Photos – Britt Andrews
Review – Brendan Delavere
Summer festival season. It’s either stinking hot or summer storms. Or both. Which is what Sydney copped for this years Good Things Festival.
With the rain starting right around the time the gates opened, and not leaving until several hours later, the pristine green of Centennial Park turned a muddy shade of brown.
Feeling right at home with the English weather, Liverpool four piece Loathe opened up the main stage. Sounding like Deftones meets metalcore, the first circle pit of the day comes within moments of the first notes ringing. Gored, White Hot, Screaming, the rain hit hard but the pit ninjas hit harder.
The self proclaimed “greatest punk band in the world” Bowling For Soup hit us with a flurry of pop punk goodness. Pointing out every costumed punter on the crowd, from a Santa moshpit to finding ‘Where’s Waldo’, to a guy holding a sign saying “Gday Cunts”. The greatest song about Texas, Ohio, and 2000’s classic, 1985 to close.
Over at Stage 666, the freak show were freaking out punters with a crazy fire eating show and Captain Ruin swinging a 20kg ball from his bits, it’s never too early to see a naked cock. Local act Inertia garnered a solid crowd over at stage five, with the boys having supported the best in Australia and the likes of Bury Tomorrow, it’s about time they scored a spot on a festival like this. Leviathan, Dominion, Too Far Gone, the crowd braving the rain to support the boys.
With one of the biggest clashes of the day – the Aussie rock staples of The Butterfly Effect and The Living End – revised at the eleventh hour, The Butterfly Effect hit us with a set of crowd picked favourites. Frontman Clint Boge eyeing the rain soaked crowd from behind his reflective aviator glasses, One Second Of Insanity, Gone, Always. Personally I would’ve only picked songs from the first two records, but Window and the Watcher singalong went hard. Thankful for that revised set times, Melbourne rockers The Living End packed out the main stage. At this point, this reviewer and majority of the crowd were soaked to the bone, but that’s no issue when classic hits like Second Solution, All Torn Down, and Roll On have the entire crowd singing and dancing in the rain. End Of The World has some choice words from Chris Cheney about his bleak outlook on the state of this earth, but the biggest hurrah comes from getting the crowd to make the “most noise ever” for Prisoner of Society.
April Sun in Cuba? More like December rain in Sydney! But before classic rockers Dragon could play their seminal hit Rain, the clouds parted and the sun beat down, creating a steamy, humid environment and certainly a bit of sunburn for those not prepared for the instant change in UV levels.
The temps rose higher, with metal gods Mastodon scorching the shit outta the front row with insane amounts of pyro. Touring the 20th anniversary of Leviathan, the set featured heavily from that record – Megalodon, Iron Tusk, and the thunderous set closer, Blood and Thunder. The mosh ran circles, Troy Sanders’ monstrous bass booming, Steambreather and Mot
With the sun finally out, the soaking wet crowd lapped it up. The rising humidity didn’t deter most from hitting the pits, though the bar lines were now chockers, and the toilet situation fairing even worse.
Americana rockers The Gaslight Anthem have undergone a hiatus, reunion, and new record since their last tour down under. Changing their set list for each show, the fellas treated Sydney to a collection of folk punk spanning their discography, from the raucous We Came To Dance, the musing 45 and a rare cover of Mother Love Bone’s Chloe Dancer. Frontman Brian Fallon, smile plastered across his face despite the heat, leads us into closer The ‘59 Sound.
Back at the main stage with a beer in hand, celebrating over 40 years of their self titled record, art punk trio Violent Femmes open with their most famous song, Blister In The Sun. An odd choice to open with – and not just because the majority of the crowd weren’t even born when that record was released. Opening on their biggest drawcard left little room to ramp the set up to a grand finale. Apart from the die-hard Violent Femmes fans in attendance, most others were left checking their watches wondering when the set would fizzle to a close – especially those who were camped on the barrier waiting for the mighty nu-metal titans, KoЯn.
Meanwhile, Stage 5, in stark contrast to the main stage’s current offerings, was playing host to the rapidly growing fanbase of Reliqa. The prog metal four piece are sounding positively heavy, and the crowd forming are a testament to their rising star. With their debut album copping a flogging on the record player, it’s great to hear the track translating so much heavier on stage. Monique Pym commanded the stage, a new track thrown into the mix gets the crowd excited for more, Terminal rounding out the set.
Jumping from a 2pm slot at 2022 Good Things, to the second headliner, German party boys Electric Callboy were bumped up the lineup after the devastating last minute cancellation of Sum 41, with singer Deryck Whibley being struck down by pneumonia. To make things worse, Electric Callboy’s drummer David Freidrich had to fly home at the last minute due to an emergency. Serendipitously, Sum 41’s drummer, Frank Zummo, now with a remarkably free weekend schedule, offered to fill in behind the kit. A whirlwind ride with more pyro and confetti than you can poke a stick at, the Tekkno Train took the party to another level. And you couldn’t even tell that Zummo had had approximately three hours before jumping on stage in Melbourne, the previous day, to learn the set. Kismet.
Spaceman, Hypa Hypa, Pump It, once the party started there was no stopping it. With countless words of gratitude to Zummo, a fast cover of Still Waiting and the Babymetal collab RATATATA, it was the closer that really smashed it outta the park, We Got The Moves had the bass thumping, the pit moshing and the pyro fa-laming!
For anyone left alive after that, with barely a moment to find their feet or catch their breath, hit unmistakable bassline riff of Here To Stay. If security thought they had it bad during Electric Callboy, they were in for a surprise as for the next 90-minutes. An endless stream of bodies came over the barrier, apt for KoЯn’s second song, Dead Bodies Everywhere. It seems as though the entire festival had turned out for KoЯn, with only a dedicated few over on the side stage for Billy Corgan.
Got The Life, ADIDAS, Good God, hit after hit, with the band focusing on their 90s and early 2000’s output. Without explanation, the show was halted, the band left midway through Ball Tongue as emergency and security rushed into the pit. Unsure what the issue was, and again without explanation, Jonathan Davies and crew returned and ripped right back into where they left off.
Shoots and Ladders with its iconic bagpipes, Davies marching about the stage blowing his horn, the maniacal gibberish of Twist, and with all middle fingers in the air, set closer Y’all Want A Single, 25000 people screaming “Fuck that, fuck that!”.
‘Do you want more?’ Blares the big screen, as the five piece walk back on, the twanging dual guitars of Munky and Head on Falling Away From Me, before taking us back where it all began, the start of a genre, that down tuned bass of Freak On A Leash.
After the insane mosh pits, the never ending rain, mud, and humidity, the mid strength beers, the final slow, trudging penguin march out of the gates, I think everyone was in silent agreement. Festivals are fucked, but by God, they’re so much fun.
