Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Sunday, October 2 2011
Reviewed by Tori Hyland
The morning of Soundwave’s Counter Revolution in Adelaide had finally arrived. After a long wait with many other teenagers, the gates opened at 10am as promised, with the first band beginning at 11am on the Grand Stage, set up in the Courtyard.
After much chaos over the last few months with the original Soundwave Revolution planned and then cancelled, the Soundwave crew had quickly prepared this national mini festival with pop punk headliners, All Time Low and Panic! At The Disco.
British rockers, We Are The Ocean, took the stage first opening with, What It Feels Like, their debut single from their second album, Go Now and Live. Only a few people had specifically come to see them and I was definitely one, but the crowd grew as they went on. Running through a mixture of songs from both albums including These Days I Have Nothing, Run Away and Overtime Is A Crime, with small breaks to talk to the crowd. The energy from the band and specifically Dan Brown (lead vocalist) was immense. During the set, Dan jumped down into the crowd and moshed with the crowd, giving off an intimate feel. Finishing up with The Waiting Room, half an hour was definitely not a long enough set.
After taking a look around the rather small area, we made our way inside towards the other stage for New York’s pop punkers, We Are The In Crowd. It was surprising for a band that is not very known out here, to have such a large crowd waiting for them, even half an hour before. Opening with Rumor Mill, one of their best songs off their new album, Best Intentions. Having the only front woman out of all the bands that played, made them different and intriguing. They continued their set playing such songs as Never Be What You Want, For the Win and Both Sides of the Story, maintaining a good live energy, but the size of the stage restricted them and their movement. But even then, by the end of their set they had the crowd off its feet and singing along word for word.
Back to the Grand Stage, Alesana took the stage. One of the more “Screamo” bands for the day, who ended up pulling out a decent crowd. Hailing from North Carolina, this sextet have taken over their dark scene, making a rather good choice with their 2010 album, The Emptiness, developing it into a twisting horror story about a girl named Annabel. All of their albums seem to tell stories, so it would make sense if their live set did too. Opening with Obsession Is Such An Ugly Word, a surprising choice. I was enlightened to see they incorporated all their spoken parts in the songs in their live show. In some songs, they seemed to be having minor technical difficulties with microphones; it was difficult to hear Dennis Lee’s unclean vocals. But in saying that, Alesana were a stand out for me, with their quirky facial expressions, immense energy, crowd involvement, eerie and story setting.
I had a break for a while, grabbed some food and merchandise, and went to some signing sessions. Hellogoodbye were playing on the Grand Stage during this time, a band very different to any other playing. Hailing from California and being labelled as power pop, for such a ‘soft’ band, many people knew their name. Most people would laugh at these guys without knowing their capabilities, but I can assure there’s much more behind those geeky glasses. I wasn’t very familiar with them, but alike everyone else I knew their final song Here (In Your Arms).
Soon after The Damned Things were performing, I had never heard anything from them but they were quite good. For a band that had a decent afternoon slot, they didn’t pull out much of a crowd.
I soon left to go inside for Funeral for a Friend. They began at their time of 3:50pm. Within the first song, they were encouraging moshing activities, and separated the crowd for a Wall of Death. You would think Funeral for a Friend wasn’t heavy enough, but that assumption was shot. Starting a circle pit later in the set, where some people got a bit insane. I thought they played well, but I was left quite disappointed, they played none of my favourite songs and I was unsure of most of their songs.
Set Your Goals took the Grand Stage at 4:30pm, and actually brought out a large crowd. I’ll admit I wasn’t going to watch these guys and I had never listened to their music before. But I decided too, and it was one of the best decisions I had ever made, Set Your Goals were one of my favourite bands of the whole day. Fronted by a high pitched skinny guy named Matt Wilson and a complete opposite Jordan Brown, these guys were like a party. Many bands I had seen during the day, had two vocalists, which is not very common but somehow Soundwave managed to find them all. Zigzagging through songs from their old and new album, beginning with Goonies Never Say Die!, and even inviting All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth for their song The Few That Remain. The crowd were really into them and moshed, as encouraged by Matt.
Story of the Year took the Grand Stage opening with a great choice, The Antidote. Running through an energetic set, while talking to the audience, with their bubbly and humorous personalities. Also mentioning that their bassist, Adam Russell would be playing later again with his other super group post-hardcore band, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows. Ending their set with none other than, their most famous song, Until The Day I Die.
While waiting in the line for the Panic! At the disco signing sessions, I was fortunate to watch Florida based Yellowcard, who I must mention pulled out the biggest crowd of the entire day, even larger than the headliners. Starting with a new song and my personal favourite For You, and Your Denial, straight away when you heard the beginning violin riff, you knew they were different. Honestly how many rock bands have a violinist? A very few amount.
Baltimore’s All Time Low, hands down were my favourite of the whole day. All Time Low last appeared on the Soundwave line up in 2010, and has come back again, bringing along with them, their new album Dirty Work. Opening with the first song on Dirty Work, Do you want me (Dead?), a fast upbeat song like most of their set. Moving through with a mixture of songs from Dirty Work, Nothing Personal, So Wrong Its Right and Put up or Shut up (EP). A great selection of songs to showcase their talent and growth as a band. By their second song Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), they had the entire audience jumping around, banging their heads and singing along. It’s a special skill if a band can make you forget everything and be totally induced in the music, and I can guarantee that’s exactly what All Time Low did. Having a chat to us all between songs, a chat that wasn’t scripted completely improvised. Their humour had the whole crowd cracking up, but would make old ladies blush. Their final songs came way too soon, Lost In Stereo and Weightless, two very popular songs from their previous album Nothing Personal. For a pop punk band, a lot of moshing happened, with circle pits and crowd surfing the whole way through. Finally the finale song came, which Alex claimed was going to be a cover of Cher’s Believe, for laughs, but obviously was Dear Maria, Count Me In. Their set was over way too soon, and although All Time Low was allocated equally the longest set of the day alongside Panic! At The Disco (1 hour), they left us wanting more.
Finally 9:30pm hit the clock, and it was time for Nevada’s own Panic! At The Disco, to show us why exactly they were the headliners of the night. Opening with crowd pleaser Ready to Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind) which in a matter of seconds had the crowd jumping about. Continuing through with some old songs and new ones, the whole crowd knew all the words. Brendan talked to the crowd a lot during pauses, and verbally bounced off the crowd. All the bands I had seen throughout the day had personality, and it was really great to see. There’s nothing worse than watching a band that stand upon a stage and just play. In the middle of their set, Panic! At The Disco did a cover of The Darkness’, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a song they could either ruin or do great justice. It actually turned out very good, definitely showing Brendan’s vocal range and capability. All of them seemed to have a lot of fun with the song, which automatically transferred to the audience. As their set followed through, I started to get bored; I don’t know whether it was because I only knew their main songs or whether it was the comparison to All Time Low who played before. I Write Sins Not Tragedies, the song we had all awaited was played second to last, in a fantastic manner. Before finally ending their set, Brendan decided to take his shirt off despite how cold it was getting, advancing all the girls screaming in joy. Nearly Witches (Ever since we met…) was their finale song, and the final song of the whole Counter Revolution, and it left me disappointed. I thought a far better known song would be a spectacular end, and I thought Panic! At The Disco’s set would have evolved much more ‘fun’.
They definitely overcrowded the small venue which limited a certain amount of people into the building for bands (due to fire hazards), which left some people very displeased. They should have kept it at the original venue, Adelaide Showgrounds or stopped selling tickets throughout the day. At times you couldn’t move throughout the venue, which was somewhat uncomfortable.
Besides that it was a great day, the weather was perfect and I saw and met some great bands.
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