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Emeritus
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Last Active 11-16-18 8:49 am
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| DaveyBoy's Soundwave Festival 2011
March-4 2011, marked the 3rd time that Mrs. Boy & I have attended the Melbourne leg of the annual SoundWave Festival, and just like the previous 2 years, it was a fantastic day which provided tremendous value for money. For the first time I can remember for an Australian summer festival, the weather was actually quite cool, with even a mid-afternoon shower eventuating. The always fun train ride to the Showgrounds progressed smoothly, as did entry & the usually hectic morning merchandise purchases. As many of the larger bands playing on the main stages this year were metal acts, I found myself at the smaller indoor stages for most of the day, and no more than 10 people deep from the stage. Overall, it was another great day with practically nothing to complain about. These are the bands I saw in the order they played: | | 1 | Veara
The Georgian quartet were almost the perfect start to the day, since they were short, sharp & energetic. With hardly a wasted moment, Veara kicked immediately into gear & didn't let up until their half hour set was over. For an opening act, the crowd were livelier than expected, and it seemed to be appreciated by the band who responded with a solid performance of their heavy - but very catchy - pop punk (try not singing along to 'My B Side Life'). The lead singer actually reminded me a little of Tom DeLonge in looks, but with a better voice. | | 2 | Bayside
We caught a couple of songs from The Staring Line, who seemed to be enjoying their time back on the road, before seeing another band that we had caught at the Sidewave 3 days earlier; Bayside. Since Breathe Carolina had just finished their set with a "We don?t give a f**k" chant, Anthony Raneri introduced his band as "We are Bayside & we do give a f**k". As always, the NYC quartet were simply phenomenal live with guitarist Jack O'Shea once more showing off his axe-wielding skills. A real bonus for us was that they played 'Masterpiece' & 'Carry On', 2 tracks which were skipped at the Sidewave. | | 3 | Anberlin
With the metal stage switched outdoors this year, I was initially a little worried about the acoustics at the indoor stage at which Anberlin (& later The Gaslight Anthem) would play at, but there were no concerns to be had at all. The Floridians drew a larger crowd than I had expected & gave another excellent performance that concentrated heavily on their rockers (with 'Godspeed' & 'The Feel Good Drag' being the highlights). Seeing them here now actually means that Anberlin is the band I have seen live the most! Today, I'd rank them as the 3rd best of the day. | | 4 | We The Kings
Speaking of larger than expected crowds, it seems the incomprehensible charting of 'Check Yes Juliet' in Australia 3 years after it was originally released brought out all the teenage girls for We The Kings. Their set was predictably high on catchiness and had most singing along to every word. To give them credit, their performance was really solid and despite his continual reference to it being "evening" when it was in fact 2pm, front-man Travis Clark worked the crowd very well. He even played a song acoustically, which is not always the norm for such a band playing a festival set. | | 5 | Dommin
At what was quite easily the smallest crowd we saw all day (there would have been no more than 200 there), watching LA goth-rockers Dommin play was a comfortable experience. Those that bet $1 that the 4 members would be all clad in black, may collect their $1.01 now, while Kristofer's chin-long fringe was in full effect. Musically, they were pretty sharp, with the keys appropriately clanging loudly in the mix. Kris's vocals were a little inconsistent as he seems to often get far too close to the mic, while the Nirvana medley they performed was simply misguided. | | 6 | There For Tomorrow
Following a half hour lunch break where we caught a glimpse of I See Stars (who still look as if they're all 15), I was looking forward to watching There For Tomorrow as I thought they could be the real wild-card of the day. As it turned out, they were good, but nothing more than that. Playing 2 new songs may not have helped, and you can see the potential in these guys, but it just didn't all come together on the day. It's difficult to put my finger on why, but it seemed as if they played it all a little safe. 'Pages' sounded excellent though. | | 7 | 30 Seconds to Mars
I was planning on seeing Sum 41 at this time, but Deryck contracted pneumonia & they couldn't play, so I had to put up with Jared Leto & his fabulous blue jacket on the main stage. During their headlining show I saw last year, his shtick came off as crowd-pleasing entertainment. Today, most of it came off as lazy. He literally sang about half the words to each song. Even guitarist Tomo looked disinterested. Most of the crowd ate it up though & it was a genuine surprise to see so many other bands side of stage. Bring Me The Horizon's Oli Sykes looked such a pleasant little man standing there singing along to "The Kill". | | 8 | Slash
The legendary guitarist was up next with his band, which included AlterBridge vocalist Myles Kennedy. Slash's set contains many highs & many lows, and I bet you can all guess which songs fall into which category. I think only one track from his solo self-titled LP got a good reaction, while even lesser-known Gunners songs went over well. Played 3rd last, 'Sweet Child O Mine' simply went off, as did one ladies top for most of the song. And set closer 'Paradise City' was a sing-along of massive proportions. Being picky, Slash should move around the stage a little more since most people were there to
see him & not his band. Still, it was a pleasure to see him strut his stuff. | | 9 | Foxy Shazam
As there was a 10 minute overlap between Slash's set & Foxy Shazam's, I rushed over hoping to not miss much of the crazy sextet from Cincinnati. When I first caught sight of the band, front-man Eric could be heard, but not seen. Then 2 legs appeared from nowhere. Apparently he decided to sing while doing a headstand. Then keyboard player Sky started climbing underneath his instrument. Seriously, it was mass pandemonium as cartwheels, somersaults, crazy stories & cigarette eating ensued! Oh & all the while, some great music was played too, although it was often difficult to take it all in. Relying mainly on their newer tracks, those which showcased Sky's keys & Alex Nauth's trumpet playing, fared best. Extremely entertaining. | | 10 | QOTSA / Rob Zombie / The Maine
With an hour or so spare & some further food needed, we decided to do the rounds & catch a few songs from a number of bands. First up were Queens of the Stone Age on the main stage, and while I am not as big a fan of their desert rock as people would expect, you could tell they were playing tightly. Next up was Rob Zombie, more for the light show than anything else. The big fella seemed to be having fun running all over the stage, while his fans lapped it all up. And then it was The Maine, but unfortunately most of what we saw was the band bringing some girl up on stage to help them sing 'Girls Do What They Want'. That says it all really. | | 11 | The Blackout
Having been surprisingly impressed by the Welsh post-hardcore sextet last year, I was once more looking forward to catch up with The Blackout's live show. And it seems the guys just keep getting better, both from a musical & entertainment perspective. It took all of 2 minutes for Sean Smith to head into the crowd & drag his mic cord as far as it could go, while later in the set he had a hilarious one-sided conversation with fans waiting for Mayday Parade on the opposite stage. Smith has also continued to improve his singing, as he & Gavin Butler duelled away, allowing the others to concentrate on the music. 'Save Our Selves' & 'I'm A Riot...' were highlights, while a new song sounded extremely tasty. 2nd best act of the day! | | 12 | Mayday Parade
I just realized how many acts from Florida were at this festival. Anyway, Mayday Parade were ok, without setting the world on fire. They surprised me by playing more songs from their earlier releases (not necessarily a bad thing) rather than 'Anywhere But Here', with both the drummer & bass player failing to fill Jason Lancaster's shoes. Most disappointingly, there was no 'Miserable At Best' & for some unknown reason there was no 'Get Up' either. And the most annoying thing about this band live is the f'n ridiculous constant swinging of their guitars. They'd be better off concentrating on putting together a few chords me thinks. | | 13 | The Gaslight Anthem
And so to our final - and best - act of the day; The Gaslight Anthem. I was skeptical about their live show since I have heard mixed feedback, but they impressed the hell out of me. And I'm not even certain I can properly explain why. Despite the rather large audience, it just felt really personal & intimate. Before a guitar had even been strummed, Brian sincerely dedicated the set to a local venue they had previously played at and was soon closing down. From there, the band was all business, yet also looked to be having fun with smiles planted on their faces between songs. Everything was spot on musically, but most impressive were the tones of the guitars, lending some of the slower tracks extra character. Brian also sounded great, although for the more casual listener it would have been nice if he was a mixed a little higher for those all important lyrics. It is only personal preference which makes me choose 'Great Expectations' as the set's highlight. Simply awesome & I can't wait to see them perform a longer set. | |
DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | So yeah, it was a great day.
Now you can all ask why I didn't see Maiden, Slayer, Primus, The Bronx, Stone Sour, BMtH, Sevendust, Protest The Hero, BFMV, Pennywise, etc... | AtavanHalen
03.11.11 | Wow, a festival. Looks like you're done with live music for the rest of the year. | WhiteNoise
03.11.11 | Fanatstic day! Every thing about it was fun.
I managed to catch mxpx/ataris(was forced to go), Gang of Four, Social D, Slash, little bit of Primus,One day as a lion, QOTSA, First half of maiden and Gaslight Anthem. | cvlts
03.11.11 | i dunno, sounds kinda shitty tbh. but like i said, headwalkin mang | Tyrael
03.11.11 | Why didn't you see Maiden, Slayer and PtH? | DDconjoined
03.11.11 | i was there too. but unless we exchanged sweat at Zombie then I''m afraid it was never meant to be... Dimmu Borgir, Devildriver, Maiden,. Kylesa, Zombie, Slash, Slayer.. sorry, but i would be your nightmare | InFiction
03.11.11 | Would've loved to see Foxy. | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Hello DavID.
Glad you enjoyed it Croc. Care to try to explain in words why Gaslight were so good.
Eric from Foxy is the one & only headwalker.
Thomas, I got lost looking for their stages. It was a real shame.
I'm already scared of you DDconjoined. Just talking to some bloke while looking over Zombie, he said the metal stage had some technical problems for most fo the day. Can you confirm or deny?
InFiction, I really want to see Foxy again just so I can take it all in. At times, I almost forgot they were playing music. Then a trumpet blow would alert me to it. | Puzzles
03.11.11 | Awesome list Davey, I was going to do one too but at the time I was so over it. I had school starting the next day as well haha. My favorites of the day were Slayer, QOTSA and The Gaslight Anthem, but then again I only got there at two. I also saw a few other bands including Maiden, who I found to be surprisingly boring, so I can understand why you didn't see them. | Tyrael
03.11.11 | Aw that's a shame Davey...
Omg Dimmu Borgir was playing there? They never come to Belgium, bastards! | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Thanks Puzzles. I was pretty much buggered for the entire weekend. I know Gaslight played early in other states, but they actually played last down here in Melbourne, so I couldn't see Maiden anyway.
Oh & stay tuned folks, some time over the weekend, I'll give you all what you want!!! | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Thomas, the lineup was huge. If you want to have a look over all the bands, here they are: http://www.soundwavefestival.com/lineup
| Tyrael
03.11.11 | Cool stuff Davey, the best festival we have here (except for Rock Werchter which is a sucky festival
but they have Iron Maiden this year) is http://www.graspop.be/2010/nl/index.html | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | I did andcas. Relatively comfortable & lots of choice. That's the 2 keys to a great festival.
That festival looks a bit too metal for me Thomas. Although, I wouldn't mind The Scorpions touring down under. | Tyrael
03.11.11 | http://www.rockwerchter.be/en/lineup/index.aspx is a really famous festival but I never understood why... | Puzzles
03.11.11 | Oh wow, Gaslight would have been awesome to see last. They played at about 2:20 in Brisbane which is indeed a bit shitty, but oh well. | HBFS
03.11.11 | Great day. Especially when the guy in the wheelchair got up onto the stage for QOTSA and started swigging Josh's vodka ;) | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Thomas, that festival is a bit like our 'Big Day Out' in trying to cater for literally everyone. But they usually spread themselves too thin across the board.
andcas, I mentioned the weather in the intro.
Puzzles, I wouldn't be surprised if Gaslight was more motivated/inspired because they were on last. It must makea difference when you're always used to playing at night.
Shhhh HBFS. But yeah, that was cool. Glad you enjoyed it. Who were your highlights? | DDconjoined
03.11.11 | yeah there were a few technical issues man, but at a festival of that magnitude and 12-13 beers, it still sounded very good. glad u had a great time man, I did too and can''t wait until next Year!!
| DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | No probs andcas. I usually write too much, so don't blame anyone for not reading all of my crap.
LOL DDconjoined. I wandered past a conversation at about 4'ish. One guy asked another which bands he'd seen. The reply was "None yet, I've been in the bar all day". Gee, I hope that wasn't you! ;-) | DDconjoined
03.11.11 | haha no i saw my $ worth.. | HBFS
03.11.11 | Protest the Hero, Anberlin, Gang of Four, Coheed and Cambria, Gaslight Anthem and QOTSA/Primus were all great. Veara were quite average, as were Every Avenue and The Starting Line. I watched a little bit of 30STM and I heard somewhere that he had been sick or something like that, so if that was true, it's probably why it might have felt a bit 'lazy' to you.
Seems like you were quite disappointed with Mayday? | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Man, that's quite a diverse range right there HBFS. Good stuff. I dunno, I thought Veara wer good for what they were. It's always tricky playing that opening slot I reckon.
Didn't hear that about Jared, but I'm not sure I believe it anyway. He did something relatively similar when I saw them headline last year.
I just had a re-read over what I wrote about Mayday Parade & it does come over as negative. They weren't awful, but I guess I was a little disappointed. As you can probably tell from my review of their acoustic EP, I have yet to write them off... I just think they are still capable of better. Swinging guitars all over the place won't get it done. | DoubtGin
03.11.11 | Primus, The Bronx | HBFS
03.11.11 | Yeah, fair enough. They are definitely capable of better, and you're probably just missing Jason singing after listening to Go Radio lately. ;) Veara weren't too bad, I think the sound was a little off, though. They will get better with experience, I guess.
| DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Got lost finding those stages too DoubtGin. Place was a maze, I tells ya.
Yeah HBFS, the fact that Mayday released an acoustic EP the week after Go radio's LP probably wasn't best for anyone. And that's sort of what I meant with Veara, as there are usually a few hiccups first up. They only had 1 album to play with also. And I saw the bass player on crutches afterwards. Finally, their drummer plays like a girl! :-) | DoubtGin
03.11.11 | Those two are probably the ones I'd like to see the most, but it doesn't really matter, since most of the bands on here (although I don't know about a lot of them) seem to have played well.
Also, I've always wanted to see Foxy Shazam because of their stage presence/performance and I'm glad they were enjoyable. | Knott-
03.11.11 | I'll say it again: fuck The Blackout. | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Well, that's the great thing about the lineup this festival had this year; There was literally something for everyone.
And I do recommend seeing Foxy. Believe it or not, at their Sydney Sideshow, they supported The Gaslight Anthem. What a strange - but satisfying - combination!
And I'll say it again Adam: "Woh, woh, woh, woh, woh". | CrackTheSkye
03.11.11 | Trash Talk, The Bronx, Polar Bear Club & The Gaslight Anthem were my favourites in Brisbane. The Gaslight Anthem’s sideshow in Sydney is the best show I have seen a band put on. | Knott-
03.11.11 | Hey Davey,
Was that an Area 15 song you were just singing? | Captain North
03.11.11 | Yep. Glad I didn't go. | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Ooh, CTS did some traveling. If it was Gaslight & Foxy in Melbourne, I would have been there in a flash. Gaslight supported Social Distortion here. I saw somewhere that quite a few left after Gaslight finished.
Who Adam?
Tom, with such a huge range of acts, if you couldn't find anything to like at this festival, then you're a very hard man to please... Or an indie hipster. | NorwichScene
03.11.11 | There for Tomorrow are so good live | Knott-
03.11.11 | The band that The Blackout plagiarised the shit out of. | Sowing
03.11.11 | still haven't seen anberlin live; i'd really like to | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Wow, the last band I expected to be defended was There For Tomorrow. They were ok on the day, but I wanted better. I really think those guys have some genuine potential.
Alley oop pass to Adam & he slam dunks. (I thought I better use a basketball analogy just in case Bangladesh beat England in the cricket today)
Come on SS, get to it. They'll be old men soon. | Captain North
03.11.11 | I would have gone for Protest the Hero mainly, and The Bronx and Trash Talk...thats about it. It's weird, theres bands from all the genres I like pretty much...just not the bands I like. | Baphomet
03.11.11 | Ha! You didn't get a feture this time!
And honestly no band here catches my interest. | DaveyBoy
03.11.11 | Who knows Tom, most of those bands were on the same stage, so if you just stuck around that stage, you may have discovered someone new that you liked. That can happen sometimes, when a band will win you over playing live, rather than on record.
Be quiet Baph. I have a grand plan in place. | Captain North
03.11.11 | Oh, and Anberlin but I've seen them before. The lead singer reminds me so much of Mr G from Summer Heights High. | Baphomet
03.11.11 | Color me interested. | SHAKEandBAKE
03.11.11 | I always enjoy reading your concert write-ups Daveyboy. Gaslight were spot-on when I saw them as well. | SHAKEandBAKE
03.11.11 | Also, "We are Bayside & we do give a f**k"
Hahah gotta love Bayside. | SHAKEandBAKE
03.11.11 | "soundWAVE? did you have something to do with Japan?"
lame joke | WhiteNoise
03.11.11 | " Care to try to explain in words why Gaslight were so good."
I'm going to sound pretencious but from what I saw of Maiden (my fav metal band) It just started to seem a little sad seeing a bunch of old men struggle through a two hour set and it didn't help that the crowd didn't know any of the newer songs. Gaslight was a young up and coming band playing to an intimate room of hardcore fans singing every word at the top of their lungs and it was obvious the band was having fun themselves.
Social D still stole the day since I was front row :D | AtavanHalen
03.12.11 | Things I learned at Soundwave:
1. Rob Zombie is vermin.
2. Fucked fucking Up will fucking tear the fucking fuck out of your fucking shit and then fucking make you fucking eat your fucking shit so you can fucking shit out your fucking shit and fucking eat your fucking shit again. | HBFS
03.12.11 | Captain North, Summer Heights High was filmed at my school, haha. | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | Thanks SHAKEandBAKE. I loved that comment from Anthony. Especially since the 2 minutes I heard of Breathe Carolina were absolutely awful.
Well put on Gaslight Croc,, although I obviously can't comment on Maiden. It just seemed like a celebration of sorts, didn't it?
"Rob Zombie is vermin"? He didn't knock back an interview, did he DavID? | AtavanHalen
03.12.11 | He went nearly twenty minutes over his allocated time, so Melvins, The Bronx and Fucked Up all had to cut their sets short. | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | The bastard. Maybe the saem thing that happened in Melbourne with the metal stage also happened in Sydney. Down here, he began around 10-15 minutes late due to technical difficulties on that stage. Like I said earlier, someone told us it was happening all day. Apparently Dimmu Borgir was worst effected. | AtavanHalen
03.12.11 | Maybe if he didn't have fucking giant screens and a little platform to stand on he'd get the fucking job done quicker. Fuck that washed-up cunt. | gabethepiratesquid
03.12.11 | EW oh my god you actually saw Dommin? I saw them at Warped because I didn't know who they were and oh god it was awful | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | Haha. Hey DavID. This guy named Edge tells me Rob is "Never Gonna Stop".
Poor Dommin. They sure do get a lot of hate. I forgot to mention they gave out the odd red rose! | gabethepiratesquid
03.12.11 | 1-3, 9, and 12-13 are awesome, though, you lucky shit. | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | That's the thing with these festivals... You only need about half the acts to be really good & you've more than had a great day. Anything else is a bonus. | Aids
03.12.11 | holy mother of God, I love a good DaveyBoy list | Aids
03.12.11 | "Mrs. Boy"
lol every time | Samshine
03.12.11 | /jealous | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | My lists come few & far between Aids, so yes, even the mother of God likes them... Or so I hear.
Don't be jealous Samshine, just get on down to whetever similar festoval heads to your parts next. | WhiteNoise
03.12.11 | "It just seemed like a celebration of sorts, didn't it?"
It sure did every single person was there for Gaslight and it was just so plain happy haha. | DaveyBoy
03.12.11 | As silly as the word sounds in that context, "happy" is actually appropriate Croc. Well said.
Now to get them back here for a proper headlining tour ASAP. | TheyTookErrJobs
03.12.11 | Oh man, i didn't see a single band you saw.
You should have stayed after Bayside and seen This Town Needs Guns | Fugue
03.12.11 | Cool festival, I'm just about getting into The Gaslight Enthem but I'm not overblown with what I've heard thus far (American Slang) but I just got The '59 Sound so hopefully I'll appreciate that one more. | Baphomet
03.12.11 | You got featured.
Shocked. | DaveyBoy
03.13.11 | TTEJ, it's almost as if I went in the opposite direction of the crowds. TTNG did intrigue me & I saw one of their songs & was further intrigues.
Rosco, get ready to start singing along to 'Great Expectations'. F**k, I love that song.
Baph, it's easy to get featured when you can feature youself. LOL.
Stay tuned folks, I'm about to take you all on a trip around Australia! It will be so METALLLLLLLL! (insert mysterious theme music here) | Baphomet
03.13.11 | You of all people should know that was sarcasm.
But I'm intrigued about that metal trip around Australia with a theme song of my choice. | DaveyBoy
03.14.11 | Baph, everything you say is sarcasm. Hopefully you have seen my blog post by now. | Urinetrouble
03.15.11 | i gotta ask to whoever went, how were One Day As A Lion & Primus? | DaveyBoy
03.15.11 | I second that question. I saw half a song from each. Claypool was babbling away a bit too strangely for my liking, while Zach looked passionate but the songs werent really getting a great crowd reaction. | Urinetrouble
03.15.11 | that sucks. ugh i hope rage's new album does come out this summer | DaveyBoy
03.16.11 | Yeah, most were in the nearby bar at the time... In my case, it was at the weirdest outdoor urinals I have ever seen. | Urinetrouble
03.16.11 | man i wish i could go to soundwave- i can only afford tickets to download, which looks mostly like shit this year. Rage were awesome at DL last year | Transient
03.16.11 | This Town Needs Guns played to less than 40 people in Perth. It was pretty awesome but also a little bit sad :(. Coheed were SO FUCKING GOOD as well, can't emphasize enough that they destroyed every other band on the day, even ones that I liked more like The Gaslight Anthem, Protest and Polar Bear Club (who were all great). Claudio is legendary live. | DaveyBoy
03.16.11 | It will be interesting if we do get that RATM album that you are eagerly anticipating UT.
Sounds like you had a great day as well Transient. Good to hear. I saw a part of a song for This Town Needs Guns & they also had a small crowd in Melbourne (I'd guess about 100, maybe a little more). I didn't come across Coheed in my travels though. | Urinetrouble
03.16.11 | It will be interesting indeed.....gonna go see lightning bolt for the 3rd time when they drop by here april 6th | DaveyBoy
03.16.11 | Is it bad if I have no idea who Lightning Bolt are? Or are they metal, which automatically explains my ignorance? | Urinetrouble
03.16.11 | They're like a noise rock band for hipsters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQRt5E-JJfg | DaveyBoy
03.17.11 | My ears hurt. | bailar14
03.19.11 | excellente mi amor | DaveyBoy
03.19.11 | Unfortunately, Enrique was not invited to this festival for some reason. |
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