That's not me, but I was there somewhere...
Thanks to Soundwave Festival, and main man AJ Maddah, I got to see all of these bands of whom I am a big fan for the very first time – at least 10 of these are bucket list bands for me:
Alice in Chains (twice), Faith No More, Iron Maiden, Machine Head, Alter Bridge (twice), Rob Zombie (twice), Stone Sour, Testament, Down, Monster Magnet, Sevendust, High on Fire, The Sword, Baroness, Reel Big Fish, Black Label Society, Mastodon, Hellyeah, Filter, Five Finger Death Punch, Staind, Bush, Jane’s Addiction
Then you can add to that the following bands that I’d
already seen, but got to see again because of Soundwave (including probably two
of my five most-loved bands):
Nine Inch Nails, Clutch (twice), Queens of the Stone Age, Primus, Slash, Lamb of God, Megadeth (this is somewhat ironic – they famously canned their planned Soundwave appearance but still played an Auckland show!)
Nine Inch Nails, Clutch (twice), Queens of the Stone Age, Primus, Slash, Lamb of God, Megadeth (this is somewhat ironic – they famously canned their planned Soundwave appearance but still played an Auckland show!)
Unfortunately, yesterday Soundwave 2016 was cancelled. It wasn’t a huge surprise – anyone could
figure out that there were serious challenges behind the scenes. A few days ago AJ announced this would be
the last year for Soundwave, capping off a series of late / somewhat
underwhelming band announcements, rumoured huge names that never quite
materialised, stories popping up about tax debts from previous festivals, and
so on.
The big problem, ultimately, was that the line-up wasn’t of
the same calibre as previous years, in terms of both headliners and overall
depth. Soundwave almost became a victim
of their own success – previous line-ups had been so consistently, absurdly
good, it made it that much more starkly obvious when this year’s line-up came up
short of that high benchmark.
There’s a very good reason for how the line-up ended up,
though. Remember, most major rock/metal bands
are from the US, and therefore expect to get paid in US Dollars – with a few
from the UK. From mid-2009 onwards until
mid-2014, the AUD was very strong against the USD. In fact, the AUD/USD rate was pretty much over
0.9 the whole time apart from a couple of brief lulls. It was over 1.0 for most of 2011 and
2012. And then, in mid-2014, the Aussie
dollar tanked – dropping from 0.93 in September 2014 to 0.70 a year later.
All of a sudden, a band that costs US$100k – which at 1:1
would’ve cost AU$100k – now costs AU$140k at 0.7:1. Any operation that had its main cost line go
up 40% in the space of 2 years is going to have a serious problem (that would
probably sink all but the most profitable businesses). So the only solution is just to have less
bands, and hence the somewhat diminished lineup this year – with no really big
headliner, but some solid draws nevertheless (Deftones, Disturbed, etc.) and a
genuine wildcard in Metal Allegiance.
The (comparatively) weak line-up meant the punters didn’t
front up early on like they have in previous years, which creates a fairly
vicious cycle – those weak initial sales will naturally make other bands, who
might be big drawcards, reluctant to sign up.
My suspicion is Soundwave’s approach was always to use a big first
announcement to drive sales and publicity, to therefore fuel subsequent signings
for the second and third announcements – essentially allowing them to give the audience
the biggest and best selection of bands they could possibly get. Up until this year it worked admirably.
Even under these challenging circumstances, AJ was clearly
working furiously up until the ship sank to try and get a big name to rescue
proceedings. There was some speculation
it could’ve been Guns N Roses with the original line-up – that might have done
it. It turned out it was Rage Against
the Machine. Expecting a band who hasn’t
played a show in four years to reunite for a tour on six weeks’ notice was
probably pretty optimistic – and I’m not totally sure they alone would’ve saved
the day – but hell it was worth a go.
What I actually find really disappointing about the demise
of Soundwave is not so much the fact it’s over, or the way it ended, but the
way some punters have reacted. “People
on social media” have been incredibly quick to put the boot into AJ, Soundwave,
and this year’s line-up, with some celebrating the festival’s
cancellation. Seriously, if you are
going to blame anyone, blame the governments of China and Australia. The former, because the tanking Chinese economy
has dried up demand for Australia’s mining exports, which is largely what has
caused the AUD to tank. The latter,
because they clearly did not have a plan B for the economy in the event that
mining tanked.
Frankly, you guys do not know how good you have had it.
Year after year, Soundwave churned out a festival that was
comparable to many of the huge festivals in the US and Europe. We’re talking about the likes of Rock on the
Range, Sonisphere, Download – huge names that fans in Australia and New Zealand
would dream of being able to go to maybe once in a lifetime. Those festivals have a potential catchment
based on populations well into the hundreds of millions of people; AJ and
Soundwave gave us the same thing in our backyard of 25 million or so. So many festivals down under have involved
filling in chunks of the day between a few relatively decent bands; at Soundwave
the problem was normally that you wanted to see more bands than you possibly
could and hence had to manage the clashes.
And of course, we didn’t just get the festival, we got the
deluge of sideshows that came with it – in fact, a lot of bands took the
opportunity to come over the ditch to New Zealand, either for their own shows,
or as part of Westfest (which is probably now also in a terminal state). I got to see Clutch, my favourite band in the
world, play in the freakin’ Kings Arms in Auckland!
It would’ve been nice to have the once-mighty Soundwave go
out with a huge bang, rather than have it crawl into a heap while a bunch of
lame internet trolls and keyboard warriors put the boot in, whilst the fight
over refunds potentially gets messy. But
that wasn’t to be, and unfortunately idiots are going to behave like idiots.
But I, for one, am pretty bloody grateful for everything
Soundwave has given me. Not just the
chance to see a lot of great bands, but some great memories for both myself and
my primary concert-going co-conspirator.
So thanks, AJ Maddah, for everything that you did for rock and metal
fans down under, through Soundwave, and Soundwave Touring - over the past decade it's hard to imagine anyone who's done more.
Here are my top five Soundwave highlights (not including
sidewaves, which would also garner honourable mentions for Iron Maiden, Alter
Bridge and Clutch):
They had an early afternoon set, on the metal (side)
stage. They played only six songs. But somehow, this was one of the most
intense, powerful festival sets I’ve ever seen a band play. It was like they distilled an entire show’s
worth of energy into just six tracks, with every single member of the band
holding nothing back. It was brutal, it
was uncompromising, and it has me incredibly excited for their full headline
set in Auckland in March next year. I’d
waited ten years to see Sevendust live, and somehow they managed to completely
fulfil expectations with just a short festival set.
AIC had recently reformed, with new singer/guitarist William
DuVall. Here was a band I thought I
would never, ever get a chance to see perform live, with one of my most
respected/admired musicians in Jerry Cantrell.
And I found myself right up the front, right on the barrier, watching a
rejuvenated, energetic AIC rip through a stunning set of classic tracks – Man
in the Box, Nutshell, Rooster and No Excuses, plus big personal favourites like
Rain When I Die and Dam That River. This
was my first Soundwave experience; the bar had been set very, very high.
In exactly the same category as AIC – “bands that I never
thought I’d get to see because they’d split up”. Faith No More were everything I’d hoped for
and a lot more. They came dressed in
lounge suits with lavish floral arrangements on stage, and had a great setlist
including a few hidden gems like Surprise! You’re Dead, The Gentle Art of
Making Enemies. They finished with We
Care A Lot – probably the single best track they could have finished a set
with. Throughout, Mike Patton’s presence
and vocal ability was nothing less than captivating. He plays with the crowd much like a cat toys
with a mouse – and frankly it was a reminder of how few decent front men have
emerged in the past decade or so.
The exception to the above observation about the dearth of
front men in recent times is one Myles Kennedy, singer/guitarist for Alter
Bridge. Although, one great thing about
Alter Bridge is what a tight unit they are – the way that Kennedy, Brian
Marshall, Mark Tremonti and Scott Phillips just continually riff off one
another on stage.
This time around they had an early afternoon main stage set;
not ideal, but they sure left everything out there on stage. It’s impossible not to like a band with such
great songs and so much enthusiasm for the songs, the crowd – Mark Tremonti in particular
seems to perform with the sort of raw, unabashed energy of a kid (or mildly
drunk adult) rocking out to Guitar Hero.
The scary thing about this band – they keep on getting better. The step-up from their previous Soundwave set
to this one was huge.
If I had to pick one Soundwave highlight, this would be
it. It was 9pm, at the end of a long, hot,
messy day. Machine Head were up on the
metal side stage, playing against System of a Down, one of the main
headliners. For the next 60 minutes,
they put on a performance that I’ve only seen rivalled once since – and that
was by them, earlier this year. Those
songs, that energy, just wash over the crowd, and totally envelop you. And there’s this continual call and response
between band and crowd, that just continually pushes the intensity and the
energy level up, and up, and up. This
was the first, glorious time I saw Machine Head live; now I consider them the
greatest live band in the world today.
Post-mortem; the gig list:
Nine Inch Nails (Vector Arena, Auckland, 2009)
Soundwave 2009, Sydney
Clutch (Auckland, 2010)
Soundwave 2010, Sydney
Queens of the Stone Age (Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland,
2011)
Iron Maiden (Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney, 2011)
Soundwave 2011, Sydney
Soundwave 2012, Sydney
Bush, Staind (Enmore Theater, Sydney, 2012)
Alter Bridge (Enmore Theater, Sydney, 2012)
Westfest (Vector Arena, Auckland, 2014)
Clutch (The Metro, Sydney, 2014)
Soundwave 2014, Sydney
Down (The Powerstation, Auckland, 2014)
