short set, but it was jam-packed with plenty of goodies off the Animals album, a pair of old favourites from the self-titled EP, and even a new song! They were one of the bands on the lineup I decided to check out only a few weeks ago, and I'm really glad I did, as I enjoyed their set immensely. Hopefully they'll be back in Australia soon, as I'd love to see them at a headline show.
SETLIST
Chinchilla
Baboon
Lemur
Gibbon
Want to Come Back to My Room and Listen to Some Belle and Sebastian?
Adventure, Stamina and Anger
26 is Dancier Than 4
(This Town Needs Guns score 8.5/10.)
I then bolted over to Stage 3 (AKA "the other shed") just in time to catch a stellar performance from seminal UK post-punkers Gang of Four. Certainly another band that was a bit out of place amongst all that noisy metal and hardcore, but it didn't seem to faze them one bit. Frontman Jon King may be 55 years old, but for all the energy he displayed on the day, you could more accurately say 55 years young! Running around onstage like a madman, even doing a somersault at one point, all the while spitting his lyrics out with typical venom, it was really inspiring to watch. Unfortunately for the band, the slightly younger generation of the Soundwave crowd obviously had other interests in bands at that timeslot, and the Stage 3 shed was looking a little sparsely populated. That said, the small crowd was genuinely getting into the sounds of such classics as At Home He's A Tourist and Anthrax, performed with genuine effort and energy despite the age of the musicians in question. Before I went in to check them out I was reminded of a performance by a band from a similar era and style of music, The Fall, who had put on a really bizarre set at Meredith Music Festival at the end of last year. Frontman Mark E Smith evidently decided that he wasn't going to put in much of an effort, and simply stumbled around onstage, yelled his lyrics in an indecipherable manner, and sporadically turned his bandmates' amplifiers down, up, or even completely off. In complete contrast, Gang of Four were still electric on stage, but at least they had the sense to actually perform their music properly - and the crowd loved it.
SETLIST
(pending recording)
(Gang of Four score 9/10.)
I then made my way back to Stage 4 for a performance by Norwegian melodic black metal stalwarts, Dimmu Borgir. As All That Remains vacated the annex, the crowd grew extremely restless, and one inebriated punter yelled to the sky joyously, "DIMMU BORGIR ARE FINALLY IN AUSTRALIA!" It was certainly a fair statement to make - in their career of almost 20 years, the band have never once set foot on our soil until today, and were a highly anticipated act for many. However, as blasts from smoke machines tried in vain to set some sort of atmosphere for the upcoming performance (at 3:25 in the afternoon, the clouds of dry ice simply blew away and dispersed as soon as they appeared), it became clear that the band weren't appearing any time soon. Roadies continued to do their thing onstage for quite a while, at which point I looked at my phone and realised I'd been standing in front of an empty stage for ten minutes. That was enough for me, and I wandered back over to the Main Arena, for one of Soundwave's major drawcards this year, a little Californian band by the name of Primus.
The funky sounds of Here Come the Bastards were extremely pleasing to hear, particularly as I and the rest of the crowd at the band's sideshow the night before had not witnessed the trio playing this particular song live. Following it up with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers was even more enjoyable! I've only recently started listening to this band properly (I must admit, I bought that sideshow ticket mainly to see Melvins), but they've definitely found a place in my musical heart quite quickly, and how could they not? It's always a bit of a risky decision to see a band play twice in a row, especially if one of those performances is a festival. Will they play different songs? Will the stage antics be the same? Will the crowd like them? Well, there was no need to worry about that first point, as the band's 9-song set only reprised three numbers from the night prior. The delightfully odd frontman/bass GOD Les Claypool was in fine form too, as he spotted a few fans in the front row holding a banner in appreciation of Slash. "I hate to tell you, but Slash is performing on that stage over there!" he said, pointing in the direction of the adjacent stage 1, before suggesting that maybe the security guards would be nice enough to escort them to the other side. However, whether Claypool was joking or whether he was genuinely incorrect, it became apparent to those checking their timetables that he had got it wrong, and Slash was due to play on Stage 2, after Thirty Seconds to Mars on Stage 1. "I'm sorry, I have been misinformed!" Claypool apologised a few songs later, to general laughter. "It just goes to show, never trust the fuckin' bass player!" His antics, and indeed, the eccentric funk stylings of the music, may have gone over the heads of some of the younger members in the crowd, but by the end of the set, most of the audience was smiling and left feeling very satisfied. The set concluded with a very-crowd pleasing double of My Name is Mud, which Claypool introduced as "a Van Halen song, pre-Jump", and the immortal classic Tommy the Cat, introduced as "another Van Halen song, this one from the Sammy Hagar era". My only complaint with this set was it wasn't dark enough, therefore the visuals on the giant inflatable spacemen's helmets were not used like at the sideshow. But a great performance all round!
SETLIST
Seas of Cheese
Here Come the Bastards
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
Pudding Time
The Eyes of the Squirrel (new song!)
Over the Falls
John the Fisherman
My Name is Mud
Tommy the Cat
(Primus score 10/10!)
After the necessary food-and-R 'n' R break, it was back to Stage 4 for a performance from thrash metal royalty. It's almost become something of a festival tradition to have a really terrible band play right before Slayer; all one need to do is look at YouTube to see loads of hilarious footage of such "bands" as My Chemical Romance having stuff thrown at them. And today the unfortunate band was Ill Nino. It was quite amusing to watch the end of their set, by which point the Slayer fans were no longing patiently waiting, and were throwing bottles, cans, middle fingers and a continuous chant involving a less-polite way of saying "Please leave the stage now, thank you." Poor old Ill Nino vocalist (I'm not even going to do him the honour of looking his name up on Wikipedia, they really were quite terrible) tried his best to be brave in the face of adversity, directly addressing the opposing crowd with "We won today Melbourne, and you lost", before leaving the stage quickly. And then the chaos began. A wall of no less than 36 Marshall cabs filled the stage - it could be no other band than Slayer. With an offstage intro booming out of the PA, the four thrash metal titans soon made their way onstage to blast their way through the title track to their 2009 release World Painted Blood. "Thank you for showing up today!" vocalist/bassist Tom Araya exclaimed early in the set. His choice of words were certainly deliberate, as some of the crowd shouted similar sentiments back to him. "I guess you're all glad that I showed up today," he continued, referring to his hospitalisation in Sydney that resulted in the last-minute cancellation of the Slayer set. The band ripped their way through a slew of new material and old favourites alike; unsurprisingly it was the latter that evoked the biggest crowd response. However, I'm not sure whether it was because I was pretty far back in the crowd or for some other reason, but this performance just didn't seem to live up to my expectations. The sound seemed a little off at times, which is something that, even though it's not usually the band's fault, can really detract from a performance. Also, I was a little miffed that the band didn't even finish Raining Blood, cutting the song off just before the thrashing madness of the guitar solo and finale. Speaking of guitars though, the other big news of this tour was the absence of Jeff Hanneman, who has contracted a very metal-sounding flesh-eating disease that has rendered him unable to play guitar. His replacement for the time being is Exodus axeman Gary Holt, who certainly put in a very capable performance on the day. However, in the end Slayer just weren't delivering as much as I thought they would; nonetheless it was still good to see an enormously influential heavy metal band playing in Australia yet again. Maybe a "Big 4" tour could happen soon? I live in hope...
SETLIST:
World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Hallowed Point
Americon
Payback
Mandatory Suicide
Temptation
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
(Slayer score 8/10.)
"Guess what I came here to do today!" proclaimed Josh Homme, frontman of the inimitable Queens of the Stone Age, as he took a healthy swig from a bottle of what appeared to be vodka, and his bandmates kicked into the familiar opening of Feel Good Hit of the Summer. With this particular choice of opening song, the crowd was instantly in Homme's pocket, as they enthusiastically helped him out on those very simple yet very fun lyrics! Straight away, Homme and bandmates followed it up with other Rated R fave The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret, and the pace was set early for what would turn out to be a really good set from the riff-driven five piece. In celebration of the recent reissue of their self-titled debut album, the band have stated that they will play it in its entirety at many of their shows throughout this year, and indeed did at their Soundwave sideshows. However, today not even one song made it into the set, as the band opted instead for a "greatest hits" package of sorts, featuring a wide variety of material from across their career, except for that first album. Queens have always been one of those bands I've sort of "casually loved" - never got "extremely" into them, but certainly haven't hated them either - and I was quite glad to see them perform on this occasion. I didn't really have any complaints with the setlist either - it was especially pleasing to hear I Think I Lost My Headache live, something I didn't expect them to play at all. I thought I'd better leave a bit early to make sure I was back at Stage 4 in time for Melvins; apparently I missed a guy in a wheelchair crowdsurfing during No One Knows! Ah well. Great set!
SETLIST:
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
3's & 7's
Sick, Sick, Sick
Misfit Love
Monsters in the Parasol
Burn the Witch
Little Sister
I Think I Lost My Headache
Go With the Flow
No One Knows
----Encore----
A Song for the Dead
(QOTSA score 10/10!)
At which point it was time to endure another average band running their set overtime at the expense of a much better band to come - this time it was Rob Zombie and his band that were torturing the poor fans of the next band, who in this case was Melvins. Could someone please buy this guy a watch? Despite the apparent fact to everyone in the crowd that their set should have been wrapping up, Zombie and his band dragged it out as long as possible, including throwing in the biggest metal-cliche cover that any band can ever do - Metallica's Master of Puppets. Ugh. They finally finished with Dragula (of course) before getting the crowd to chant "ZOMBIE! ZOMBIE!" one last time - naturally, the other crowd gave it their best "MELVINS! MELVINS!" to try and point out to this dickhead that he'd clearly overstayed his welcome.
Melvins, to their credit, didn't resort to tearing Zombie a new one, either literally or through their microphones, but simply stood onstage with their instruments - clearly frustrated and well ready to play - and waited until Zombie finished, before blasting into The Water Glass, with bass player Jared Warren chanting "WOO! WOO!" sarcastically at the crowd. The setlist was pretty similar to the previous night's sideshow, of course with a few omissions due to the reduced set time, but still highly enjoyed by the crowd, naturally considerably smaller now that a certain British classic metal band were doing their thing on the main stage. The band themselves didn't really mess around with any live schtick, although they were wearing some interesting costumes, but just delivered a solid no-frills set of mostly tracks from their most recent three albums - unfortunately, not albums I'm very familiar with. Nevertheless, it's always a good night when these gents are on the stage!
SETLIST
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
The Bloated Pope
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Anaconda
Electric Flower
Civilized Worm
(Melvins score 9/10)
The crowd was slowly dwindling, but the couple of hundred people that were left were extremely keen to see another smashing live performance from "motherfuckin' Los Angeles" punk heavyweights The Bronx. One can't accuse them of not being kind to their Australian fans (of which there are plenty!), with this visit technically being the band's fourth in just over two years (if you include their brief visit last year under their Mariachi El Bronx incarnation). However, the crowd still lapped up the incredible energy coming from the stage, ensuring that vocalist Matt Caughthran's usual commands for moshing, circle pits and "chaos" were obeyed with great enthusiasm. Playing in front a giant gorilla backdrop with flashing red eyes and the slogan "THE BEAT THAT KILLS", The Bronx tore their way through a great set of songs from their eponymous three albums, and even threw in one brand new song! Eventually Caughthran did what we knew he would do, and leapt into the pit during everyone's favourite, Heart Attack American, more than happy to share his microphone with the adoring crowd. As the band drew their set to a close with History's Stranglers, the crowd were all a bit worse for wear, but at Caughthran's insistence, thought they'd better drift over to the annex to catch the next band!
SETLIST
Knifeman
Rape Zombie
Shitty Future
White Tar
Inveigh
Under the Rabbit (new song)
Six Days a Week
Strobe Life
Around the Horn
Heart Attack American
History's Stranglers
(The Bronx score 10/10!)
Like The Bronx, Fucked Up delivered a stellar set of vicious hardcore punk with all the fury and intensity they could muster, which as it turns out was quite a lot! Vocalist Damian Abraham was also up for some in-the-crowd fun, in fact, he walked onstage, ripped his shirt off, smashed a beer can on his head, and then off he went, into the crowd where he spent the entirety of the set. The band onstage (talented as they are!) were mostly ignored as the crowd attempted to get their piece of Abraham, whether it be singing furiously into his microphone, giving him a high-five or a backslap, or even jumping on his shoulders and riding him around, as one punter managed! After a long day, everyone was a little bit wearied but a band like Fucked Up ensured that everyone tapped into their reserves to summon one last burst of energy. It all ended way too soon, as both Abraham and his new friends looked optimistically toward the stage in the hope of getting one last song. But it was not to be, and as the band walked offstage, Abraham stayed in the pit to thank each and every member of the crowd personally. A truly inspiring thing to watch.
SETLIST
Son the Father
David Comes to Life
Black Albino Bones
I Hate Summer
The Other Shoe
Baiting the Public
(Unknown)
Crusades
(Fucked Up score 10/10!)
Well, it seems that once again, Soundwave Festival brought a truly diverse lineup to celebrate the hard rock/punk/metal counter-culture that's usually pretty much ignored by the mainstream festivals out there. For a festival that only became truly national in 2008, Maddah's Soundwave brand has certainly been embraced with great enthusiasm, and with the acts he's bringing out, it's easy to see why. Fingers crossed that this "Soundwave Revolution" will be something quite exciting!
I wasn't really interested in any of the first couple of acts on any of the stages so I decided not to hurry myself in getting there. When I did, I headed in the direction of the two stage 4s to see Texan stoner metal (a genre that was certainly not in short supply at Soundwave this year) act The Sword. While waiting it out in front of the Stage 4 "annex", Las Vegas's Taking Dawn were doing their thing on the adjacent stage. It comes as no surprise to me while reading up on this band to learn that they've supported Airbourne before, as their music definitely has that old-school revival approach to heavy metal and hard rock. Frontman Chris Babbitt certainly had his 80s frontman showmanship shtick downpat too, as he soloed down on the ground in front of the barrier, climbed up speaker stacks, and even ran over to the annex stage, much to the bemusement of the crowd waiting for The Sword. I never know whether to take bands like this seriously or not, but at least they provided us with some good laughs and good riffs early in the day.
It was perhaps a little early in the day, but there was still a very decent turnout for The Sword, and most of the crowd seemed to be genuine fans; right away, from the opening riffs of Acheron/Unearthing the Orb, long-haired heads began banging and horns were pointed skyward. I'd only listened to one of their albums prior to this set, but Gods of the Earth luckily got a bit of a look-in with the track How Heavy This Axe. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of the ol' doom-stoner-sludge metal in general, so those low-end heavy riffs coming out of Orange amps (of course) sounded pretty damn awesome - and apparently I wasn't the only one that thought so.
SETLIST:
Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
Barael's Blade
Freya
Tres Brujas
How Heavy This Axe
Night City
Winter's Wolves
(The Sword score 8/10.)
I then made my way over to a stage I didn't even go near last year, Stage 5, aka the big shed, for a performance from mathy Oxford quartet This Town Needs Guns. They were certainly a bit out of place on the overall lineup of the day, something vocalist Stuart Smith referred to several times throughout the band's set. "We're not anywhere near as punk as that (referring to whatever band had just come off the stage at the other end of the shed) but hopefully you'll still enjoy us", he noted early on. However, it soon became clear that the crowd weren't simply waiting for the next band on that stage, but were actually genuine fans of TTNG. They did have a pretty short set, but it was jam-packed with plenty of goodies off the Animals album, a pair of old favourites from the self-titled EP, and even a new song! They were one of the bands on the lineup I decided to check out only a few weeks ago, and I'm really glad I did, as I enjoyed their set immensely. Hopefully they'll be back in Australia soon, as I'd love to see them at a headline show.
SETLIST
Chinchilla
Baboon
Lemur
Gibbon
Want to Come Back to My Room and Listen to Some Belle and Sebastian?
Adventure, Stamina and Anger
26 is Dancier Than 4
(This Town Needs Guns score 8.5/10.)
I then bolted over to Stage 3 (AKA "the other shed") just in time to catch a stellar performance from seminal UK post-punkers Gang of Four. Certainly another band that was a bit out of place amongst all that noisy metal and hardcore, but it didn't seem to faze them one bit. Frontman Jon King may be 55 years old, but for all the energy he displayed on the day, you could more accurately say 55 years young! Running around onstage like a madman, even doing a somersault at one point, all the while spitting his lyrics out with typical venom, it was really inspiring to watch. Unfortunately for the band, the slightly younger generation of the Soundwave crowd obviously had other interests in bands at that timeslot, and the Stage 3 shed was looking a little sparsely populated. That said, the small crowd was genuinely getting into the sounds of such classics as At Home He's A Tourist and Anthrax, performed with genuine effort and energy despite the age of the musicians in question. Before I went in to check them out I was reminded of a performance by a band from a similar era and style of music, The Fall, who had put on a really bizarre set at Meredith Music Festival at the end of last year. Frontman Mark E Smith evidently decided that he wasn't going to put in much of an effort, and simply stumbled around onstage, yelled his lyrics in an indecipherable manner, and sporadically turned his bandmates' amplifiers down, up, or even completely off. In complete contrast, Gang of Four were still electric on stage, but at least they had the sense to actually perform their music properly - and the crowd loved it.
SETLIST
(pending recording)
(Gang of Four score 9/10.)
I then made my way back to Stage 4 for a performance by Norwegian melodic black metal stalwarts, Dimmu Borgir. As All That Remains vacated the annex, the crowd grew extremely restless, and one inebriated punter yelled to the sky joyously, "DIMMU BORGIR ARE FINALLY IN AUSTRALIA!" It was certainly a fair statement to make - in their career of almost 20 years, the band have never once set foot on our soil until today, and were a highly anticipated act for many. However, as blasts from smoke machines tried in vain to set some sort of atmosphere for the upcoming performance (at 3:25 in the afternoon, the clouds of dry ice simply blew away and dispersed as soon as they appeared), it became clear that the band weren't appearing any time soon. Roadies continued to do their thing onstage for quite a while, at which point I looked at my phone and realised I'd been standing in front of an empty stage for ten minutes. That was enough for me, and I wandered back over to the Main Arena, for one of Soundwave's major drawcards this year, a little Californian band by the name of Primus.
The funky sounds of Here Come the Bastards were extremely pleasing to hear, particularly as I and the rest of the crowd at the band's sideshow the night before had not witnessed the trio playing this particular song live. Following it up with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers was even more enjoyable! I've only recently started listening to this band properly (I must admit, I bought that sideshow ticket mainly to see Melvins), but they've definitely found a place in my musical heart quite quickly, and how could they not? It's always a bit of a risky decision to see a band play twice in a row, especially if one of those performances is a festival. Will they play different songs? Will the stage antics be the same? Will the crowd like them? Well, there was no need to worry about that first point, as the band's 9-song set only reprised three numbers from the night prior. The delightfully odd frontman/bass GOD Les Claypool was in fine form too, as he spotted a few fans in the front row holding a banner in appreciation of Slash. "I hate to tell you, but Slash is performing on that stage over there!" he said, pointing in the direction of the adjacent stage 1, before suggesting that maybe the security guards would be nice enough to escort them to the other side. However, whether Claypool was joking or whether he was genuinely incorrect, it became apparent to those checking their timetables that he had got it wrong, and Slash was due to play on Stage 2, after Thirty Seconds to Mars on Stage 1. "I'm sorry, I have been misinformed!" Claypool apologised a few songs later, to general laughter. "It just goes to show, never trust the fuckin' bass player!" His antics, and indeed, the eccentric funk stylings of the music, may have gone over the heads of some of the younger members in the crowd, but by the end of the set, most of the audience was smiling and left feeling very satisfied. The set concluded with a very-crowd pleasing double of My Name is Mud, which Claypool introduced as "a Van Halen song, pre-Jump", and the immortal classic Tommy the Cat, introduced as "another Van Halen song, this one from the Sammy Hagar era". My only complaint with this set was it wasn't dark enough, therefore the visuals on the giant inflatable spacemen's helmets were not used like at the sideshow. But a great performance all round!
SETLIST
Seas of Cheese
Here Come the Bastards
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
Pudding Time
The Eyes of the Squirrel (new song!)
Over the Falls
John the Fisherman
My Name is Mud
Tommy the Cat
(Primus score 10/10!)
After the necessary food-and-R 'n' R break, it was back to Stage 4 for a performance from thrash metal royalty. It's almost become something of a festival tradition to have a really terrible band play right before Slayer; all one need to do is look at YouTube to see loads of hilarious footage of such "bands" as My Chemical Romance having stuff thrown at them. And today the unfortunate band was Ill Nino. It was quite amusing to watch the end of their set, by which point the Slayer fans were no longing patiently waiting, and were throwing bottles, cans, middle fingers and a continuous chant involving a less-polite way of saying "Please leave the stage now, thank you." Poor old Ill Nino vocalist (I'm not even going to do him the honour of looking his name up on Wikipedia, they really were quite terrible) tried his best to be brave in the face of adversity, directly addressing the opposing crowd with "We won today Melbourne, and you lost", before leaving the stage quickly. And then the chaos began. A wall of no less than 36 Marshall cabs filled the stage - it could be no other band than Slayer. With an offstage intro booming out of the PA, the four thrash metal titans soon made their way onstage to blast their way through the title track to their 2009 release World Painted Blood. "Thank you for showing up today!" vocalist/bassist Tom Araya exclaimed early in the set. His choice of words were certainly deliberate, as some of the crowd shouted similar sentiments back to him. "I guess you're all glad that I showed up today," he continued, referring to his hospitalisation in Sydney that resulted in the last-minute cancellation of the Slayer set. The band ripped their way through a slew of new material and old favourites alike; unsurprisingly it was the latter that evoked the biggest crowd response. However, I'm not sure whether it was because I was pretty far back in the crowd or for some other reason, but this performance just didn't seem to live up to my expectations. The sound seemed a little off at times, which is something that, even though it's not usually the band's fault, can really detract from a performance. Also, I was a little miffed that the band didn't even finish Raining Blood, cutting the song off just before the thrashing madness of the guitar solo and finale. Speaking of guitars though, the other big news of this tour was the absence of Jeff Hanneman, who has contracted a very metal-sounding flesh-eating disease that has rendered him unable to play guitar. His replacement for the time being is Exodus axeman Gary Holt, who certainly put in a very capable performance on the day. However, in the end Slayer just weren't delivering as much as I thought they would; nonetheless it was still good to see an enormously influential heavy metal band playing in Australia yet again. Maybe a "Big 4" tour could happen soon? I live in hope...
SETLIST:
World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Postmortem
Hallowed Point
Americon
Payback
Mandatory Suicide
Temptation
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
(Slayer score 8/10.)
"Guess what I came here to do today!" proclaimed Josh Homme, frontman of the inimitable Queens of the Stone Age, as he took a healthy swig from a bottle of what appeared to be vodka, and his bandmates kicked into the familiar opening of Feel Good Hit of the Summer. With this particular choice of opening song, the crowd was instantly in Homme's pocket, as they enthusiastically helped him out on those very simple yet very fun lyrics! Straight away, Homme and bandmates followed it up with other Rated R fave The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret, and the pace was set early for what would turn out to be a really good set from the riff-driven five piece. In celebration of the recent reissue of their self-titled debut album, the band have stated that they will play it in its entirety at many of their shows throughout this year, and indeed did at their Soundwave sideshows. However, today not even one song made it into the set, as the band opted instead for a "greatest hits" package of sorts, featuring a wide variety of material from across their career, except for that first album. Queens have always been one of those bands I've sort of "casually loved" - never got "extremely" into them, but certainly haven't hated them either - and I was quite glad to see them perform on this occasion. I didn't really have any complaints with the setlist either - it was especially pleasing to hear I Think I Lost My Headache live, something I didn't expect them to play at all. I thought I'd better leave a bit early to make sure I was back at Stage 4 in time for Melvins; apparently I missed a guy in a wheelchair crowdsurfing during No One Knows! Ah well. Great set!
SETLIST:
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
3's & 7's
Sick, Sick, Sick
Misfit Love
Monsters in the Parasol
Burn the Witch
Little Sister
I Think I Lost My Headache
Go With the Flow
No One Knows
----Encore----
A Song for the Dead
(QOTSA score 10/10!)
At which point it was time to endure another average band running their set overtime at the expense of a much better band to come - this time it was Rob Zombie and his band that were torturing the poor fans of the next band, who in this case was Melvins. Could someone please buy this guy a watch? Despite the apparent fact to everyone in the crowd that their set should have been wrapping up, Zombie and his band dragged it out as long as possible, including throwing in the biggest metal-cliche cover that any band can ever do - Metallica's Master of Puppets. Ugh. They finally finished with Dragula (of course) before getting the crowd to chant "ZOMBIE! ZOMBIE!" one last time - naturally, the other crowd gave it their best "MELVINS! MELVINS!" to try and point out to this dickhead that he'd clearly overstayed his welcome.
Melvins, to their credit, didn't resort to tearing Zombie a new one, either literally or through their microphones, but simply stood onstage with their instruments - clearly frustrated and well ready to play - and waited until Zombie finished, before blasting into The Water Glass, with bass player Jared Warren chanting "WOO! WOO!" sarcastically at the crowd. The setlist was pretty similar to the previous night's sideshow, of course with a few omissions due to the reduced set time, but still highly enjoyed by the crowd, naturally considerably smaller now that a certain British classic metal band were doing their thing on the main stage. The band themselves didn't really mess around with any live schtick, although they were wearing some interesting costumes, but just delivered a solid no-frills set of mostly tracks from their most recent three albums - unfortunately, not albums I'm very familiar with. Nevertheless, it's always a good night when these gents are on the stage!
SETLIST
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
The Bloated Pope
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Anaconda
Electric Flower
Civilized Worm
(Melvins score 9/10)
The crowd was slowly dwindling, but the couple of hundred people that were left were extremely keen to see another smashing live performance from "motherfuckin' Los Angeles" punk heavyweights The Bronx. One can't accuse them of not being kind to their Australian fans (of which there are plenty!), with this visit technically being the band's fourth in just over two years (if you include their brief visit last year under their Mariachi El Bronx incarnation). However, the crowd still lapped up the incredible energy coming from the stage, ensuring that vocalist Matt Caughthran's usual commands for moshing, circle pits and "chaos" were obeyed with great enthusiasm. Playing in front a giant gorilla backdrop with flashing red eyes and the slogan "THE BEAT THAT KILLS", The Bronx tore their way through a great set of songs from their eponymous three albums, and even threw in one brand new song! Eventually Caughthran did what we knew he would do, and leapt into the pit during everyone's favourite, Heart Attack American, more than happy to share his microphone with the adoring crowd. As the band drew their set to a close with History's Stranglers, the crowd were all a bit worse for wear, but at Caughthran's insistence, thought they'd better drift over to the annex to catch the next band!
SETLIST
Knifeman
Rape Zombie
Shitty Future
White Tar
Inveigh
Under the Rabbit (new song)
Six Days a Week
Strobe Life
Around the Horn
Heart Attack American
History's Stranglers
(The Bronx score 10/10!)
Like The Bronx, Fucked Up delivered a stellar set of vicious hardcore punk with all the fury and intensity they could muster, which as it turns out was quite a lot! Vocalist Damian Abraham was also up for some in-the-crowd fun, in fact, he walked onstage, ripped his shirt off, smashed a beer can on his head, and then off he went, into the crowd where he spent the entirety of the set. The band onstage (talented as they are!) were mostly ignored as the crowd attempted to get their piece of Abraham, whether it be singing furiously into his microphone, giving him a high-five or a backslap, or even jumping on his shoulders and riding him around, as one punter managed! After a long day, everyone was a little bit wearied but a band like Fucked Up ensured that everyone tapped into their reserves to summon one last burst of energy. It all ended way too soon, as both Abraham and his new friends looked optimistically toward the stage in the hope of getting one last song. But it was not to be, and as the band walked offstage, Abraham stayed in the pit to thank each and every member of the crowd personally. A truly inspiring thing to watch.
SETLIST
Son the Father
David Comes to Life
Black Albino Bones
I Hate Summer
The Other Shoe
Baiting the Public
(Unknown)
Crusades
(Fucked Up score 10/10!)
Well, it seems that once again, Soundwave Festival brought a truly diverse lineup to celebrate the hard rock/punk/metal counter-culture that's usually pretty much ignored by the mainstream festivals out there. For a festival that only became truly national in 2008, Maddah's Soundwave brand has certainly been embraced with great enthusiasm, and with the acts he's bringing out, it's easy to see why. Fingers crossed that this "Soundwave Revolution" will be something quite exciting!
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