Soundwave 2014 - Sydney, 23rd Feb 2014
Words: Todd Lockley
Hordes of the dark at heart smeared on their darkest eyeliner and strapped on their chunkiest chains and descended on Olympic Park for one of the heaviest, most brutal line-ups in Soundwaves short 11-year life span (8 if you’re not from Perth).
After 23 years you’d think Amon Amarth would afford a bigger stage and a set longer than half an hour to commence the day, but alas, that huge Viking ship doesn’t pack itself away at the snap of the fingers and the opening slot was their only option. Good on them for coming out and rocking it earlier. Fuck Hardcore Superstar. Despite the early start, Amarth rocked it. On a day chock a block full of growly, scowly front men, it was guitarist Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg who really shredded. Pursuit Of Vikings and Deceiver Of The Gods had the pinky and forefingers getting a jolly good work out on what would be a very long day for them.
The big keyhole back drop welcomed Mayday Parade who had arms waving along to Hold On To Me as 3 Cheers For 5 Years drifted out and provided the perfect soundtrack for those lucky enough to catch the tiny humans being gnarly on the massive half pipe.
On a day full of bands in masks, costumes and too much eye liner, Mushroomhead proved the best to hear, as well as see, with the grumbling vocal of Jeffery Nothing eclipsing any open space, and the angry growls and howls of recently returning J Mann pounding the exclamation mark into the frantic mess of opener Bwomp. For such a scary looking bunch of dudes, the more tender situations of Solitaire/Unravelling are quite beautiful and delicate in a horror inspired jumble. Waylon Reavis channels Maynard Keenan at times through Becoming Cold, which is never a bad thing. Mark down the 14th of May for the release of their new album The Righteous & The Butterfly.
The sentimental pop punkers were served up a treat with Nancy Vandal re-appearing from obscurity. They bounced along to the die hard’s who had waited so long to see them again, bounding onstage like epileptic Chihuahuas. Kickstart My Heart and Move Over Satan had the nostalgic few in bliss. While showing they still have the frantic, breakneck pace of many, many moon ago, the band proved to be a little more polished and coherent. Hopefully they stick around and continue making music so that the kids scratching their heads up front can learn to love a little more.
After 23 years you’d think Amon Amarth would afford a bigger stage and a set longer than half an hour to commence the day, but alas, that huge Viking ship doesn’t pack itself away at the snap of the fingers and the opening slot was their only option. Good on them for coming out and rocking it earlier. Fuck Hardcore Superstar. Despite the early start, Amarth rocked it. On a day chock a block full of growly, scowly front men, it was guitarist Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg who really shredded. Pursuit Of Vikings and Deceiver Of The Gods had the pinky and forefingers getting a jolly good work out on what would be a very long day for them.
The big keyhole back drop welcomed Mayday Parade who had arms waving along to Hold On To Me as 3 Cheers For 5 Years drifted out and provided the perfect soundtrack for those lucky enough to catch the tiny humans being gnarly on the massive half pipe.
On a day full of bands in masks, costumes and too much eye liner, Mushroomhead proved the best to hear, as well as see, with the grumbling vocal of Jeffery Nothing eclipsing any open space, and the angry growls and howls of recently returning J Mann pounding the exclamation mark into the frantic mess of opener Bwomp. For such a scary looking bunch of dudes, the more tender situations of Solitaire/Unravelling are quite beautiful and delicate in a horror inspired jumble. Waylon Reavis channels Maynard Keenan at times through Becoming Cold, which is never a bad thing. Mark down the 14th of May for the release of their new album The Righteous & The Butterfly.
The sentimental pop punkers were served up a treat with Nancy Vandal re-appearing from obscurity. They bounced along to the die hard’s who had waited so long to see them again, bounding onstage like epileptic Chihuahuas. Kickstart My Heart and Move Over Satan had the nostalgic few in bliss. While showing they still have the frantic, breakneck pace of many, many moon ago, the band proved to be a little more polished and coherent. Hopefully they stick around and continue making music so that the kids scratching their heads up front can learn to love a little more.
Less Than Jake proved the most entertaining act of the day, combining a full-fledged horn section with a whole lot of shit talking. After stating "We'd like to let thank Megadeath, for not coming!", they commenced their set with a one-two punch of tracks from 1996’s Losing Streak album. Automatic and Sugar in Your Gas Tank sounded as fresh today as they did when released all those years ago. Known pulling pranks and general shenanigans at their shows, this time LTJ asked the crowd to links hands and form a human catwalk down the middle of the mosh for the girls at the back of the crowd to walk to the front. John The Baptist Bones and Good Enough from the newly released (and excellent) See the Light album were met with an enthusiastic response and Johnny Quest Thinks Were Sell Outs saw the world’s first “Beer Belly Dance-off”. 40 minutes of less Than Jake is never enough and all of a sudden, the band finished off their set with Plastic Cup Politics. Brilliant!
Slowing the pace down, The Alkaline Trio commenced their show with Time To Waste and waltzed through a tight set that included Sadie and buzzed off into a massive crowd sing along for Radio. Over on the main stage the most, let's say unique, drawcard, Ritchie Sambora, had a modest crowd of Bon Jovi die-hards lapping up his inspired renditions of Jovi classics Lay Your Hands On Me and Dead Or Alive. The inclusion of INXS's Don't Change was greeted with a soft breeze of nostalgia which continued with the gale force conclusion of Livin On A Prayer - quite enjoyable coming from the man who wrote it, rather than some shitty cover band down at the local for once.
Last minute headliners and Aussie sentimental favourites The Living End walked out into the sun with a 2-punch combo of Second Solution and Roll On and Scott Owen's double bass acrobatics had sweat streaming through Prisoner Of Society. Over on the far stages, A Fire Inside had left a lot of the stage show they brought to Soundwave 2010 behind and replaced it with solid guitar work and harmonies. Frontman Davey Havok hadn't adjusted to the time difference by stage time wishing the crowd a "good evening" before correcting himself to a "sorry, good afternoon Sydney" before racing through The Leaving Song. Love Like Winter and Girls Not Grey had the part time fans singing along, it was fast paced and covered in black, complimented with many a guitar change. Silver And Cold was massive and the fist pumping stage fronters rolicked to closer Miss Murder.
Slowing the pace down, The Alkaline Trio commenced their show with Time To Waste and waltzed through a tight set that included Sadie and buzzed off into a massive crowd sing along for Radio. Over on the main stage the most, let's say unique, drawcard, Ritchie Sambora, had a modest crowd of Bon Jovi die-hards lapping up his inspired renditions of Jovi classics Lay Your Hands On Me and Dead Or Alive. The inclusion of INXS's Don't Change was greeted with a soft breeze of nostalgia which continued with the gale force conclusion of Livin On A Prayer - quite enjoyable coming from the man who wrote it, rather than some shitty cover band down at the local for once.
Last minute headliners and Aussie sentimental favourites The Living End walked out into the sun with a 2-punch combo of Second Solution and Roll On and Scott Owen's double bass acrobatics had sweat streaming through Prisoner Of Society. Over on the far stages, A Fire Inside had left a lot of the stage show they brought to Soundwave 2010 behind and replaced it with solid guitar work and harmonies. Frontman Davey Havok hadn't adjusted to the time difference by stage time wishing the crowd a "good evening" before correcting himself to a "sorry, good afternoon Sydney" before racing through The Leaving Song. Love Like Winter and Girls Not Grey had the part time fans singing along, it was fast paced and covered in black, complimented with many a guitar change. Silver And Cold was massive and the fist pumping stage fronters rolicked to closer Miss Murder.
After a short delay for arguably the most anticipated performance of the day, Gwar were always gonna make it worth everyone's while. In full costume, frontman Oderus Urungus appeared and urged the eager crowd to "Drink my cock blood". The rest of the band galloped into Madness At The Core Of Time as Oderus stalked the stage with his flailing penis soaking all in with range his "cock" blood. Awesome! Although the set was short, and missing some standards, the theatrics were thick, fast and full of blood. In the carnage, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was decapitated, a police officer was bludgeoned to death and the Queen had her tits cut off - all resulting in? you guessed it...
More blood!.
This reviewer, having been a fan of their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat, was part excited, part dreading the performance of Panic! At The Disco, considering the target audience and lack of anything really enjoyable since their debut. The Las Vegas showmen bounded onstage and tucked into Time To Dance. From there it was a lot less theatrical than expected and a more enjoyable ear candy affair. The soft pop of Ready To Go was probably the easiest song to swallow of the entire day. The heat was obviously getting to frontman Brandon Urie as he stripped off his button up, to the front row’s delight and quipped "It's hot as balls up here". It didn’t take away from his energy though as they swept through Nicotine, their ode to "that sweet, sweet gooch (weed)" 9 In The Afternoon and the song that started it all I Write Sins Not Tragedies - complete with a backflip off the drum kit. Very impressive.
The saddest part of the day came during Filter's set. An impressive light show? Check. A list of singalong songs for the faithfull packed into the pavilion? Check. A decent amount of time to get through it all? Check. However, when they launched into last track Hey Man, Nice Shot it was already Clutch's time to be in front of their fans, and those fans let Filter know. It was a real shame. Their set had such a promising start; Can't You Trip Like I Do? and Jurrasitol from the excellent Toitle of Record, but it all came crumbling down as front man Richard Patrick ranted at the Clutch fans for their warranted disliking of him eating into their band’s set time. Having been told their time was up, the rest of the band casually exited the stage so when he finally turned, saying they were gonna play one more song, it was only him on stage. He dropped the mic and walked off. Fans were heard muttering "pathetic" as they exited.
Honorable mentions have to go to many bands that floated in the breeze throughout the day. Bowling For Soup without doubt have the best intro music any band could wish for, and their good guy attitude shone true when they beamed "thanks for being so nice to us guys" before finishing with cheese Stacies Mum and 1985.
More blood!.
This reviewer, having been a fan of their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat, was part excited, part dreading the performance of Panic! At The Disco, considering the target audience and lack of anything really enjoyable since their debut. The Las Vegas showmen bounded onstage and tucked into Time To Dance. From there it was a lot less theatrical than expected and a more enjoyable ear candy affair. The soft pop of Ready To Go was probably the easiest song to swallow of the entire day. The heat was obviously getting to frontman Brandon Urie as he stripped off his button up, to the front row’s delight and quipped "It's hot as balls up here". It didn’t take away from his energy though as they swept through Nicotine, their ode to "that sweet, sweet gooch (weed)" 9 In The Afternoon and the song that started it all I Write Sins Not Tragedies - complete with a backflip off the drum kit. Very impressive.
The saddest part of the day came during Filter's set. An impressive light show? Check. A list of singalong songs for the faithfull packed into the pavilion? Check. A decent amount of time to get through it all? Check. However, when they launched into last track Hey Man, Nice Shot it was already Clutch's time to be in front of their fans, and those fans let Filter know. It was a real shame. Their set had such a promising start; Can't You Trip Like I Do? and Jurrasitol from the excellent Toitle of Record, but it all came crumbling down as front man Richard Patrick ranted at the Clutch fans for their warranted disliking of him eating into their band’s set time. Having been told their time was up, the rest of the band casually exited the stage so when he finally turned, saying they were gonna play one more song, it was only him on stage. He dropped the mic and walked off. Fans were heard muttering "pathetic" as they exited.
Honorable mentions have to go to many bands that floated in the breeze throughout the day. Bowling For Soup without doubt have the best intro music any band could wish for, and their good guy attitude shone true when they beamed "thanks for being so nice to us guys" before finishing with cheese Stacies Mum and 1985.
The crowd really started to swell as Californian punk rock pioneers Pennywise blasted their way through Wouldnt It Be Nice and the celebrations circled round a pit bigger than Miley's vagina. It was thick and fast and Pennywise seemed extremely happy to be out playing in the sun, "drinking beers with our friends". Same Old Story was as awesome as ever, as was frontman Jim Lindberg's hand/eye co-ordination, catching a bottle ditched from the crowd mid Perfect People rock, while monstrous guitar man Fletcher Dragge swigged beer and explained his hatred for “that Wolverine Guy!” Their aussie tribute of Men At Work's Downunder was fun in the sun and for the celebration of Bro Hymm, the fitting finale to what was an epic set, the band was joined on stage by members of Clutch, Alkaline Trio and other bands for the "Woooooaaah, woah oh oh's". An excellent stage invasion indeed.
Useless trinklets of other sets included Volbeats excellent rendition of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire, the fierce and fun ferociousness of Five Finger Death Punch and the terrible sound that tainted an otherwise enjoyable jump around to Ill Niño, also the sensational scream-a-thon Finch were dishing at pre Korn.
The latter graced the stage with bass heavy whirls and the eery first strings to Falling Away From Me. It was clear from the start that Jonathon Davis was here to have a good time. You could tell that by the Cheshire Cat smile on his face throughout the set. With 4 of 5 of the original line up to enjoy, the classics sounded tighter than ever with the monstrous crowd lapping up Twist, Got The Life and the fucking awesome Good God smashing all of the highest expectations to smithereens. Though he looked happy, JD must have been feeling the heat, dipping into tour routines of Axl Rose with an oxygen tank near by to gasp in between songs. The newer songs were met with the same gusto as the old, Davis’ bagpipe bliss Shoots And Ladders melted into a clear mist that was Love And Met, with Fieldy, Munky and Head absolutely killing it. Never, Never was the perfect ending to all of the awesomeness. Korn are back in a big way.
Soil had the "check us out" spot of the day, slotted between 2 of the most loved and respected acts of the line up, and they didn’t disappoint. Breaking Me Down kept the Korn pit killing it, and their cover of Black Betty kept everyone else dancing.
In a similar vain to Filter, Rob Zombie really did disappoint. More inclined to whinge about playing in the sun, over and over again, he whined his way through usually awesome renditions of House Of 1,000 Corpses and White Zombie anthem More Human Than Human. It wasn't all doom and gloom. John 5 is immaculate on the guitar, racing round the stage and commencing the fist pumping whenever there was a lul, and the bouncing colourful balls that bounced out from backstage for Sick Bubblegum added a little light to such a dark, death obsessed artist. However, Zombie missed his cues in the standard Never Gonna Stop and by the time he got what he wanted (the sun to go down) there was only time left for Dragula, which in a way justified his annoyance. This man needs to play in the dark with a light show like that!
Useless trinklets of other sets included Volbeats excellent rendition of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire, the fierce and fun ferociousness of Five Finger Death Punch and the terrible sound that tainted an otherwise enjoyable jump around to Ill Niño, also the sensational scream-a-thon Finch were dishing at pre Korn.
The latter graced the stage with bass heavy whirls and the eery first strings to Falling Away From Me. It was clear from the start that Jonathon Davis was here to have a good time. You could tell that by the Cheshire Cat smile on his face throughout the set. With 4 of 5 of the original line up to enjoy, the classics sounded tighter than ever with the monstrous crowd lapping up Twist, Got The Life and the fucking awesome Good God smashing all of the highest expectations to smithereens. Though he looked happy, JD must have been feeling the heat, dipping into tour routines of Axl Rose with an oxygen tank near by to gasp in between songs. The newer songs were met with the same gusto as the old, Davis’ bagpipe bliss Shoots And Ladders melted into a clear mist that was Love And Met, with Fieldy, Munky and Head absolutely killing it. Never, Never was the perfect ending to all of the awesomeness. Korn are back in a big way.
Soil had the "check us out" spot of the day, slotted between 2 of the most loved and respected acts of the line up, and they didn’t disappoint. Breaking Me Down kept the Korn pit killing it, and their cover of Black Betty kept everyone else dancing.
In a similar vain to Filter, Rob Zombie really did disappoint. More inclined to whinge about playing in the sun, over and over again, he whined his way through usually awesome renditions of House Of 1,000 Corpses and White Zombie anthem More Human Than Human. It wasn't all doom and gloom. John 5 is immaculate on the guitar, racing round the stage and commencing the fist pumping whenever there was a lul, and the bouncing colourful balls that bounced out from backstage for Sick Bubblegum added a little light to such a dark, death obsessed artist. However, Zombie missed his cues in the standard Never Gonna Stop and by the time he got what he wanted (the sun to go down) there was only time left for Dragula, which in a way justified his annoyance. This man needs to play in the dark with a light show like that!
Over in the main arena, a lot less than a half full crowd got a jolly good rodgering of Green Day's Dookie, with Longview, When I Come Around and the still brilliant after all these years Welcome To Paradise coming back, to back, to back. One disappointment was, having a 3 hour set, you'd expect a lot more Green Day songs, however most the time they spent fucking around playing medleys of covers and talking shit with massive drum beat ridden blank spots. What you can't take away is their dedication to fans, the old invite a fan onstage to play with them, then give them the guitar they played as a gift is an oldie, but a goodie, and shooting free t-shirts from a cannon to fans in the nosebleeds made them feel more involved. Their cover of AC/DC's Highway To Hell was a welcome addition, not so much their Shout/Jessie's Girl/Always Look On The Brightside Of Life/Who Can It Be Now which went on for what seemed like forever and drove a lot of people back out the bleachers. King For A Day was truly awesome but the damage was done - after Metallica's epicness last year, there was little they could do to prove worthy headliners.
Sydney Soundwave 2014 It was an amazing day, filled with amazing performances, a lot of black, some fireworks and even a guy stuck up a tree. Kilometres run in circle pits could have tripled the laps around Australia. There was no doubt numerous sick days reported due to strained pinky and fore fingers on Monday, but god damn it was worth it.
Sydney Soundwave 2014 It was an amazing day, filled with amazing performances, a lot of black, some fireworks and even a guy stuck up a tree. Kilometres run in circle pits could have tripled the laps around Australia. There was no doubt numerous sick days reported due to strained pinky and fore fingers on Monday, but god damn it was worth it.