Sunday 3 December 2023
Brisbane Showgrounds, QLD
Australia’s biggest alternative/metal/punk gathering, Good Things Festival returned earlier this month swinging in its biggest edition yet. With emo icons Fall Out Boy and noughties nu-metal/rap rockers Limp Bizkit at the helm, everyone was amped to make a day of it. Even amongst the sweltering heatwave that annihilated Brisbane that day, we persevered (don’t ask me how, but we made it out alive!) and it’s safe to say we gave the festival our best shot.
We kicked off the day at main stage with US alternative/pop act PVRIS. Although vocalist Lynn Gvnn was recovering from illness, the band did their best in hyping early punters for a massive day ahead. I wish I knew more of their latest album, but I was pretty happy with hearing ‘My House‘ at the end. That tune is such an earworm.
Seeing Sydney pop punkers Stand Atlantic is really where the Good Things party kicked off for me, and their live shows on this current cycle have been fucking electric. Having witnessed the band a year ago on the Gold Coast opening for Spilt Milk Festival, seeing them here amidst the alternative/punk crowd kinda felt like a homecoming. Yeah, the band have been on a hectic tour run across the world and back and are well deserving of a good rest, but they gave us enough energy for one more show. Frontwoman Bonnie Fraser brought Royal and the Serpent on stage for a live cut of ‘Pity Party‘ before throwing down on the band’s latest singles ‘kill[her]‘ and ‘Sex on the Beach‘. I’m pretty sure even the keen metalheads waiting for Slaughter to Prevail even banged their heads to this tune. Can we get a Hell Yeah to that?
As the closing bars to ‘Molotov‘ zoned out, the lights over on Stage 4 dimmed and flashed immensely and the crowd surged towards for Russian deathcore act Slaughter to Prevail. While I didn’t hang out for the entire set, the scene I did get to witness early on was chaotic. These guys adorned sleek metallic masks whilst furiously smashing out some of the most brutal songs my ears have ever come across. Look, I’m not a huge deathcore listener, but where most acts would blur into one, this band was one of the more standout performances of the day.
If you’re after something a little more mellow and emo, look no further than Tapestry who must have felt right at home (being from Darwin originally) under the scorching heat of Brisbane that day. It sure looked that way as vocalist Tom Devine-Harrison performed the band’s 2020 single ‘Never Felt the Same‘. I have always immensely enjoyed a Tapestry gig or two and today was no different. The boys are still one of the more underrated Australian heavy acts in the scene right now.
By this stage, the sun was beating down on the festival grounds and honestly it was rough, but we somehow survived from the massive adrenalive rush of live music. It felt like the perfect moment to grab a feed at the awesome food trucks outside Stage 3, chill on the grass, and suss what the 666 stage was all about. With MC Dave ‘Higgo’ Higgins taking the lead alongside a karaoke band, circus performers, a watermelon-eating competition and your favourite emo night DJs from AM//PM playing the soundtrack to your youth all inbetween, the whole vibe was quirky, cool and wonderful. It felt like a live festival radio feeding you energy and hyping you up for the next live band. Hope they bring this back to future events!
Gippsland boys Ocean Sleeper was next on the agenda and we made it there in time to catch the festival debut of the band’s crushing new single ‘Heaven‘. Easily the most played song on my Spotify since its release, heavy vocalist Karl Spiessl and co-vocalist Ionei Heckenberg effortlessly transformed the current heatwave into a fiery gate of heaven with that banger. It was very easy to see that Brisbane loves the boys as well, and I don’t doubt the nearby apartment buildings could hear the singalong chorus of ‘Light in My Dark‘ reverberating through their walls.
Hearing Bullet for My Valentine play ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ was pretty iconic, but US rockers I Prevail gave us the reason why they’ve become one of our favourite bands in recent years. While newer songs like ‘There’s Fear in Letting Go‘ cemented the band’s growth, it was evident that the older classics like ‘Come And Get It’ is where the OOFT factor truly hits for fans. Vocalists Brian Burkheiser and Eric Vanlerberghe are a true delight to watch on stage, especially with an incredible performance of ‘Hurricane‘. Tears may have been shed here. Eric in particular lapped up the Shoey chant and even spun things up differently here by doing the deed out of a prosthetic leg? Hope no one had just eaten lunch then… but all things aside, I Prevail was our top act of Good Things 2023.
Florida pop punk quintet Magnolia Park reset our energy levels for Fall Out Boy later that evening with their highly anticipated debut in Australia. I’ve always found that sunset festival sets always go off live (for the right band) and frontman Joshua Roberts was just the man for that job. Playing a slurry of hits, including the viral ’10 For 10′, Magnolia Park encouraged newcomers to stay and “feel something” for the entire 40 minutes of their performance and witnessed an energetic slaying of ‘Addison Rae‘. I kind of wish ‘Manic‘ made the setlist, but I left that night with a strong feeling that these US pop punkers will be back Down Under in no time.
We gave our feet a rest for a minute and took to the bleachers to witness Limp Bizkit break stuff twice that evening. It was a good move and the show was just as entertaining for us up the back as it was for those deep in the pit. Frontman Fred Durst may sound like an ass on stage with his banter, but he kept the heat ROLLIN’ with many of us very entertained that evening. Also, what other band can say they opened and closed their set with the same song? Limp Bizkit was deemed a good time for all, especially for that one grandma who ended up on stage.
The only disappointing thing about Fall Out Boy was not getting the live version of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire‘. Hearing the opening bars over the speakers made for excitement levels to spike and from there, we raced down to the pit. Kicking off so strong with ‘Love From The Other Side’, ‘The Phoenix’ and ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’, Fall Out Boy’s return to Australia was sharp and as high energy as you can remember from emo yesteryear.
The band whet everyone’s appetite for emo with surprise drops like ‘Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes’, ‘Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet’ and Infinity on High’s ‘Bang the Doldrum’ proved the icing on the cake for what was the mega set many waited a decade for. Energy levels from the heat of the day were still high even when frontman Patrick Stump changed his setup for a grand ol’ piano to sing ‘What A Catch, Donnie’, ‘Golden’ and a cheeky rendition of Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’.
The emo poster boys of the mid 2000s sounded like they were back in their prime showcasing a nuanced, mature stamina about them. Pete Wentz reminded the crowd that they’re still a pop punk band at heart by smashing an Ozzy Osbourne cover of ‘Crazy Train‘ which allowed even the most casual fan dance-dancing their way into the rest of the night. But it was during an overzealous performance of ‘Young Volcanoes’ that had many of the crowd overwhelmed with joy with what was a day of metal/punk mania. I think I speak for most fans when I hope that a full-headlining Fall Out Boy tour makes its way back to Australia really soon.
As the curtain closes once again on another hugely successful edition of Good Things Festival, we would like to shout out to all the crew working behind the scenes at Destroy All Lines for listening to the fans and putting on a massive day for us all. As someone who only a month ago attended When We Were Young Festival in Vegas, coming home to an event as neatly put together like this one really was something else.
Good Things, we’ll definitely see you in the pit in 2024.
Review by Tamara May @citylightstam
