Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineDecember 11, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, Daniel Hanssen, Good Things Festival, Parkway Drive, A Day To Remember, Karnivool, Simple Plan, The Veronicas, Ice Nine Kills

GOOD THINGS 2019

words & photos: Daniel Hanssen @danthegigman

Review

*“..over twenty bands span five stages across ten hours of music with many fans seen running between stages to catch as many acts as they possibly could.”*

Melbourne Flemington Racecourse came alive on Friday for the first of 2019’s Good Things Festival tour. The tour hosts many bands across a single day of performances and the weather in Melbourne Friday meant that the metal heads turned up in droves.

It was arguably a very long day, seeing over twenty bands span five stages across ten hours of music with many fans seen running between stages to catch as many acts as they possibly could. Of course, their were unforeseen clashes for some fans torn between acts but for most it was a day of fun, friends and a fair amount of thrashing around in the pit.

It was a full load of a day with some incredible international acts gracing the stages alongside some home-grown talent. The opening acts in The Bennies and Poppy were the party starters easily setting early attendees alight with the mood of the day. In fact, Poppy’s set easily drew a massive crowd with stage two being dwarfed by her fans.

Quickly the crowds poured through the gates and by the time Ice Nine Kills and Skeggs arrived on their respective stages the masses of people were already verging on the ridiculous. Yet, that didn’t stop the die hard fans from moshing like there was no tomorrow as bands such as deathcore group Thy Art Is Murder bringing together one of the most ruthless circle pits of the day. To add to the fun, The Veronicas also created a pit of their own, egging the crowd on through “Untouched” to get a circle pit going. It was by no means anywhere near the levels coming out of Thy Art Is Murder or Parkway Drive but it allowed the people who wanted to be involved in a light mosh a little time in the limelight.

As the day progressed further slowly but surely the bigger metal and hardcore bands graced the stages, but it was the somewhat out of place early two-thousands rock of Simple Plan that made the largest impact in the mid afternoon. With the sun at its peak blistering down on the backs of revelers Simple Plan was able to make them forget the blaze with a little bit of nostalgia. They pulled out classics “Summer Paradise” and “Perfect” alongside some other more recent numbers building a wonderful mood across the two main stages before Violent Soho took the floor.

By the time A Day To Remember took to the main stage, much of the fun on the other stages had dried up, while Australian prog rock prince Ian Kenny and his band Karnivool rocked out on stage four, many people struggled to drag themselves away from A Day To Remember on one of the two main stages. ADTR played their biggest numbers through “All I Want”, “Right Back At It Again” and “Paranoia” along with many others across their hour long set, but sadly missed out on much of their huge discography.

Australia’s own Parkway Drive closed the day out with a thrilling set that well and truly would have helped solidified Good Things’ place in the Australian festival scene. Parkway’s set could only be described as ‘mega’ as the band from Byron clearly came to rock with their near hour and a half set full of ripper tracks across their full discography. Making a suitable entrance for a band of their size, they were led through the crowd by torch bearing masked men jumping up the back of stage to rock the first song “Wishing Wells” in near darkness. Their set featured plenty from their award winning album, recent release Reverence while showcasing the favourites of the band “Vice Grip”, “Prey” and “Crushed” mixed within a huge setlist.

The theatrics were spectacular with beams of fire lighting up both the stage and sky throughout Parkway Drives’ set. If that wasn’t enough, drummer Ben Gordon put on a master class performing a thrashing drum solo upside down surrounded by flames heading into the end of their set through “Bottom Feeder”.

The day was something worth overall praise, with Good Things bringing acts that easily captured the scene they’re a part of while bringing massive amounts of fans through the gates of Flemington.