Niedziela 22 Lut 2009, 19:35

Managed to escape Auckland while it was on the rag without getting wet and headed over to Brisbane for this. Was on the same plane as Underoath, not that I would've recognized them if they hadn't mentioned it to someone. Wasn't gonna watch them anyway, heard that their set was crap. Plane parked up at the airport and they told us we had to wait while the ground staff hid from a thunderstorm. No idea how long it was gonna be, but in the end it was only 20 mins.

Weather cleared up nicely for Soundwave. I was mainly there for Bloodhound Gang. Got nice and close to the front, but as soon as they started the great squish came. After a few songs I fought my way back so I wasn't so distracted. Knew to expect a short-ish set and planned jokes, but it was still awesome. Need to see them again sometime. Daniel, the newest addition to the band, got sent out first dressed as a sailor to play the guitar intro to Fire Water Burn. They played other goodies such as I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks, The Ballad Of Chasey Lain, Ralph Wiggum, Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo, Three Point One Four, and The Bad Touch. While waiting, The Dillinger Escape Plan was playing the stage adjacent, but I couldn't hear them properly because of the soundcheck in front of me. Their antics were funny though. The singer climbed the stage and kicked down the "no moshing or crowd surfing" sign. He encouraged the crowd to throw more plastic bottles, and assigned points, eg. 75 points for hitting the drummer. Lots of morons wearing jandals/flip-flops into the mosh pit and then losing them.

Alice In Chains. Fucking amazing! Was hoping they would play Get Born Again, but they didn't… would've been a nice shoutout to the dedicated fans. Still brilliant. The new singer is great. Jerry is just a maestro, and he adds some strength to the vocals as well. They had some great colourful lighting as well, laser-ish lights sending beams out. Set list: Again, Angry Chair, Man In The Box, Them Bones, Dam That River, Rain When I Die, Nutshell, Down In A Hole, No Excuses, It Ain't Like That, Would?, Rooster.

I saw Nine Inch Nails for about 20 minutes in between other bands, not really my thing. Live they seem heavier than their studio stuff, so not too bad.

I'm easy going, didn't see any bands I didn't enjoy at least a bit. Some I would've enjoyed more if I had moved closer to the stage. A couple of Less Than Jake members missed a connecting flight, so they didn't play unfortunately. Other bands I had a geeze at, in order of great to ok: Face To Face, Goldfinger, Rival Schools, In Flames, Lacuna Coil, The Riverboat Gamblers, Lamb of God, The Subways, Billy Talent, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Apparently Sydney Soundwave the next day suffered from bad entrance organization, people queuing for 2 hours or more at one entrance, while the other one was flowing freely. Lucky I didn't opt to go do that one. Brisbane had similar problems last year, so at least they sorted it out this time.

Funny moments:
- Riverboat Gamblers singer sang part of the last song hanging upside down from a tree.
- Punk is fun too… wall of death at Goldfinger was a bit one-sided, the people on the left got pushed away. Face To Face got a little circle pit going on asphalt.
- The next day at the airport, overheard a kid ask "Mummy, is Pluto a planet?" Haha, not sure if he got an answer, wonder if he would be as devastated as if he found out the truth about Santa.