My big day at Soundwave

Here's my blow by blow account of my day at the Soundwave festival Melbourne at the Flemington Showgrounds 1/3/13. A lot of my 'reviews'/on the stop observations are fairly instantaneous. I've also added some of my own videos to give a taster of what went down.

My Soundwave 2013

11:05 A.M - In early doors, anxious and excited crowd held up like cattle at the main gates by secruity. A long day of rock n' roll ahead of me

Redfang – A Down/Isis/Melvins/Mastodon/Sabbath vibe. Good swinging stoner rock metal grooves. A nice little surprise find [8/10]

11:20 A.M. – First pass out of the day / Cop: ‘Shitfaced already?!’

One wise sage: ‘An Indian so close to a Mexican there’s going to be a lot of people needing to take a shit after!’

Fozzy – All muscles with a teenage girls voice to boot. Best stick to the wrestling Jericho. Only had time for two songs, No rating [-]

The Blackout – Hyped up emo. A poor man’s Lost Prophets. One of them had pink hair so I instantly dismissed them. [-]

Anthrax – Excellent the crowd less so, lethargic at best. Belladonna a real showman donned a pair of sunnies thrown up great crowd interaction. Finally got the early crowd moving with a raucous cover of T.N.T. by AC/DC [8/10]

Stone Sour – Powerful thanks in no part to the main man/sideshow himself Corey Taylor. Numerous water breaks from Taylor who seems to suffering as much from the heat as the punters. If they continue on their current upward trajectory I have no doubt that they one day will rise to that of festival headliners. [8.5/10]

Very few neck tattoos so far..

The Vandals – Looked old. A mix of old school punk rock along the lines of Dropkicks and Flogging Molly. Token joke punk band [4/10]

Dragonforce – Packed tent, great cult band a real assault on the senses. I presumed they peaked years ago in terms of interest not so today large amount of young people in attendance. A lot of disciples of the riff and solo on today’s showing. They run the fine line between a parody and an actual kick ass hard rock/power metal rock group. Fantasy lyrics that would make the late Ronnie James Dio blush. The insane high pitched solos aren't doing my headache any favours leave before it gets any worse. [7/10]

The Gallows – Good but confused though the lead singer was a ginge. A bit shouty, tent warm to the point of uncomfortable. [-]

Sun screen all round

Billy Talent: Didn’t watch a lot of them all starting to sound the same now. Guitarist has a cool haircut

Wearing earplugs to a hard rock/metal festival. Seems a little at odds with the true essence of what is a hard rock/metal festival. Not too many pda’s so far. [-]

Kyuss Lives – Didn’t really pay attention as I was on the way to Slayer seemed decent enough though. [-]

Slayer - The kind of music to trash your room (and everything within striking distance) to. A band that never made sense to me on cd or video/dvd, make a whole lot of sense live. Feel for drummer having to drum with both Anthrax and Slayer in the one day a couple of hours apart. Gary Holt gives them a new element live, lively guitarist for a traditionally po faced band. Is it possible that Kerry King is too metal? KK not a bit happy with his guitar failing him during Seasons in the Abyss, I chortled. Amp Stack fell over during their set. This pretty much summed up their set as a whole, fucking intense! [8.5/10]

First festival I’ve been to were people are actually get wet from water being sprayed on them by the festival security rather than from the fucking sky.

A Perfect Circle – Good if a bit boring. Maynard in a ridiculous ensemble a pair of tracksuit bottoms with the top to match along with a long ginger wig. Personally love APC but I feel they're better as a standalone act rather than a festival one. A bizarre (musical) comedown after Slayer. [6/10]

Sum 41 – Nostalgic trip, their pretty much the same band from my youth (minus Brownsound of course). Whiliby looking fucking shook face seems really swelled and bloated.  [8/10]

Bullet For My Valentine – Lively very slick amazing sound, new stuff too poppy. Too much new stuff played. But all in all a ripping set. [8/10]

On my way to see Blink I managed to get a picture of Duff McKagan, which in turn makes me a happy man. The ratio of gobshites has been low, maybe it’s because I’m sober for the first time at a festival. However I do notice an increasing amount of idiots trying to run around and push their way through the crowds which is mildly idiotic.

Blink-182 – Another nostalgia trip. Pity Travis Barker isn’t in tow but stand in drummer pretty good. No sign of them matures much as the gags and innuendos flow freely between songs. Hugh Jackman seems to become a recurring theme. Slightly disappointed with their set, it seemed they weren’t all that interested. [6/10]

Linkin Park – Start of strong with a few old numbers that really get the crowd in the mood. Then they make the error of playing some new stuff which along with myself seems to alienate/disinterest half the crowd. Problem with LP is that (their new stuff especially) is boring, extremely polished and mainstream. For lack of a better word it’s too ‘safe’ there's no raw dangerous edge of rock and roll. Old Stuff & General show [8/10]

New Stuff [2/10]

My legs finally give out halfway through LP’S set and I have a sit down. I then strategically move across to get a position for Metallica.

Metallica – There’s no point in me even writing a review of Metallica as it would be too biased. Not even the disappointment of my camera going dead in the first few minutes of their set could dampen my mood. The whole mood of their show for me was summed up by the guy who was alongside me. You could tell he wasn’t a fan as he didn’t sing a word of any song, but that didn’t stop him from wearing a  shit eating impressed grin all through the set. And that for me is the essence of Metallica, they make you feel free of all worries for a couple of hours, they make you and everyone else feel like lucky little kids in their favorite sweet shop. It’s not just about the music it’s about the whole show, the pyro, the in between song banter, the crowd interaction. It was my 6^th time seeing them and quite easily their best show for me, a perfect end to a balls out rocking day [10/10].

All in all a brilliant day, not only the music but the general atmosphere and good vibes [helped no end by the amazing weather]. Plus I finally managed to get to see bands like Anthrax, APC, Blink, BFMV, Dragonforce, Sum 41, Slayer etc.  Minus a mild sunburn, a sore throat and some weary limb my first rock/metal festival in Oz was a roaring success, tip of the hat to the Soundwave organizers and planners for an amazing day. I look forward to doing it all again in the future . \m/