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Good Things Festival - Review & Photo Gallery 7th December @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne VIC

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Dec 8, 2018

7 min read

Good Things Festival
Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne VIC
December 7th, 2018
Feat: The Offspring, Stone Sour, Dropkick Murphys, BABYMETAL, The Used, La Dispute, Northlane, The Wonder Years, Tonight Alive, Emmure, Make Them Suffer, WAAX, Boston Manor, Void of Vision and more

At last, Music Festival season is upon us (on the East Coast anyway) and we kicked it all off at the debut of Australia's newest event, Good Things Festival and you better believe we were all over that like an ordinary adult on a cheap 20 nugget deal. The day was clear and bright and SO FUCKING CLOSE TO HELL IT WAS ALMOST UNBEARABLE TO NOT MENTION. Seriously, of all of the days to host a music festival, the weather put it on a little too excessive with 39+ degree heat all day resulting in a few patrons visiting the medical tent and the ability to drink a single bottle of water and still feel like you were dying of thirst, but at the end of the day, we soldiered through to witness some of the best bands our country and the world has to offer.

Void of Vision

Upon arrival, we kicked off a few interviews but made it over for Melbourne locals VoV wrapping up their set to a small, yet somewhat eager crowd who were battling the sun in order to catch these guys. The energy from the last two songs (that we caught) has to be commended with frontman Jack Bergin at times looking like he was about to pass out mid-scream. I can say the crowd gave it their best, given the circumstances, but it would have been awesome to see the those in attendance getting into it a bit more, if the temperature wasn't as hot as it was during the day. A noteworthy performance for the list of times we've seen the band now and here's hoping they picked up some new followers in the process.

Northlane

Sydney's Northlane debuted their new lineup which consists of Brendon Padjasek (formerly of STRUCTURES) stepping in on bass following Alex Milovic's departure and almost instantly the band had increased their heaviness in the process. The boys, equipped with bigger stage production (and flames... flames on the hottest day of fucking history which added to the experience) played through obvious crowd favs like 'Vultures', 'Quantum Flux', 'Rot' and 'Citizen'. With flames and confetti Northlane truly showed that they are well on their way to being the next Parkway Drive of Australia.

Ummm Northlane your stage is on fire today at Good Things Festival... that's so fuckin sick!
📽: Browny

Posted by Wall Of Sound on Thursday, December 6, 2018

Make Them Suffer

MTS came on with a massive group of deathcore fans awaiting their presence. Despite a couple of open-air limitations, the band gave the people what they wanted. Even with the standard festival set length being quite short, Make Them Suffer still managed to get some bangers in from albums like Old Souls and their latest record Worlds Apart. The locals make it down to Melbourne quite regularly but there were clearly some die-hard fans who are holding genuine Worlds Apart album flags. Unfortunately as a festival goes there are always going to be some clashes so we had to make the sacrifice of missing the last few minutes of their set so we could go grab a good spot for the very first live appearance of BABYMETAL in Australia.

BABYMETAL

BABYMETAL came on the main stage with a huge introduction and a huge lead-up with thousands of fans screaming their name. We're talking face painted backing band and matching outfits for the girls and we're talking serious metal from Japan. There were some die-hard fans in the crowd who were dressed similarly to the girls and holding merchandise with them at the festival. It was quite a special moment to share the very first Australian show with BABYMETAL and you could even feel from their serious choreographed facial expressions that they were really enjoying themselves and trying not to break character. The performance itself was incredible and really proved that Australia has a lot of appetite for them, potentially enough for their own headlining Australian tour one day perhaps. I think it's safe to say that BABYMETAL may have stolen the show and been the highlight of the festival for the majority of punters. Arguably the best performance of the day, standout hits like 'Gimme Chocolate', 'Distortion' and 'KARATE' sent the crowd nuts (well those up close anyway) and closing track 'Road of Resistance' undoubtedly left us all wanting more. Definitely can say the band have made a few new fans upon their first trip down under, lets hope they'll be back again sooner than later.

How gooood are BABYMETAL. They just played their debut performance in Australia in front of a huuuge crowd at Good Things Festival
📽: Browny

Posted by Wall Of Sound on Thursday, December 6, 2018

Boston Manor

Another band on their debut visit down under, the British pop punk band wasted not time smashing into their set and upon first impressions, I'd say these guys were a combination of twenty one pilots and our very own Trophy Eyes. The resemblances in on-stage performances and antics were surreal. Highly recommend checking these lads out, we came across them to kill time between interviews and rightfully so, they deserved all the attention and crowd they pulled.

Tonight Alive

If there's one thing Tonight Alive do well, it's brought on the rain. Ever so briefly during the first two songs we caught ('The Ocean' and'Lonely Girl'), the clouds opened up and droplets hit us burning faces which added a very cool change for the afternoon. Frontwoman Jenna McDougall at one point called for the crowd to hold their middle fingers in the air, and everyone in front of the area we were standing in obliged. I would have loved to see more, but this now four-piece never disappoint their legion of fans.

Bullet For My Valentine

Frontman Matt Tuck came out wearing hat backwards with very well groomed beard. The band open with a couple of new tracks from Gravity but didn't waste any more time as they started the anthem intro riff to 'Your Betrayal'. It was a great set for fans who hadn't seen Bullet For My Valentine come down for a little while, and most certainly nostalgic given the Melbourne temperatures of 37 or higher degrees. And of course, the nostalgia came from the various Big Day Out and Soundwave Festivals the band have played during previous Summers in the past.

Emmure

This might have been their very first Australian Festival as they somehow never made it onto Soundwave. Vocalist Frankie Palmieri came out with all guns blazing. The band open with their latest album's intro 'You Asked For It' which is absolutely massive and probably shocked some people who didn't know who the band were. Considering this was an open-air festival, it was incredible how loud the band were able to sound with bass climbing across Flemington Racecourse. The circle pits were in full force as Palmeri demanded it. The band played songs from their breakthrough record Speaker of the Dead including tracks like 'Area 64-66' and 'Children of Cybertron'. He acknowledged that some people may not know who they are and introduced his band, welcoming people to check them out later.

The Used

The former emo giants burst onto the stage with their blistering banger of a song 'Take It Away' and immediately the crowds up close lost their collective shit, which was maintained well into the following track 'Bird and the Worm'. Still to this day frontman Bert McCracken hasn't lost his charming charisma (and vocal talents) and manages to sing just like he did back in the band's early days (despite a few lineup changes in the process).

Stone Sour

We wrapped up our last interview of the day, grabbed a few tinnies and headed to the main stage to see Stone Sour absolutely playing their little bodies out to a large crowd which had amassed in the main area to see the final two bands of the night play. Corey Taylor, well, is one of the best performers in the world and his singing/screaming/yelling still manages to send shivers up our spines, especially when he pulled out the guitar for a solo rendition of 'Bother' which resulted in sing-a-longs aplenty across the venue. Being one of the final tours for the band's album cycle of Hydrograd, they whipped up songs from the album like 'YSIF', 'Taipei Person/Allah Tea' and 'Song #3', classics like 'Through Glass' and '30/30-150' before finishing off with their now signature closer 'Fabuless' complete with Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men. It'll be sad to see the guys take a break while Corey heads back to Slipknot, but goddamn they got sent off with one loud fucking bang.

The Offspring

Headliners and punk rock legends The Offspring hit the stage ready to kick arse and take names as they played their iconic album Smash in full for the large audiece who had waiting allll day, braving the weather to see them and they didn't disappoint at all. Frontman Dexter Holland, despite looking like quite the Uncle/Daddy these days, still sounds exactly like he did 20+ years ago proving no matter how old you get, the punk rock in you still prevails. Noodles on the opposite side of the stage was in fine form, cracking jokes about the crowd, the songs they're playing (or haven't ever played before) and never missed a beat during the band's hour and fifteen-minute set.

Following Smash, the boys busted out classics like 'You're Gonna Go Far Kid', 'Why Don't You Get A Job', '(Can't Get My) Head Around You' and even managed to nail a cover of Ac/Dc's 'Whole Lotta Rosie' much to the disappointment of a bunch of us standing towards the back of the mosh, as no one around us was singing along to our own national treasures. Honourable mentions need to go to No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal who had stepped up to the plate to fill in for Greg. K who was noticeably absent.

'Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)' and 'The Kids Aren't Alright' wrapped up the band's set (and the first ever Good Things Festival) and we all clapped, screamed and walked off into the night as Monty Python's 'Always Look On The Bright Side of Life' played out over the speakers.

The Offspring absolutely nailed it with Smash in full + a few surprises along the way. Here's 'Self Esteem' for you punks. Our Review and Gallery from the first Good Things Festival will be up soon for you all...
📽: Browny

Posted by Wall Of Sound on Friday, December 7, 2018

All in all, it was a fantastic day at GTF (despite the scorching heat) with no trouble that any of us witnessed, proving that the NSW Government/Police are completely out of touch with the Australian Heavy Music scene and need to witness first hand just how well these types of All Ages Music Events work for everyone involved. Here's to next year!

Festival Review by Browny @brownypaul, Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90.

Keep an eye out for our Good Things Festival Podcast complete with interviews with The Offspring, Stone Sour, Bullet For My Valentine, Dashboard Confessional, Northlane, Boston Manor, The Wonder Years, Make Them Suffer, Void of Vision and WAAX coming this week.

Photo Gallery by Luke Sutton aka @LukeaSutton
Please credit Wall of Sound and Luke Sutton if you repost.

Good Things Festival

The Offspring

Stone Sour

Dropkick Murphys

All Time Low

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The Used

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Dashboard Confessional

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Bullet For My Valentine