Soundwave Festival - Part One

The 24th of February held the long awaited event for all metal, punk and rock lovers from Sydney; the second leg of the Soundwave Festival. The festival had visited Brisbane the previous day and Sydney was up next, bringing the likes of Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182 and The Offspring to Sydney Showgrounds.

The day kicked off early, people being let into the gates from about 10.00am, the first bands set to hit the stage at 11.00. Thousands of people were already flowing through the gates as they opened, most heading to the merchandise tents or the signing tent to start the long day ahead of them. 

Timetables were released a few weeks prior to the event and caused a lot of stress for many. With most of the headliners playing at the same time and a lot of clashes between smaller bands with similar fan bases, it quickly became a tough decision of which bands to check out.

First band up for me were Memphis May Fire, a Rise Records, post-hardcore band from Dallas, Texas. The band managed to pull a pretty big crowd for being one of the first bands to play and one of the smaller bands of the line up. They produced an energy filled set, playing songs such as Vices, Prove Me Right and Without Walls. The band were also joined on stage by good friend and Sleeping With Sirens front man, Kellin Quinn, to play Legacy.

Next up, were Mindless Self Indulgence. MSI have been around for around 16 years and that could easily be seen through their incredible stage presence. The band have a unique synth-punk, electronic rock sound and had the whole crowd moving through out the set, especially in their hit songs Shut Me Up and Straight To Video. Lead vocalist, Jimmy, entertained the crowd with his constant dancing and weird antics that is well known for.

Sleeping With Sirens were next, another Rise Records post-hardcore band. Sleeping With Sirens pulled a huge crowd even if it was mainly filled with teenage girls, a large majority of them screaming over front man, Kellin Quinn. The band played all their well known tracks, opening with Do It Now, Remember It Later. For two songs in the set the band went acoustic, leaving only Kellin and lead guitarist Jesse on stage to perform Don't Fall Asleep The Helm and Roger Rabbit; a track of their most recent release, Acoustic EP - If You Were A Movie, This Would Be Your Soundtrack. 

Leaving Sleeping With Sirens set a few songs early, I headed to stage four to see yet another Rise Records band, but this time metal core act, Of Mice and Men. Arriving at the set, the band were kicking off their most recent single, The Depths. Lead vocalist, Austin Carlile dedicated the song to legendary front man, Corey Taylor, getting the crowd involved in a very Slipknot like action, everyone kneeling down until the first line of the song was screamed. The band played 8 songs, the mosh pit never stopping the entire time, complete with circle pits and a 'wall of death'.