All the way back in 2011, I posted a blog titled ‘Maiden, Slash, Slayer & QOTSA Soundwavin’ Around Oz’ that included amateur video of five acts that toured around Australia with the rock, punk and metal festival that is Soundwave. Since then, I have decided to only post lists detailing my experiences at the annual extravaganza, but all that’s about to change in a big way. With 2015’s event being held over two separate days, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to return to the blog and allow all of you to see some live footage of a diverse range of bands. And since I personally saw 10 bands on the day that I attended, then you also get to see 10 bands… TWICE OVER! This week will include the first batch of ten from Day-1 and next week I’ll be back with 10 more from Day-2. How’s that for value!?

Before we begin, a disclaimer must first be aired for legal purposes: SputnikMusic shall take no responsibility for any motion sickness caused by unsteady hand-held cameras used in the making of the following videos. The same goes for deafness caused by varying volume levels, seizures caused by blinking lights, and blindness caused by the brightness of security vests.

And just in case you were thinking that the line-up for Day-1 looks a little thin, then please take into account that the following list of videos excludes the likes of Lamb of God, New Found Glory, Incubus, Atreyu, Fear Factory, Dragonforce, Bayside, Godflesh, Fireworks and The Aquabats just to name another 10 who played on this particular day. In fact, the order of what you are about to view, roughly coincides with each band’s actual set time.

First up at high noon on the Metal stage was Australia’s own King Parrot. The thrashy grindcore band are seen here playing ‘The Stench of Hardcore Pub Trash’ in sunny Brisbane:

Next up, it’s over to Sydney’s main stage for English alt-rockers Lower Than Atlantis, for their 2014 tune ‘Ain’t No Friend’:

Down to Melbourne we head next for another Aussie band; progressive metal titans Ne Obliviscaris. Here they are playing ‘Pyrrhic’ from last year’s Sputnik favourite ‘Citadel’:

You know what always goes down well at a festival? A cover version. Here we have the horror metal super-group of sorts that is Terror Universal, gracing Brisbane with their cover of Rob Zombie’s ‘Superbeast’:

You can’t go too hard moshing all day, so how about we bring the pace and intensity down a little for a mid-afternoon break courtesy of Mr. MCR himself Gerard Way. Here he is playing ‘Brother’ on Sydney’s main stage:

You also can’t forget to have some fun when you’re at a music festival, and who better to have some fun with than everyone’s favourite glam-metal outfit Steel Panther. They are such nice guys that they even invite some of their Melbourne fans up on stage with them… But only female ones, of course! I guess that I should put up some sort of parental advisory warning here:

Is it actually possible to have a rock festival that does not include Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala? First it was At the Drive-In, then it was The Mars Volta, and now it’s Antemasque. Just to prove that Adelaide did actually exist on this tour, here is ‘I Got No Remorse’ from that lovely city:

One of the surprise drawcards (at least to me) of this year’s Soundwave was industrial metal veterans Ministry. Let the sirens sound for ‘N.W.O. (New World Order):

Back to the main stage we go for the two headline acts of Day-1. First up we have Soundgarden, who gave their longtime fans in Melbourne something a little different during their 90 minute set by playing the rarely heard ‘Birth Ritual’. As frontman Chris Cornell explains, this tune was scrapped from third LP ‘Badmotorfinger’ to be included on the soundtrack of the film ‘Singles’:

And finally, we close the night with the Reverend Mike Patton, Faith No More and an absolute shitload of flowers. The band actually mixed up their 3 song encore from state to state, with Melbourne receiving new song ‘Matador’, The Bee Gees cover ‘I Started A Joke’ and early favourite ‘As The Worm Turns’:

Ok, so there’s Day-1 done and dusted. I hope you enjoyed it… But we’re only half way there folks. Next week, I will give you even more nausea-causing videos from the likes of Slipknot, Slash and Judas f’n Priest. On top of that, I’ll show you when everyone’s wishes came true and a storm wreaked havoc on All Time Low. And as an extra special (kind of) exclusive, I will be presenting the very moment that the (Puciato, Cavalera, Sanders & Elitch) supergroup Killer Be Killed made their worldwide live debut in my hometown of Melbourne.

Until then, rock on Sputnikers… And don’t forget to check out Wednesday’s ‘Sputnik Discusses’ column, whose topic could very well be linked to this blog…..