Oh Soundwave. You’ve had some ups and downs this year, haven’t you? From bands pulling out, Twitter wars and crowd injuries, you’ve still managed to pull off one of the most successful national festival tours we’ve seen in some years. The pure scale of the festival has always managed to daunt me, but it wasn’t until I actually stepped foot in the Bonython Park venue that I realised how mega this year’s Soundwave was setting up to be. This year, AJ Maddah had set out to create a festival to be, in the words of Wayne Campbell, double live gonzo. Intensity in ten cities. Live at Budokan.
Turns out, I should always stick to my festival logic of rocking up early; I turned up today around 1:30pm and spent about an hour and a half trying to navigate my way around the massively expanded site, missing Puscifier and others in the process. The first act I managed to see was Tomahawk; the Mike Patton-fronted band pulled a decent crowd, especially as the afternoon sun began beating down something fierce. Anything Patton has done has been entertaining as fuck to watch and today is no different. The experimental metal music that comes forth from the band forces me to concentrate on what is happening onstage, not the fact that there are two slightly overweight girls clamouring on top of shoulders on either side of me, swaying dangerously. Patton works the crowd, getting the security to aim their hoses squarely at him, prompting two roadies to run out with towels, drying his laptop set up down; he also tells one classy, breast-baring lass atop shoulders to ‘sit the fuck down, before you make me puke’, earning widespread laughter and applause from everyone else. I found Tomahawk t provide a great opening for the festival for me and they seemed to be happy enough with the reception they pulled.
Kyuss Lives! took the reins next and I was impressed by the way they smashed out their set, despite the crowd leaving in massive numbers, then returning and so on, the entire way through. While the D area this year had clearly been altered to fit the larger crowd capacity, these early sets seemed slightly empty if you were in the immediate vicinity of the stage. Slayer is the first act of the day that I noticed a definite buzz of anticipation building for. With Pat O'Brien stationed in front of me for most of the set, I got nothing but twisted guitar solos in my face, blowing my mind. Tom Araya surveyed his Adelaide kingdom with that kind gruffness of a rocker who’s been around the block more times than he can count, but as soon as he launches into songs like “Mandatory Suicide” and “Chemical Warfare”, he changes completely and becomes this brutal, bass-thrashing, maniac. It’s all great fun until some dickhead falls short of his crowd-surfing mark, kicks me in the back and sends my head hurtling towards the steel barrier, knocking me out cold for the rest of the set.
After spending much of A Perfect Circle (who, from what I remember, sound great) recovering and regaining my bearings, I manage to get back into the swing of things for Blink 182. My expectations couldn’t have been higher from this set; every review I’d read of their gigs so far had lauded them for their classic tunes, nostalgia-inducing performances and general tomfoolery onstage. I didn’t get that buzz from them at all. Sure, the deliveries of “What’s My Age Again?”, “Josie” and “First Date” took me back to my early teens, but I was nowhere near as impressed by them as I’d hoped. Brooks Wackerman proved to be a fitting replacement drummer for Travis Barker and I began to wonder just how much the quality of Blink’s set would’ve actually improved if they had Barker behind the kit. I love me some Travis, don’t get me wrong, but Wackerman was one of the shining lights of this entire set. Mark and Tom were in their element with their usual crass humour, but it seemed to be more about making sex jokes than doing their material justice, and that was disappointing. Plus, no “I Miss You”? The hell was with that?
On to Garbage, the band who provided the festival highlight for me. Perhaps it was the fact that, with them having to pull out of Sydney, I knew how lucky I was to have Garbage in attendance today. Perhaps it was the fact that I knew I was close enough to be hit with one of Butch Vig’s drumsticks. Or perhaps it was the fact that I was about to see one of my musical idols in Shirley Manson live. All of these things made for one incredibly (and possibly still slightly concussed) music fan as we entered the twilight of Soundwave 2013.
As I’d hoped, Manson struts out, clad totally in black, with her flaming red hair knotted tightly atop her head, launching into “Automatic Systematic Habit”, getting the crowd revved up. The Scottish rock goddess connects with the photographers in the pit, striking poses and death-staring certain parts of the crowd, who melt under her gaze. “#1 Crush”, “Stupid Girl” and “Milk” were some favourite oldies, while Garbage’s new album went down equally as well. Prior to “Battle In You”, Manson addresses the females in the crowd: ‘Girls, start a band and then you can meet all these hot dudes instead of screaming for them like little baby girls. Be a woman! Stand toe to toe with James-motherfookin’-Hetfield! Toe to fookin’ toe!’, and it’s at this point that I realise how poorly females are still represented in the genre today. For everything negative I’ve heard about the band, tonight’s set showed that they were clearly rapt to be in Adelaide, some eight years after their last visit; their praise of the crowd was genuine and I laughed at the irony of the situation that icons like Manson, Vig and Duke Erikson were almost kowtowing to us.
I ended my night between Metallica and Paramore. The rock gods were clearly who the majority of Soundwave had waited all day for. Clearly, these men are an entertaining rock machine; their light show and pyro was impressive, and their set list (what I saw of it) was a classic run through of their greatest. James Hetfield is tight as he powers through the likes of “Harvester of Sorrow” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”, while Kirk Hammett is undeniable as one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen perform live. A definite headline set, but one I still felt comfortable enough leaving halfway in – I don’t know what that says about Metallica overall, considering I’d, again, been looking forward to this all day. Not to mention the amount of times their sound cut during their set, causing some near riotous anger from the dudes around me.
On my way out, Hayley Williams was rolling around on the stage, while thousands powered along to Paramore’s danceable, spunky tunes. I know I should have appreciated them more, but by this time, my head was splitting and I only endured maybe three songs before I decided to bail. She knows how to own her stage and command a crowd, which is something I was never sure she’d actually pull off. I was clearly wrong.
Thinking back on the experience, I think I enjoyed Soundwave better last year. I can’t deny Maddah of the awesome nature and atmosphere this year’s festival built up; the crowds were amazing as usual and seeing the smiles across hard rock fans’ faces is always a plus to these things. Like Mr Campbell, Maddah set out to do something big, something capacious and indeed, something kajunga, but I can’t help but wonder if the negatives that came with Soundwave 2013 outweighed the highs, financially and in terms of publicity. I can only hope he finds a way to make this festival a more efficiently run event. But hey, we’re all still learning, right?
