Live Review - Soundwave Festival

2 March, 2012 – Melbourne Showgrounds

The annual metal/punk/hardcore festival known as Soundwave marched into Melbourne in early March to devastate the young and terrify the old.  It came to intimidate the cool, give the finger to the mainstream and piss on the trends…but wait?  Heavy music seems to be cool at the moment, be a part of the mainstream and is one of the latest trends for teenagers.  Hmmmm, things are very different than they used to be in my angry, teenage heyday.  Dudes with long hair and tattoos are everywhere, not just at gigs.  Band t-shirts are everywhere.  There are even girls at the shows!  That never happened!  It is certainly a conundrum indeed, but this is the position that heavy music is in at the moment.  The aggression and occasional silliness is now listened to, and participated in, by many and has spewed out into mainstream culture.  How else can you explain this festival selling out in minutes when Big Day Out didn’t sell out after four months of tickets being on sale?  This year proved to be one of the better Soundwaves too, with a line-up that was a little more for those who enjoyed heavy music the last time it was in the mainstream (around the mid-late 1990s).  Unlike BDO, the Soundwave organisers did an outstanding job of providing adequate shelter for patrons and the food was actually ok (not as much variety as BDO, but it was alright).  So, without further a due, here’s how my day panned out.

Times of Grace (USA):  Three fifths of Killswitch Engage (Jesse Leech, Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel) played what sounded a lot like Killswitch b-sides.  Given that Leech recently rejoined Killswitch as vocalist, this project now seems a little redundant.  Were they good?  They were ok.  Leech was good, but seemed a little grateful for being there rather than being in command of the stage (unlike former KsE vocalist Howard Jones who was hilarious and powerful live).  Adam D., was reduced to hobbling around the stage in a leg-brace for unknown reasons and the crowd seemed to be rather sluggish.  It was as if the crowd was there just to check things out and see how this project performed, rather than being genuinely interested.

Steel Panther (USA):  Absolutely hilarious!  This band lived up to all the hype and expectations.  I had been wary of them because, while it’s obvious they can play and write catchy songs, it’s hard to get any real legs out of a concept that is, essentially, parody music.  Having said that, they were very good live.  Their stage show is hilarious and every bit as ridiculous as they make it out to be in their music.  They were very fun, but I can’t see them lasting very long (what parody act has lasted apart from “Weird Al” Yankovic)?

Lostprophets (Wales):  This was one of those, “I loved that album” kind of bands.  A little after high school, I really dug Lostprophets Start Something (2004).  It was one of those albums I got right into, but then never pursued any of their music before or since and let them fade into memory.  The band started out well here and ripped through a few Start Something tracks before playing stuff that I didn’t know.  When I knew the songs, I got right into it and they were great.  When I didn’t know the songs, they were boring.

Hellyeah (USA):  It was great to see the legend, Vinnie Paul (Pantera, but do I really need to point that out?!), doing his thing behind the kit.  Hellyeah, though, are essentially an average band.  They’re a bit of a Frankenstein band being made up of two parts Mudvayne, two parts Damageplan, one part Nothingface, and one part Pantera, playing the kind of southern flavoured metal that Pantera pioneered.  But it lacks the aggression, originality and good tunes that made Pantera the incredible, game changing band that they were.  They also appear a bit sloppy live.  Vinnie’s solid as a rock, but the rest of the band, particularly vocalist, Chad Gray (Mudvayne), seems more concerned with playing the part of an alcohol swilling southerner (despite being from Illinois, a very northern state) than he does the part of a good, engaging, energetic vocalist.

Meshuggah (Sweden):  The band seemed to be much more energetic than they were the previous Wednesday…possibly because they didn’t play Lethargica.  The band are legends and always will be.  The crowd, interestingly enough, seemed to be more into this set too, than the crowd at The Forum two nights earlier.  All in all, it added up to a much more engaging Meshuggah show.

Coal Chamber (USA):  The reformed late ‘90s nu-metal also-rans, Coal Chamber, played their first shows since their 2003 break-up at this festival (interestingly, they haven’t played or announced any further shows as Coal Chamber since).  They were good.  I never really got into them, but their show certainly made me want to listen to their albums and watch Halloween (1978, the band used the film’s theme as intro music).  I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a once off though, particularly as it is so far removed from the extreme metal that vocalist, Dez Fafara, spends his time making now with DevilDriver.

In Flames (Sweden):  In Flames are always surprisingly good live.  They are energetic, they have an amazing sound and always seem genuinely fond of the crowd in front of them.  Personally, I’m more a fan of a certain era (2002’s Reroute To Remain: Fourteen Songs of Conscious Insanity through to 2006’s Come Clarity) of the band and so, when they played the stuff I liked, I loved it, when they played other stuff, I didn’t love it as much.  They were still great, but the majority of their set consisted of newer material, which is fair enough, they are promoting a new album after all.

Bad Religion (USA):  The punk legends had their set cut twenty-five minutes short due to a stage malfunction, which left a large steel rod balancing precariously above the audience.  No one was injured and festival organisers should be applauded for how quickly they dealt with the issue.  Huge Bad Religion fans were obviously disappointed, but the band couldn’t really do much.  Had they continued playing and the situation became worse, they’d be all over the papers for the wrong reasons.

Limp Bizkit (USA):  This was one of the acts I was looking forward to.  It was the much derided, hate inspiring Limp Bizkit’s first Melbourne show ever.  The last time the band were in Australia, their stay was cut short due to an incident during their set at Sydney’s 2001 Big Day Out which left one fan, sixteen year old Jessica Michalik, dead.  Limp Bizkit’s set on this tour had, therefore, become a tribute to Jessica Michalik and her family.  Front man, Fred Durst gave a moving speech about the loss of a fan and how there is no way they can ever change what happened as much as they would like to.  During this speech, the band’s backdrop was changed from a cartoon sketch of the band members, to a large pink sheet with the name, “Jessica” printed on it in large white letters decorated with love hearts and butterflies.  This banner remained for the rest of their set.  The actual performance was surprisingly good.  Having never been here before, the band only played one track from their latest album, Gold Cobra (2011), opting for a greatest hits setlist instead.  The crowd loved it as the band grooved through each number with the energy and tenacity that they were known for in their late 1990s heyday.  Hate them as much as you like, but Limp Bizkit groove like no other.

Dillinger Escape Plan (USA): This was, by far, the highlight of the day.  I don’t know why, but every time Dillinger Escape Plan come out, I’m always hesitant.  I always go, but there’s a part of me, for one reason or another, holding back.  Then I watch them play and almost always declare them the greatest live band on the planet right now.  First, let me say that their sound was terrible in the shed.  All bands always sound horrible in the shed.  I don’t know why they continue to make bands play in there.  But with Dillinger Escape Plan, it doesn’t matter.  You can never, ever underestimate the band’s ability to squeeze every single once of energy out of themselves.  Their live show is every bit as manic and insane as their music.  Let me give you a few examples.  As the band began to play, vocalist Greg Puciato, walked out onto the stage, straight down the middle, jumped straight down onto the crowd barrier and began the opening song Farewell, Mona Lisa in the crowd, passing the mic around and screaming in the faces of the die-hards who were right there, screaming along with him.  At another point, guitarist, Ben Weinman walked out onto the crowd while playing his guitar.  When I say walked out, he was stepping on people’s shoulders and the people were holding him up.  He did this for a little while before launching himself, guitar and all, down into the audience to crowd surf back to the stage…all while continuing to play.  Ladies and gentlemen, add Dillinger Escape Plan to your “Bands I Must See Before I Die” list now!

Slipknot (USA):  Slipknot are always great live and this was no different.  How can you not be great live when your band consists of nine lunatics dressed in demented monster masks and boiler suits while pyro is going off everywhere around you?  What was interesting was that the band appeared to play with their new/fill in bass player off stage.  I could be wrong, I didn’t have the best view, but it appeared that the band’s way of making a transition to an era without recently departed bassist, Paul Gray, was to have their new bass player (and former guitarist), Donnie Steele, play off stage.  It was an interesting move, but a totally understandable one given Gray’s untimely death last year.

The Devin Townsend Project (Canada):  The king of all nerds performed a set consisting mostly of his ‘Project’ material.  While this material isn’t his best work, he’s still an amazing performer.  The Ziltoid animations were hilarious and Townsend’s strange command of a crowd was as strong as ever.  He has one of the best voices in metal and continues to be metal’s mad genius.  Set closer, Bad Devil, from his 1998 album, Infinity, was a particular highlight.

Angels & Airwaves:  I chose to see these guys play because my other choices were System Of A Down, who I’ve seen before and am not really a fan of, and Machine Head, who are incredible live, but I’ve seen them a lot.  So, I opted to try something new.  I’m not really familiar with A&A’s music but they were fairly good live.  Had I known their music, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more.  To the untuned ear, the songs all seemed to sound very similar and for the entirety of the performance, the band was backlit so you could not see their faces.  This may have been because of the “the message is bigger than us” mentality that the band seemed to have.  Having said that, I’d much rather listen to A&A than front man, Tom DeLonge’s other, better known band, Blink-182.