Good Things Festival – Review & Photo Gallery 2nd December @ Centennial Park, Sydney NSW
Good Things Festival
Centennial Park, Sydney NSW
December 2nd, 2023
Lineup: Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit, DEVO, I Prevail, Bullet For My Valentine, Corey Taylor, Pennywise, Spiderbait, Slowly Slowly, Enter: Shikari, Behemoth, Sepultura, Taking Back Sunday, PVRIS, Bloom, Boom Crash Opera, Eskimo Joe, Frenzal Rhomb, Hanabie., Jebediah, Luca Brasi, Magnolia Park, Make Them Suffer, Ocean Sleeper, Royal & The Serpent, Short Stack, Slaughter To Prevail, Stand Atlantic, Tapestry, The Plot In You, While She Sleeps
It’s festival season once again, and the arrival of a bigger Good Things Festival brought with it some improvements from last year (including a massive leap in sound quality,) however a dramatic ending to the Sydney show, while due to weather events, left punters feeling a little deflated.
Still, I spent the day dashing back and forth between stages, seeing some new acts I hadn’t seen before, some classic festival staples, and of course, one act that I’ve been chomping at the bit to see since the lineup announcement.
So, let’s get cracking – apologies in advance if I missed your favourite, but there’s only one of me, and my bones are showing their age.
The Plot In You
With PVRIS announcing a last-minute withdrawal from the Sydney event, it was up to American Metalcore outfit The Plot In You to kick off the festival over on stage 4. And what a way to wake up the early crowd, the band stormed the stage with meaning, heavy as fuck, with vocalist Landon Tewers leading the band’s charge with some epic breakdowns.
Stand Atlantic
Aussie pop-punk legends Stand Atlantic were up next, decked out in green tracksuits and ready to celebrate vocalist Bonnie Fraser’s birthday with an energetic setlist. Opening with ‘Jurassic Park,’ they delivered with fan favourite bangers such as ‘Wavelength’ and ‘Pity Party.’
A technical glitch during ‘Lavender Bones’ left Bon having to fill some time with the crowd, leading to – probably much to Browny’s disgust – the first Shooey of the festival, safe to say there were a few of those scattered over the stages for the remainder of the day (I don’t get them either. Nor vaping, which was more than a thing among the crowd.)
Slaughter To Prevail
Buzz around Slaughter To Prevail’s epic live act has been building over the last few years, and Australia finally got a taste of the Russian Deathcore act, with a HUGE crowd rocking up to stage 4 to catch a glimpse. Slaughter To Prevail lived up to the hype – it was brutal and heavy, loaded with Deathcore breakdowns and the Sydney crowd lapped it up. Frontman Alex Terrible seemed pretty chuffed at the turnout, and just as some predicted the band became one of the standouts of the festival.
Pennywise
On my way over to stage 5, I caught the opening songs from the skate punk kings. Pennywise can still rock a festival with classics decorating the setlist, including ‘Society’, ‘Same Old Story’ and the Aussie classic they made their own, ‘Down Under.’
This was the first moment I caught the sound of the main stages and instantly noticed an improvement in sound quality from last year – it was a lot louder and beefier than in 2022.
Hanabie.
The one I had been looking forward to the most since the lineup was first announced, and I wasn’t disappointed. I knew Hanabie. was going to be another breakout band of the festival, and they hit stage 5 to a massive crowd with their colourful look and infectious energy. Yukina leads with a dominating attitude, with the Japanese outfit giving the Aussie fans 40 minutes of their signature brand of hyperactive Harajuku-core. My highlight would have to be the song ‘We Love Sweets,’ a song with cute subject matter but a headbanging main riff. By the time they left us with their viral hit ‘Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now’ I’m more than certain all those who had wandered over out of curiosity had been converted into a fan.
Sepultura
Although I missed Sepultura because I saw Hanabie. instead, while I was grabbing something to drink I did hear a very familiar riff emanating from stage 4, and scooted over just in time to take in that famous epic ending to ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ being delivered to a satisfied metal crowd.
Corey Taylor
A true showman, Corey Taylor hit the stage with a mixture of solo material, Stone Sour and Slipknot classics, along with a few extra surprises (yes, he did the ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ theme.) But I really enjoyed my favourite Stone Sour track ‘Song 3’ and Slipknot anthem ‘Before I Forget’, and watching his set I thought that if Corey does eventually give the Slipknot caper away like he’s been hinting at, he has enough memorable songs under his belt to keep doing his own thing for years to come.
Bullet For My Valentine
I’ve seen Bullet For My Valentine once or twice before, and I’ve always found them a decent metal act. Even if I couldn’t name one song from their catalogue. Still, they gave the crowd a decent set of dependable metal, although after a few songs I decided to duck over to stage 4 to catch a band I haven’t seen since 1998.
Jebediah
A staple of the 90’s Australian Alternative era, I got over just in time to hear a few Jebediah classics, ‘Leaving Home,’ ‘Comet’ and ‘Harpoon’. Frontman Kevin Mitchell sounds as good as ever, and I do believe I heard him teasing a new album in 2024.
I Prevail
This was my ‘standing in a line for food’ band for the year and, being honest, a much better soundtrack than the Fat Mike gabfest NOFX set that did the job last year. Browny gave a rave review of their sideshow from last week, and while I haven’t heard much of them, I liked what I heard and hung around a bit before heading back over to catch Behemoth.
Boom Crash Opera
Okay, who brought their grandad?
I’m kidding, but it’s hard not to note that the late 80’s/early 90’s pop-rock band, while a fixture of Australian rock, seemed a little bit perplexed themselves about being on a festival slotted between Pop-Punk/Emo and Black Metal. Still, they did draw a mixture of ages from the audience thanks to radio staples such as ‘Hands Up In The Air’ and ‘Onion Skin.’ All that was missing was a ‘Triple M’ whisper in between each song.
Behemoth
I remember their last appearance at Download Festival back in 2019 being a memorable set, and Behemoth have remained just as intense, returning to rain their brand of darkness onto an eager crowd (although a blazing Sydney afternoon sun did make an appearance a few times.) Drawing songs from their 30-year catalogue, Nergal made sure those with an extreme metal taste got their fix, complete with ambient smoke machine and black metal-esq outfits.
Frenzal Rhomb
Currently holding the record for the band I’ve seen live the most, I will never not enjoy a set from festival veterans Frenzal Rhomb, even if it’s just for a few tunes, including crowd favourite ‘Russell Crowe’s Band’ – before ducking off to catch Limp Bizkit. Although…
Limp Bizkit
Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Bart gets his 15 minutes of fame thanks to his catchphrase, ‘I Didn’t Do it’?
There was a moment when Bart appears on Conan O’Brien’s talk show, and Bart goes to talk about something meaningful before Conan interrupts him with ‘just say the line,’ to which Bart (rather defeatedly) says his catchphrase to a cheering crowd and Conan throws to a break. It’s a nice little commentary on how some celebrities are just wheeled out for their one trick and nobody seems to be interested in anything else they might have done.
Anyway, Limp Bizkit both opened and closed their set with the song ‘Break Stuff.’
Look, I know our esteemed leader Browny loves the red cap (Brisbane folks may have spotted him amongst the crowd for ‘Nookie,’), and I’m a fan of guitarist Wes Borland, who rocked a quirky bit of stage costume and sounded heavy as ever, particularly on my favourite Limp track ‘Hot Dog.’
On the music side, Wes and the band had their side of things down as a well-oiled machine. John Otto’s drums were huge for songs like ‘Rollin’, DJ Lethal seamlessly flowed between beats, and Sam Rivers has that bass sound that gave the sound of Nu-metal it’s groove down pat.
But, ho-boy, there’s only so much of Fred Durst one can handle, although he has mellowed a fair chunk from the Chocolate Starfish days, more so from the last time I saw the band at Soundwave a decade ago. And while the first few songs, in between some lengthy stage banter, were some classic bangers, I found myself itching to get back to Frenzal – although I did catch their last bit coming back for Fall Out Boy, which was when I heard them launching into ‘Break Stuff’ again.
Yes, I know, Limp isn’t famous for just one song like my Simpsons comparison suggests. But that’s my point – imagine if Metallica opened and closed with ‘Enter Sandman’ – you’d check their medication.
Frenzal Rhomb (again)
…much better. I caught the tail end of ‘Never Had So Much Fun’ which was then backed up by ‘Instant Coffee’, ‘You Are Not My Friend’ and ‘Punch In The Face.’ By the time the guys ended it felt like the crowd had doubled in size, probably from those who got a bit tired of Fred Durst’s meandering.
Spiderbait
I only caught the first few songs before heading over to Fall Out Boy, but Janet, Kram and Whit still sounded as brilliant a live band as ever – and LOUD. While their set had to be cut short due to the incoming storm, Spiderbait still commanded an audience, which was pretty sizeable thanks to folks not overly keen on a emo/pop-punk closing act.
Just to wrap up stage 3 & 4, while Behemoth dominated in between Frenzal and Boom Crash Opera, particularly for the latter half of the day, both stages drove home a cool 90’s Homebake/Big Day Out spirit. The crowd showed up in numbers to support some great Australian music, and with Aussie acts both old and new dotted across the other stages it really proved that our alternative/heavy scene is the envy of the world right now.
Fall Out Boy
The last time I saw Fall Out Boy was back in 2015 on one of the side stages of Soundwave, and not that I thought they were bad, but I thought being relegated to a smaller stage didn’t do them justice.
Thankfully this time they were the headline act – and their intro blew me away, set to their recent cover of ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ and ‘The Pink Seashell’, Fall Out Boy treated a huge Sydney crowd to some classics. Kicking off with ‘Love From The Other Side’ into the massive ‘The Phoenix,’ then straight into the classic ‘Sugar We’re Going Down.’ The pyro work was another level, with Pete Wenz shooting flames out of his bass, and Patrick Stump’s vocals were on point.
But alas, looking over towards Sydney CBD folks could see the storm clouds approaching rapidly, and halfway through ‘Uma Thurman,’ Fall Out Boy’s set was cut short, and the Sydney crowd was told to evacuate.
Thankfully their Brisbane set went off without a hitch the next night, so we’ll give you the extensive lowdown in our AfterFilm and Magazine – both incoming…
On the positive side, I had a great day overall. I will note, however, that the debacle of trying to evacuate everyone to the ‘nearest shelter’ (as the stage message indicated) highlighted exactly why I still think the Sydney leg of the festival needs to see a move back to either Sydney Olympic Park or Parramatta.
The Melbourne and Brisbane venues are easier to access for both parking and public transport – and have shelter nearby. Centennial Parklands is a hefty 20 – 30-minute hike from Moore Park, longer for a trek over to Bondi Junction or Randwick. And after telling folks to not shelter under trees in a thunderstorm, making them walk back to either exits via a path lined with trees is not exactly ideal.
Add to that the confusing messaging that the event might resume after the storm which had some people hanging around the entrance (others called it a night after the 30-minute trek back to the EQ,) no communication via socials until about 11.30, and you had an ending to a otherwise stellar event that I think could have been handled a lot better.
Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now. While a disappointing ending to the Sydney event, I will say Good Things Festival really upped their game in 2023. The festival was a great mix of different acts that I enjoyed – I saw some old favourites, discovered some new bands and ticked some bucket list bands off. Plenty of food trucks meant not having to be stuck in line for ages, and while I did experience some crowd congestion a few times overall it wasn’t too bad. Count me in already for 2024.
Review by Simon Valentine @simonValentineau
Photo Gallery by Renae Egan. Follow Renae on Facebook and Instagram.
Please credit Wall of Sound and Renae Egan if you repost.
Enter Shikari
Eskimo Joe
Boom Crash Opera
Make Them Suffer
Slowly Slowly
Ocean Sleeper
Bullet For My Valentine
Taking Back Sunday
I Prevail
Short Stack
Limp Bizkit
Fall Out Boy
Crowds
