Sydney has been missing an alternative heavy rock festival for a few years now, stepping up to the plate to have a turn at bat in filling that void is newcomer Good Things. Seemingly emerging out of nowhere, Good Things brings forth a new era for Australian alternative music fans by ushering in an unstoppable army of some of the heaviest, and most alternative bands, the universe has on offer.
It is hot today, like really hot, just no escaping that fact, quite a few people have gathered amongst the tree line trying to escape the brutality of the days’ sun, still able to take a view of the stages and hear the music which is more than a good thing.
Whenever I come to a festival I like to straight away get my bearings by walking around, taking it all in and grabbing myself a cold one. The layout of Good Things is truly one of the best I have experienced the world over, it’s smart layout out of toilets and the distance between stages works well. Add to this actual quality food stands (I took full advantage of the Raclette food truck) seating areas, quick moving bar-lines and ample water stations plus signing tent all go into taking the festival from a good thing to a great thing, even the location of Parramatta Park was such a good choice, so much better then Olympic Park.
Now let’s talk music, no matter which stages you caught your music on you were sure to be covered in dust as those at the front stomped and moshed their way thru some absolutely killer sets from some our best homegrown and international bands. We melted away listening to the Indie punk sounds of Waax and Waterparks got us all soaking wet with their upbeat high energy set. Local lads Northlane adding to the heat with their flaming hot set, I caught fire watching The Used delivering yet another fantastic live show.
A huge crowd of fans and curious onlookers had come to see Baby Metal perform in their first ever Australian appearance, these girls really delivering something we hadn’t seen before. Bullet for My Valentine for me were the highlight of the day as they Screamed Aimed and Fired their way thru a set keeping fans new and old satisfied really hope these guys come back and do a solo show sometime soon.
As the sun finally began to retreat behind the Western Sydney horizon All Time Low became The Life of The Party but it was birthday boy Corey Taylor that gave us the presents as we celebrated with streamers and rocked out to Stone Sour. It was now time for The Offspring to Come Out and Play ;p, to mark this special occasion the band decided to play their seminal album Smash in full, this was the album of my youth and hearing it in a place where I spent a great deal of my youth was just surreal. Whilst I enjoyed hearing every track of the album it was the piano version of Gone Away during the encore that absolutely just moved me inside, a great live music treat that I am forever going to carry with me, sensational.
As my day ended I left completely satisfied and happy, the walk home thru the park only adding to the joy and tribulation I felt inside. Good Things Festival felt like an event out of this world almost from another galaxy. The heat was beyond the control of event organisers but from what I saw on the day the ground staff did a good job of treating people and keeping us safe. The overuse of police is another thing beyond the control of festival organisers and I’m sure under 18 festival goers are disappointed in the NSW government (read the article here) there is always hope for next year. One thing that was frustrating, the sound was not always on point but apart from that, today was a good day.
Review – Chad