Soundwave Music Festival - Day One - My Music Experience

More about my Soundwave experience...the important stuff...the MUSIC!

Day one, I arrived a little before noon.  I wandered a little to check out the lay of the land, where the five stages were located, looked at the merch, grabbed a beverage, and headed over to Stage 4.  I caught about half of Australian based band King Parrot's set.  Not really my sound.  And, I don't exactly appreciate band members calling people the "C" word because we don't know their music and aren't really getting into their set.  Hey.  I'm there.  I'm giving you a listen.  You could have gained a new fan for all you know.  I'd give King Parrot a miss.

I was there at Stage 4 waiting on Nothing More.  This Texas band has been together for a few years and has had some recent success with their self-titled album.  Their rock has stellar vocals and lyrics, guitar riffs, melodies, and more.  They are my kinda rock band.  I was thrilled to see them.  They have some crazy contraptions on stage built from bicycle chains, rebar, and other metal.  They use them throughout to showcase different ways to play percussion and a bass guitar.  The vocalist has such a powerful voice his neck actually turned red.  I'm not kidding.  I've never seen anything like it.  I don't know if his vocal chords strain so hard against his neck or what, but his neck turned bright red!  This band held my attention the entire 40 minutes they were on stage.  My personal favorite was the impassioned performance of 'Jenny'.

Next up on Stage 4 was Melbourne band, Ne Oblisviscaris.  I was completely unfamiliar with the band, but my friend wanted to see them.  This is the first metal band I saw this weekend that included classical instruments in their sound; this featuring a violinist.  The vocalist growls a little too much for my taste, but that's just me.  I like rock music.  But, I never claimed to be a fan of the hardcore metal growling scene.  Cool, if you are.  It's just not my taste.  That being said, I was glad I watched the set.  The crowd was into it.  The band fed off that energy, and the musicianship was impressive.

We headed over to Stage 1 to check out Japanese power pop band One OK Rock.  High energy with excellent stage presence and a fun way to learn Japanese (as they throw in some Japanese in their mostly English lyric songs).

I headed over to Stage 2 for Gerard Way.  The former lead singer of My Chemical Romance has released a solo album that sounds nothing like MCR.  It blends guitars and keyboards to create a sound closer to British new wave than emo rock.  I like it.  I can dance to it.  I like to dance.  I give credit to Mr. Way for using his stage platform to quickly bring attention to spreading love to all, especially the transgender community and raising awareness of mental illness and encouraging sufferers to get help.  Yes, serious topics for a music festival...but as he holds the crowd's attention, why not use it for some good?

From there, I visited the free water station, took a stroll, had some food, and took a seat in the stands.  I've seen Steel Panther several times before (Heck, I even saw them when they were Metal Skool - I think that's what they were called).  Seen it.  Done it.  Over it.  But, they brought in a big crowd as I watched from the seats. (The pic below also shows the set up of stages 1 and 2)

I admit it...I got lazy...and I was saving energy for day 2.  I stayed in my seat from this faraway view for the rest of the day.  The music was great.  From this place, I listened to Antemasque, Incubus, and Soundgarden.  Seeing 'Fell on Black Days' live was a moment, a big moment for me.  All three of these bands are impressive, no frills, no gimmicks, just straight forward rock music played well.

I left a little early (9:30ish), got on my train, and headed home for some shut eye to prepare for day two.

If you want to read my other Soundwave posts, here they are:
Friday Favorites - Soundwave Edition
Soundwave - The Basics

Anybody want to come to Australia next year and join me?