Soundwave 2010
Firstly, I hate festivals. I hate being surrounded by 30,000 assholes who I don’t know, I hate over priced deep fried food and I hate shit bands. Soundwave was no exception. But in all of the shitness, I still had a great time for my first festival since probably 2002.
Started off with making my way in and the general “check out the merch” mindset to waste time prior to the first band I wanted to see. Fucking cues. Stood in line at one of the two merch tents for probably 20 minutes only realised that the bands I was interested in where at the other merch tent. Fuck you. So like a dummy I walk over to the other merch tent which is right beside the stage where I wanted to go.
Stood through This Is Hell watching stupid kids do stupid things. Highlights were them playing a heavy mosh riff and have kids start fighting every ninja in sight only to have the band start playing a faster riff that would suggest a circle pit, only to see these shitheads mosh faster. By the way, they were told after the next song what a circle pit is by the band.
After that stupidity was over, every kid pretty much bailed (probably to go mosh another ninja) and I managed to walk up quite easily and snag a front and center spot for Baroness and then Isis after that. I was pretty chuffed with that. I think I was the only of my friends who went to see Baroness over Sunny Day Real Estate too. But I heard they were amazing also and made some witty references about how no one there (besides a small few) knew who they were.
Baroness played a amazing set of about 6 songs plus some of the instrumental filler off the albums. Would of enjoyed hearing The Gnashing and/or Wanderlust but hey, I did get to see Swollen and Halo’ed. I heard afterward from a friend who did watch Baroness, that some of the mosh kids must of stuck around and tried to start that shit during their set. Would of loved to of seen that.
After a change over, Isis were now standing on stage producing a wall of sound that was impacted across of chest so hard I thought my heart so going to start beating out of rhythm. This was the first time I have seen them also, after missing them the previous Thursday and on previous tours when I wasn’t familiar with them I was told that this was one of the better sets the have played here.
After that, met up with the girlfriend and ran into a few friends on the way over to check out the Weakerthans. Shame to say, I wasn’t there for long. The sound for the two stages out that end of the grounds was terrible all day I heard and the Weakerthans was no exception, so I left after about 2-3 songs to go watch Glassjaw and not return to those stages for the rest of the day.
I have never heard Glassjaw prior to this, but I would say 4 out of 5 of friends love this band. I drag myself over to the stage and they start playing. What the fuck, jazz fusion noise with wack vocals is the best way I can describe what they were doing. Musically it was incredible, but the vocals were getting on my nerves at times. I was told that the singer generally does shit like that on promise live to be a prick. I can appreciate that.
Food time. $10 for 2 spring rolls and 2 curry puffs. Fucks. I going to sit down and listen to Anvil.
Holy shit. So fucking Canadian, the dude’s accent made me laugh so much. Every song had a 5 minute drum solo in it also. 80’s heavy metal lives. Found out during the week prior that one of my girlfriend’s friends back in Montreal is related to the one of the guys in Anvil. Like a 2nd cousin or some shit that only North Americans give a shit about. That’s not related, that’s coincidence.
Again, a band I actually came to see. Short walk to see The Get Up Kids finish setting up and getting their shit together after only landing in Brisbane that morning. It’s weird seeing a band that you know is broken up and whatever, then they are playing on stage in front you. It’s a little bit of a mind fuck. More on this later though. But great set and highly enjoyable.
After the greatness of GUKs, I found myself watching Anthrax. I love Anthrax’s old stuff. Early thrash is so much fun, I even started singing along during Got the Time. Best. I was pretty far away and was okay with that. Bogan assholes and old metal bands together is bad karma. I didn’t get a photo, and I am sorry that this is not documented but it may be the greatest tattoo of all time. Imagine a backpiece of Arnold Schwarzenegger with his arms spread out and yelling, and above that “What the Fuck”. Incredible. I did spot this though and thought it was worth taking a photo of.
I had been at the far end of the ground all day with no real care of what was going on at the main stages until now. Jimmy Eat World got put on the bill at late notice due to My Chemical Romance bailing on the festival. I don’t think anyone really gave two shits that they didn’t show up, maybe some adolescent shit who sat in their room crying over it, drowning their copy of Twilight with their tears.
Whilst I am having a rant, I am going to use this space to say this. Fuck Jane’s Addiction. How is this band still fucking relevant, alone still getting put on festivals. I remember seeing them like 10 years ago or so at Big Day Out and then thinking, “What the fuck is this shit”. Perry Farrell is also in question. Pretty sure at BDO he was wearing something like boardshits and a singlet, now it looks like he is reading Transgender Monthly thinking this shit is a good idea and calling people “My lovelies”. Get fucked you idiot.
Jimmy Eat World, another band I have never really listened to but I was standing there enjoying myself. I don’t really know what to say about them as I know nothing about the band but the other few thousand people there seemed to know what was going on. I kept on glancing over the other stage that was being set up to see how the progress was going over there and watching the clock waiting with great anticipation.
I have wanted to see Faith No More for roughly 15 years. This band along with Metallica and Pink Floyd are the bands that made me want to state playing an instrument. Moments like this are rare, seeing a band that you think you would never have the chance to see play live due to them being broken up for over a decade. I was hoping I wasn’t going to be let down.
I don’t think I have been more impressed and entertained by a single band ever. Every song, every piece of banter, everything about this set was incredible. I’m having trouble putting in to words have much I enjoyed myself.
On two separate occasions, Mike Patton got interactive with the cameras on either side of the stage, projecting the show on to 2 5×5 metre screens on either side of the main stages. The first one during Epic had Mike’s face up close in the lens for the part of the song then to pull away and give the camera operator a slap across the head when he was done. The second occurrence during Just A Man proved that Mike is male (incase people were unsure) by grabbing the camera turning it around on himself and getting his dick out for the crowd to see, on massive screens no less.
The set included some covers done with the Faith No More sound you would expect, such as Poker Face and the theme from Chariots of Fire. I don’t think I’ll ever be as entertained by a band ever again. Maybe more bands should start wearing lounge suits while playing.
That’s it, walked back to the car and went home to pass out only to wake up the next morning feeling like a giant piece of crap.
PS. I am little bummed out I didn’t get to see Eagles of Death Metal.
