Live Review: Soundwave Festival, Day One

22 February 2015 | 3:27 pm | Ben E Webbs

Faith No More and Soundgarden delivered in a big way, even if Incubus remain as confusing as ever.

If there’s one thing big dudes in black clothes love more than heavy metal, it’s temperatures higher than 40 degrees celsius, right?

Day one of Soundwave 2015 in Adelaide did not disappoint on either front. After yet another week dogged in AJ Maddah controversy - this time following the Soundwave promoter’s unceremonious announcement that his festival won’t return to Adelaide - it seemed the many thousands of punters who were at Bonython Park simply wanted to put disappointment aside, and rock out with their devil horns up one last time. 

Things were off to a rocky start when UK act The Treatment were unable to make it to Adelaide in time for their first-ever Australian performance, due to congestion at Dubai airport. On top of that, the “final” timetables released a maddening three days prior to the event didn’t match printed versions handed out on site, and the locations of stages three and four had been swapped completely.


Amid this confusion, fans continued to trickle in and search for a shady spot in front of Patent Pending or King Parrot. The first real wildcard of the day was Le Butcherettes, whose inclusion on the bill might have been the handiwork of one Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (more on him later.) They had a small, enthusiastic audience, but Teri Gender-Bender’s performance style - alluring and yet often uncomfortable - was clearly not to the taste of the more purist metalheads.

Stage three was the home of pop/punk/emo/screamo type bands. Detroit youngsters Fireworks seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the oppressive heat, but I suspect it had diminished their energy levels somewhat - they just didn’t sound ‘big’ enough, especially for a six-piece.

Meanwhile a serious crowd had finally assembled in front of the main arena, anticipating the arrival of LA glam metal satirists Steel Panther. This, folks, is an entertaining band. Imagine The Darkness, except without the cool and about 1000 percent more ridiculous, and you’re starting to get into the ballpark! Opening with the tasteful Pussywhipped from their most recent album, Steel Panther were a blur of fluorescent faux-leopard print, hairspray, tapping solos and falsetto. Every cliche was so firmly nailed in place that a casual observer might have mistaken them for Poison or Mötley Crüe. But Steel Panther’s comedic content isn’t exactly family-friendly: Titles like Asian Hooker, It Won’t Suck Itself and Fuck My Heart In The Ass would make Tenacious D blush. The problem with banter like frontman Michael Starr’s casual quip “I just found out that the legal age of consent in Australia is now 12!” is that there’s likely some imbecile in the crowd who believes it.

Soon a significant portion of the audience had siphoned off to the opposite side of Bonython park to catch one of the day’s first legendary acts, Fear Factory. They’ve been performing for 25 years, if you exclude the brief early 2000s period when infighting caused a significant lineup change. As the group filed on stage, Mike Heller’s pounding double-kick seemed to send out some sort of homing signal, drawing in more punters by the minute until an impressive crowd had amassed. Fear Factory were also fucking loud. possibly louder than the main stages - it was hard to tell. Edgecrusher came early in the set, and was a sign that fans were in for a mix of the old and new. Demanufacture and Self Bias Resistor were other Fear Factory classics that featured in the set, but there was no sign of their industrial take on Gary Numan’s Cars.  

With Steel Panther wrapped up in the main arena and Fear Factory well underway on stage four,  there were worryingly few people left to see the first ever show by ANTEMASQUE, the newest venture for Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala - the same duo that brought us The Mars Volta, At The Drive-In, and De Facto, among countless other projects.  The four-piece opened with In The Lurch, in a bid to catch anyone who might’ve heard it flogged on triple j over the summer. By my count, this is about the 12th time Omar and Co have come to Australia in some capacity or another, but this was the most jovial I’ve seen them. Maybe the excess sun was responsible, but Bixler-Zavala made jokes and his three bandmates (even Rodriguez-Lopez!) cracked smiles. Between sips of tea and his trademark vocal hysteria, Bixler-Zavala made a game of trying to dismantle Dave Elitch’s drumset while he was still playing it, to the eventual annoyance of both Elitch and his drum tech. It seemed as though The Mars Volta’s death was in name only, because on stage ANTEMASQUE was not significantly different from the leaner, late-era Volta. As in the past, Imaginative improvisation was key to the performance. Elitch’s style is somewhere between former Volta drummers John Theodore and Deantoni Parks, and hell, bassist Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez even looks uncannily like Juan Alderete! It’s good to know that whatever name they’re working under, the Omar and Cedric Variety Hour can deliver the goods.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

On stage four, industrial metal veterans Ministry were greeted by a crowd already whipped into a frenzy by their kindred spirits in Fear Factory. Those with a sweeter tooth were at the mainstage for the return of US rockers Incubus. Incubus are a band that I simply do not ‘get’, and so - reader be warned - the next few paragraphs might be considered harsh. If you’re an Incubus sympathiser, look away now! Seriously, what was this band doing on the Soundwave bill? They haven’t had a record out for almost four years, and they sound more like Creed than like Cannibal Corpse. The cynic in me says Incubus were added because of Brendan Boyd’s fortunate looks, and when I asked a friend what she remembered about Incubus all she could say was “the singer was good looking.” He can sing, which is a plus, but it doesn’t rescue their sort-of-quasi-mystical-slightly-funk-ish-hard-rock-inspired-commercial-US-radio-rock from the depths of banality. Remember Y2K, when every rock band had cartoon avatars on their merchandise, and a DJ in the band? Incubus still have a DJ in the band!!  They also had tribal drums and a needlessly large drum set,  and they played for fucking ages! It was possibly due to some sort of delay in the Soundgarden camp, but Incubus played for an agonising extra ten minutes, including a jam on The Beatles’ She’s So Heavy. It was the best moment of the set because a) they didn’t write it, and b) they were about to leave.

Mercifully, Chris Cornell sauntered on stage with Ben Shepherd, Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil nonchalantly in tow, launching immediately into Spoonman. Jesus! What a revelation Soundgarden were after having endured Incubus. Riffs, songs, melodies, and an astonishing voice. The audience was on side immediately and the band (Cornell in particular) looked to be in high spirits. Outshined came early in a set that ran the gamut of the band’s impressive discography, from the slow, sludgy riffage of their debut UltramegaOK to their most recent effort King Animal. The majority (perhaps predictably for a festival set) came from the Badmotorfinger and Superunknown eras, although their commercial breakthrough Black Hole Sun was conspicuously absent, as was the unrelenting Jesus Christ Pose. Still, the crowd was largely satiated by the inclusion of My Wave, Burden In My Hand, and Fell On Black Days, as well as the quirkier Ty Cobb. Then, toward the end of their slot, Soundgarden drew a genuine “holy shit” moment from their hardcore fans not just at Soundwave but around the world, when they played Birth Ritual (a song featured in the 1992 film Singles) for the first time in twenty-three years. This was one of the day’s highlights, and made up for the lack of an encore from Cornell and company.

Not to be upstaged by anyone, Faith No More appeared immediately afterward resplendent in white robes, with hundreds of huge flower arrangements and vases adorning the stage, in front of a large white backdrop. For a band whose reformation once seemed very unlikely, they had surely pulled out all the stops to give Soundwave the full Faith No More experience. Patton, of course, was in full voice, as the band greeted its fans with Motherfucker. Hits like Evidence and the still-fittingly titled Epic came surprisingly early, but then, Faith No More have got more great songs than you might have remembered. From the thrash of Ashes To Ashes to their iconic cover of The Commodore’s Easy (still a staple on easy-listening stations the world over) this was undoubtedly the most varied and interesting set of the day. Unlike Cornell, Patton did submit to an encore, which included a treat for long-term fans in We Care A Lot.

Around the corner, Aquabats were leaping about in their Devo-esque costumes and stealing a little of The Flaming Lips’ schtick with huge beachballs bouncing all over the crowd, and Atreyu were preaching to the converted with an enormous and well-balanced stage sound. But with at least a little bit of sunburn and whole lot of fatigue, this reporter headed slowly for the exits. After all, it was only the halfway point. You can look for a detailed review of Soundwave 2015 day two soon!