Sydney and Melbourne Soundwave 2014 -- Festival Reviews
Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 12:01AM It’s been a week since I got back from my best ever Soundwave. I spent an entire week away from home, and attended the Sydney and Melbourne Soundwaves, with a different Sidewave ( side show ) every night between. What follows is a combined review of all six days.
Sydney Soundwave takes place on the show grounds (fair grounds for those in the USA). Thankfully, there’s a hotel right by the grounds (although their price doubles for Soundwave). So, my daughter Hannah and I spent the night within walking distance and wandered over in the morning.
There are only three bands I saw at both the Sydney and Melbourne Soundwave, and only two I saw three times, including a sidewave. The first band of the bill is one of those two bands. Amon Amarth are Viking death metal and a WHOLE lot of fun. We ran to the barrier to see them with their songs of Thor, and their smoke breathing Viking ship. They were a lot of fun and a great way to start the day.
From there I headed for the main stage. I love Alter Bridge, their Fortress album was in my top albums for 2013 for sure. I got there early ( hearing a bit of Biffy Clyro on the way ) and was close to the front. They were good, as they always are, I just wish they’d done more than two new songs.
The next act on the main stage was Ritche Sambora, with Orianthi. For those who don’t know, she was going to play guitar for Michael Jackson on his ‘This is it’ tour. I assume you know who Ritchie is.
It was *awful*. They were a late add to the festival and it sounded like they’d only practised once or twice. They did do a couple of Bon Jovi songs ( but not well ) and a good number of Ritchie’s solo songs ( I do own the CDs and like them ), as well as random covers ( Don’t Change, for example, which is VERY early INXS, and was topical b/c of a TV special on the band, but hardly what I wanted to hear from these guys ). We left, disappointed.
Up next was the other band I saw three times over the festival, and my favourite band of the week, Volbeat. If you don’t know these guys, you need to check them out, they mix Elvis, Johnny Cash, and metal. It’s a great combination and they do it well. For those who don’t know, Rob from Anthrax was going to produce their latest CD, and ended up joining the band. They put on a great show and sounded brilliant. I did get to the barrier for them, too.
We didn’t stay for the end because we ran across the grounds to catch Black Veil Brides. I’ve seen these guys before and loved them, but Hannah had not, so they were high on the list. Of course, a lot of people love to hate these guys. Sadly, I think they are trying to change to be more fashionable. Pretty much all the songs I heard, Andy was growling a lot more than he was singing. It really did kill it, for me, and I left.
That gave me the time to race over and catch the end of the band that I was most disappointed to miss during the festival, namely Clutch. I saw 2-3 songs and they were as great as they always are. But, what was better was, I saw Rob and Michael from Volbeat watching from the side. I threw the horns to Rob and he responded, then Michael came down and was signing stuff, I shook his hand and got a photo of the top of his head ( I’m not much of a photographer ).
Next up in that tent was Skindred ( the only other band I saw at both soundwaves ). They are a mix of reggae and metal and they were brilliant, the singer is really funny and they were definitely my great discovery of the year.
Next I high tailed it back to the smallest stage ( where I saw BVB ) in order to catch Walking Papers. These guys are Duff from GnR and a couple of guys from Screaming Trees I believe, and one other. Guitar/organ/bass/drums. The music is very laid back and atmospheric. I discovered it because I bought the CD while in the USA at a Best Buy, and I’ve listened to it a lot. I got there early to make sure I was right in the front, and as a result, I got to see BossHoss, a cover band that does country versions of songs like ‘Eyes without a Face’ , ‘Word Up’ and ‘Toxic’. They were brilliant, I loved them. I got online at the barrier to buy their CDs.
Walking Papers were everything I’d hoped for, and more. They should have been on a bigger stage for sure, but the crowd who showed up for them clearly loved it.
From there I headed back to another smaller stage to see H.I.M. I’ve kind of liked these guys for ages, and it seemed like a good chance to check them out, but while they were pretty good, I was tired enough that I left after five songs and went to bed.
For the next night, we saw Mushroomhead ( basically where Slipknot comes from ), Korn ( utterly awful ) and Rob Zombie. We also did a meet and greet which was a lot of fun and got us to the barrier. Rob Zombie always puts on a good show, although in Australia he doesn’t bring all the props he uses in the USA. We scored a pick, and had a great time, it was well worth it,
The following night was Asking Alexandria, Five Finger Death Punch and A7X. Asking Alexandria are one of my favourite new bands so they were the highlight of the night for me, they sounded great. 5FDP are always good, but hard to appreciate from as far back as we ended up. A7X did a set of older fan favourite songs, but sadly, Hannah had had enough so we did not stay. She went home the next morning and I flew to Melbourne.
The following night I saw Filter and Volbeat in a tiny club outside Melbourne. It ran late, and it was only an hour set, but it was still a great night, they sounded great, and interacted with the crowd a lot. I got there early and was at the barrier, the stage was about 12 people wide, and was not raised, and had no gap for people to pass through. Someone moron decided to crowd surf and ended up flat on his back when he landed on the stage. I got three picks, two from Rob and one from Michael. It was the best night of the week for me.
At first Volbeat was supposed to open for Megadeth, but then Megadeth had Newsted thrown off that show ( they later on dropped out altogether ) and then when the guy who runs it let it be known, Dave pulled out altogether. Sadly, no really good Thu shows eventuated afterwards, although there were several good ones on the Wed. We ended up doing Amon Amarth/GWAR on the Thu night. GWAR are flat out awful. Amon Amarth were really good and did all different songs, so that made it worthwhile.
For Sydney, I ran around a lot to catch as many bands as I could. In Melbourne, we ran to the barrier on the metal stage, and stayed for Amon Amarth, 5FDP, and Testament. We’d have stayed for Trivium too, but we moved out to miss GWAR.
5FDP are great live, and while I’ve been close, I’d never seen them from the barrier before. They put on a great show and it’s really obvious how much Ivan loves being on stage. Hopefully next time they come they will rate higher on the bill and get longer than 45 min.
Amazingly, I’d never seen Testament. I came close once, but they opened a bill I got to late ( actually the ticket times were wrong ). Their last two CDs are brilliant so I was really pleased to finally catch them live. I did JUST miss out on a pick, but apart from that, it was a really good show.
Up next was Volbeat, and you already know what I think of them. From there we saw Trivium and they were really good, but another band where I wanted to hear more of the new stuff than they did.
After that, we got to Skindred early so this time we were near the front. It was dusty where they played and with all the people jumping, it got hard to breathe, but it was still great.
From there we headed over to see Rob Zombie. They did do ‘Enter Sandman’ live on the sidewave, and at Soundwave they also did ‘School’s Out’ which was a lot of fun.
I’m told that Green Day did 3 hours sets headlining the main stage at Soundwave this year. I wouldn’t know. For me, the only headliner was A7X. Hail to the King is THE metal CD of last year. Listening to them do their set, I was hit with just how many great songs they have, over so many albums. The crowd went nuts for ‘Critical Acclaim’, for ‘Beast and the Harlot’, for ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Buried Alive’, and of course, for the new songs. I have to agree with a comment I read from them recently. I can’t think of too many bands they could still open for. They are definitely the next superstars of heavy metal music, and I’m certainly glad because without a band like them, there would be no next generation to keep it moving forward. They didn’t bring their big stage set, but the show was still big, and full of pyro. The songs were great, everyone was singing along, I was at the barrier, it was the perfect end to an amazing six days of heavy music. I’m planning on doing three soundwaves next year.
Reader Comments (18)
And I am glad you got to see Testament: they really are a great band live. Some bands of their era phone it in. They grab the phone and shove it through your skull, with Billy swaggering about the stage like some swarthy metal maestro.
I think Korn are good at being Korn. I just think it's not a grand achievement :-)
hopefully the aussies understand that i'm a troll
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Your daughter is beautiful and now he is trying to put the blame on other people, it is all very sad and pathetic. Nobody wants to talk to him, he just wants to stir up shit for no reason, the dude is a basket case.
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I don't give a fuck anymore!!!
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I pray she does ban you. You are killing this website. You need therapy badly.