Axes In Action: Summer Festivals
WHEN: FRIDAY DECEMBER 6TH, 2019 WHERE: FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, MELBOURNE VIC REVIEW: MATT DORIA •
After its unequivocally spectacular debut last year, the Good Things festival is back for another crash-hot round of rock, punk, pop and mosh. Punters arrive in droves for the first acts, with all nine-plus hours of the schedule packed tightly with international icons and local legends alike. For us, the festivities kick off with a poignant – if decidedly polarising – set from web-famous weirdcore princess Poppy.
Across 45 minutes as upbeat as they are unsettling, the 25-year-old fuses bright bubblegum pop hooks with thumping hip-hop beats and guttural black metal riffs – if you’re wondering how that works, don’t, because we certainly can’t explain it. Somehow, though, she and her band (who, by the way, are wearing deeply disturbing latex masks of Poppy herself) pull it off without a hitch. It’s something you truly need to witness in the flesh to properly understand.
Helping us reconnect with reality are the ska-punk superstars in Reel Big Fish. Complete with the prerequisite Hawaiian shirts and horn section, the Californian quintet deal a tireless hand of skank-worthy scorchers from all corners of their 28-year catalogue. It’s stunning how tight frontman Aaron Barrett is – especially given the blistering heat and his defiantly inappropriate attire for such – as he couples his quick and quirky vocal quips with frenzied shredding on his fretboard.
Our parents taught us that if we have nothing nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all. So, with all due respect to Ice Nine Kills, we’re gonna skip discussing their performance (which greatly favours gimmicks over musical prowess) and jump straight to
Dance Gavin Dance, who actually put some effort into their career-spanning showcase of pummelling mosh-pop and mind-shattering math-rock. Will Swan holds virtually the entire weight of the band on his shoulders, his inflammable lead riffage a potent focal point of their 45-minute eruption of energy.
However curious their inclusion on the lineup seemed at first, The Veronicas become an instant highlight of the day when they blast into a string of their early-‘00s pop-rock anthems. Between their resoundingly dynamic stage presence, the tongue-in-cheek Blink-182 cover and the wall of death that capped their set, the Brissy-native pop duo prove without a hitch why their comeback is one to keep an eye on. Seconds after they saunter offstage, Trivium storm out to remind us that, yes, this is a rock festival, and yes, shit is about to hit the fan. Hell hath no fury like Corey Beaulieu with his axe in hand, every toothy bend and turbulent breakdown he conjures equally beautiful and brutal.
With a new album on the horizon, Enter Shikari are as sharp and springy as ever, more than making up for their extended hiatus from Oz touring. The electronicore warriors focus on the short, fast and loud, taking full advantage of every second they’re doled with a wall-to-wall onslaught of synths and shredding. He’s visibly hungover, but frontman Rou Reynolds still pours every ounce of his soul into the mic – he sings sweetly on recent single “Stop The Clocks”, slams into the chants on “Anaesthetist” with an intimidating British bite, and lets all hell break loose for the crushingly chaotic “Paddington Frisk”.
Starving for a sneaky bit of pop-punk, we ditch our dinner plans to cop a chunk of Simple Plan’s domination of the mainstage. Though certainly not at their peak, Pierre Bouvier and co. deliver an impressively cool and kinetic performance, with throwback jam “Addicted” an especially tasty moment in their set.
As we settle into the evening, it’s the local favourites amongst the bill that (rightfully) steal the spotlight. Thy Art Is Murder throw us for six, as they tend to, with their noxious flurry of blastbeats and breakdowns, proving that deathcore is alive, well, and certainly not to be f***ed with. After over a year in hibernation, Violent Soho make their headliner-worthy comeback with a stacked set of their grungy alt-rock gems, frontman Luke Boerdam and lead axeman James Tidswell trading fiery juts and gravelly jams aplenty. And rounding out the triple-hit in a powerfully intoxicating wall of sound,
Karnivool throw us deep into the ether with their riff-heavy unfurling of polychromatic prog-rock. Leaning on their heavier cuts, A Day To
Remember have their sights set on brewing the festival’s most chaotic pits. And with a breathless string of barbarous bangers like “I’m Made Of Wax” and “2nd Sucks”, it shouldn’t come as any shock that they succeed. On the other side of the site,
Simple Creatures prove effortlessly that doughy, adolescent pop-rock has a bright future ahead of itself, their simple, yet authentically energetic bops earning many a well-deserved shake of the fist.
Reigning as the undisputed kings of modern Australian metal, the night comes to its peak with a stadium-level showcase from the one and only Parkway Drive. Their set is a celebration of grandiose and guttural excess – the riffs are enormous, punishingly heavy and spine-rattlingly loud, equal in abundance to the billowing reams of fire that erupt with every one of Jeff Ling’s inhumanly savage breakdowns. This is the kind of set that goes down in history; that Good Things is a part of the narrative makes it all the more special.