Some bands played at Sydney’s Soundwave and all you got was this lousy article

I know y’all are here to read about the festival, but here’s a little something about me first: I have the same level of love/hate relationship with music festivals as Tolkien’s “Gollum” has with himself. I’ve been to a lot of the festivals we have over here in the land of Oz such as Big Day Out, Soundwave and Field Day, and also a lot of the 3-6 day European metal festivals such as Hellfest ’08, Summerbreeze ’08 and Metal Camp ’08. I dig live music. I dig being outside. I dig (most) people. And I dig being able to pepper my day of musical delights with outdoor frolicking and buying overpriced food and booze. But sometimes, just sometimes, poor organization or embarrassingly bogan punters can get in the way of a good festival. But only if you let it.

A lot has been said about the poor organization at this year’s Soundwave, and I won’t bore you with an exhaustive list of what went wrong. Suffice to say, there could have been more water available. There could have been more shade. There could have been better on-site parking. There could have been less Paramore… just kidding. Seriously though, in spite of all this, I found this festival one of the most enjoyable I’ve been to in a long time.

Someone has already submitted an article to the AU Review on Soundwave which is tres comprehensive in terms of set-lists and what not (I should know, I edited it all by myself), so I’m going to approach it in a different way here. Luckily, Dane Wang and I saw totally different bands, so hopefully y’all won’t feel like you’re reading the same article twice.

I started the day off seeing Baroness, whose gloomy underwater artwork (created by their singer) hung over their set and added an instant murky depth to the sunshine surrounding them. To put it simply, they rocked. They played the kind of equally languid and heavy set that seems to enthrall their fans so thoroughly. It was a great start to the day.

I didn’t move from this stage for a while, given that two more kick-ass bands immediately followed Baroness. Next up were Isis. Wow. What a beautiful, heavily weighted and enthralling set. I am not terribly familiar with Isis, and although I have heard them many times, I own none of their albums. Seeing them live has definitely made me resolve to change that. Their complete concentration on stage was oddly appealing, and the sexy, sludgy sounds they were omitting demanded the audience’s full attention. Any band that can distract me from the fact that it’s hot and I have a mixture of sweat, sunscreen and mud running down the back of my legs gets a thumbs up from me.

Now for one of the absolute highlights of the festival for me, Clutch. This bad-ass Baltimore rock band spits huge personality, rock, sex and straight up motherfucking joy from the moment they step on stage to the moment they walk off. They played a great mix of tracks from most of their albums, my personal favourites being those from Pure Rock Fury and Blast Tyrant. Not hearing any tracks from Robot Hive or The Elephant Riders was slightly disappointing, but in spite of this their set still felt deep, varied and thorough. This was easily one of the most fun sets of the day, and I pity the fool that missed out on seeing these under-appreciated rock-gods banging out their unique brand of heavy, funky, jazz-influenced, muddy and merciless rock ‘n’ roll to a loving crowd.

After Clutch, I indulged my darling boyfriend by going and watching Glassjaw with him. This might get me personally glass-jawed by one of their avid fans, but I’ve got to say all in all their performance was very: “eh”. Don’t get me wrong, they oozed charisma and I found them really fun to watch, but there was something tinny and unrehearsed about their sound, and not in a good, guttural, authentic kind of way. I found myself pining for the thick, layered, relentless blasts of melody and beats that Clutch had just delivered. But oh well, maybe that’s just me.

Next on my agenda was Placebo, and I was unfortunate enough to inadvertently also catch the tail-end of Paramore’s set. Listening to Hayley Williams gush about how famous she is over here isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, but their fans seemed to be having fun so whatever. Anyway, it was a real line call for me between watching Placebo or Meshuggah, with whom they clashed, but since I’ve seen the latter twice already, I decided to fulfill the small goth in me’s fantasy and ogle Brian Molko as he sweated sullenly on stage. It was definitely the right decision. I wasn’t expecting their performance to carry so much energy, and was pleasantly surprised by their even-handed mix of old songs and newer ones. I will say this though: Brian should probably elect singing over speaking as his chosen form of expression. Always. Something about that gliding, nasal voice just doesn’t translate well into regular chit-chat. I’m sorry Brian! I still adore you.

Unfortunately my experience of accidentally seeing bands I intended to avoid did not stop with Para-please-no-more (I promise I won’t attempt wordplay again), and while waiting for Jane’s Addiction I found myself in the regrettable position of being able to both hear and see AFI perform. Now, I can’t offer any REAL criticism here, other than they really aren’t my kind of music. They looked great, sounded good (I feel dirty just typing that), and had terrific stage presence and energy. It’s just that whenever I hear them, I really want to fill my ears with cement. Yes, Davey Havoc can sing and all that, I’d just prefer it if he didn’t. Now let’s move along.

Jane’s Addiction got quite a bad rap I think. I mean really, if you don’t enjoy complete egotistical, rock wankery (a Louis Vuitton guitar strap Dave…?), then you were at the wrong stage. Personally, I fucking love this band. Sure, at first glance they’re assholes plagued by illusions of grandeur and serious narcotics issues, but upon closer inspection…. Ah, bugger it. You know what? This band is what it is, and I like that. I like that they don’t preach, pretend to have morals or follow ridiculous trends (Perry Farrell likes to invent his own). I like their unapologetic sleaze-ball attitude. I like Dave Navarro’s stupid eye make-up and Perry’s hilarious decent into old age. But most of all, I like the music. They might not be the most ingenious minds in the musical world today, but they have a unique sound and it’s sexy as hell. Ask anyone with a vagina. Also, anyone without lady-parts could surely appreciate their enormous cardboard cut-outs of naked chicks, their not-so-naked exotic dancers, and Perry’s endearing attempts at thrusting while using the microphone as a penis (his actual penis must be out of order). It sounds like I’m having a dig here, but shut up. I really do love this band.

When all is said and done, I was primarily there for Faith No More. I would have paid twice the admission price just to see them, and I would do it again. And again. And again. I accidentally caught Jimmy Eat World while waiting patiently for Mike Patton to explode my brain, and they were about as interesting and enigmatic as an old bin liner. But they were so polite and sweet on stage that I found myself aggressively shushing people around me who began chanting “LAST SONG… FAITH NO MORE... LAST SONG… FAITH NO MORE” at them half way through their set. I might not personally be a fan of theirs, but that shit’s just rude you guys.

Anyway, enough of me half-heartedly trashing bands I know nothing about. FAITH NO MORE. Oh… my god. I knew it was going to be good, I knew I was going to get teary, but I could never have anticipated just how incredible and moving (yes, moving) their set was going to be. They opened with a cover of some track called “Reunited”, maybe you know it. Who cares. They then blasted out two of my favourite songs from Angel Dust back to back (replete with use of megaphone) - Land of Sunshine and Be Aggressive. The fuck-tastic set continued unabated with Patton not only claiming the stage, but the entire goddamned venue with his huge presence and even huger voice. Guys, I was in heaven. I have been listening to this band since I was a sweet little nine-year-old thing playing Duke Nukem 3D while innocently blasting Angel Dust and King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime in the background. Although they played a great deal from Angel Dust (my personal favourite album), it was a very balanced set. Mike Patton and Billy Gould’s stage banter was hilarious, and their energy was absolutely flooring. If you want full set-lists, I’m sure you can easily find them. All I know was that there were about 2 songs I wasn’t familiar with, and I’m pretty sure they were covers. For me, this performance was so beautiful and sentimental. There is something about seeing a childhood favourite lovingly perform tunes you are so personally attached to that is just breathtaking. And this performance certainly took my breath away.

After FNM, we went home. There was a traffic jam in the parking lot and we were stuck there for one-and-a-half hours and it could have been better organized and blah blah blah... I do find the attitude of Aussie festival organisers and promoters a bit sad (I’m only comparing to Europe here), because they seem to treat their audience (and performers) as incidentals to the festival and not put too much thought into the experience itself. But you know what? If you’re going to a festival and you don’t realize it’s going to be hot, sweaty, loud, muddy and exhausting, then of course you’re going to be in for a shock. If you just realize that as fab as festivals are, they’re actually quite taxing on your body, I think you’ll have a great time. With a line up like this, how could you not?