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Articles : Higgo’s Soundwave Rant and Top Picks for SW16

By on November 5, 2015
Crowd_SoundwaveADL_KGeier_22022015-0509

Soundwave. Adelaide 2015 – Photo by Kerrie Geier

The following is made up of quotes from various Facebook pages in response to the Soundwave Festival 2016 announcement on Friday 30th October 2015, the authors shall remain anonymous.

I can’t believe it, man this sucks! Who does he think he is anyway? He’s ruining Soundwave, fuckin shit line up, where’s the metal? Fuck you AJ, I’m not going, lame as. Who the fuck are Frenzal Rhomb and L7? Hasn’t he seen the Hellfest line up? That’s what we should have here, that’s a festival. It’s not fair, none of my favourite bands have been announced except Bring Me The Horizon, pretty much the best band of all time! Who the fuck are the rest? What’s a Hatebreed, who the fuck are NOFX? Where’s Blessthefall, Asking Alexandria, the REAL metal bands? This is supposed to be a metal festival. I could do better than this. Another festival has died.

For those who missed the Soundwave 2016 lineup announcement, click here to get the full story. In about a week or so, another 10-12 bands will be announced, and you can bet your arse every one of these whinging internet heroes will be buying a ticket.

The sense of entitlement is approaching critical mass. For some mind bending reason, this delusional mob think that they are owed something from Soundwave, and every year the vocal minority with a musical taste of a burnt towel take to their keyboards to out themselves in what can only be described as “march of the fuckwits”. To compare Soundwave to a European festival is the very height of ignorance and delusion.

Let’s look at Hellfest in Clisson, France as an example. (bear with me, more vitriol coming) France has a population 67 million, 3 times as many people in an area less than a tenth the size of Australia. But then you have to add in the fact that France borders the following countries: Spain population 46 million Italy, population 60 million Switzerland, population 8 million Germany, population 81 million Luxembourg. Population .5 million Belgium, population 11 million In the immediate area, let’s say an hours flight at most, there’s a reach of over 273 million people. Australia has a population of 23 million. See how this is working? And I haven’t even added in the UK that’s a quick trip across the channel, there’s another 53 million! Fair to say that when you have a population reach of well over 300 million to tap into, it would stand to reason that Hellfest (or any other festival in Europe for that matter) would be much larger and more successful, hence why it sells out so quickly.

Especially when all those countries would easily fit inside the land mass of Australia, I’m sure you have all seen the picture going around on Facebook. And all this is of course, before we even add how far Australia is away from where most of these bands come from. I know all this will mean absolutely nothing to those bitching about the line up. They don’t care. All they care about is getting online to say how shit everything is. Breeding negativity, ignorance, and hate. That’s the world we live in now. People want to be outraged. Anonymous people want to try and impress other anonymous people with their put downs as a way to be validated, because they have nothing to offer anyone.

They’re miserable, unenthusiastic arm chair professionals with zero knowledge or understanding of the music industry, often just going by ‘my mate told me’ “facts”. I hope that everyone who has complained about Soundwave, doesn’t go. Who needs that negativity on a good time? Not me. Stay home and cry into your scene shirt, you musical blind parasites. But you won’t, will you.

As I mentioned, in a week or so more bands will be announced, you’ll still whinge, but there’ll be a couple you like, and you’ll just have to go because you won’t want to miss out. Hypocrites. I look forward to catching up with the rad people that love going year after year, love being introduced to new bands, hanging out with like-minded people and having a bloody top day of music. Roll on Soundwave 2016, I can’t wait.

Now that I have finished that, I can share with you my top picks for Soundwave Festival next year. You know how I always say that Soundwave will never cater just for you? Well I was looking over the line up so far, and I’m pretty bloody happy, especially when there’s another 10-12 bands to be announced, but let’s focus on what we have, rather than what we don’t have thus far, and who I’ll be checking out.

Devil You Know

This is a great fucking band. Howard’s voice is fucking huge, the songs are fucking huge, go listen to their latest album, ‘The Bleed Red’ (out on the 6th November), it’s awesome, it shreds, it’s loud, heavy, fast and this is a must see band at Soundwave. They also released a rather tasty cover of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ earlier this week. I strongly urge you check it out here.

Lordi

Lets face it, I know bugger all about this band other than the fact they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, and are from Finland. On further inspection, they’ve been around since 1992, so even though I know bugger all about them, they have a big chunk of history behind them. They wear monster costumes, and play hard rock and metal. What’s not to love? I’ll definitely be checking them out.

Frenzal Rhomb

Because Frenzal fucking Rhomb. Enough said. Looking forward to getting punched in the face (metaphorically speaking) by these lads.

L7

See above. Pay respects to the ladies who ripped it up and forged a path back in the day for punk lasses. I definitely won’t be pretending to be dead when these ladies come on stage.

Soulfly

I have loved this band since Max departed with Sepultura back ’96.. I love Max. I love his music. It’s aggressive, it’s ferocious. I love Soulfly and will definitely be jumping the fuck up!

Hatebreed

I was late on the scene with Hatebreed, I think the first album I heard was Supremacy, and after that, I went into the back catalogue for more. Love Jasta’s screaming, what a voice. I have never met him, but I will, and I hope he yells at me. Fuck yeah, HATEBREED.

Metal Allegiance

Their self titled album was a brilliant surprise for me, I wasn’t entirely sure how it’d go down, but it’s easily one of my favourites of this year. What a coming together of talent. I only wish they could have everyone on the album here to perform with them, but we will get a nice cross pollination during Soundwave. MUST SEE.

NOFX

Punk in Drublic was an album that I couldn’t get enough of back in the day, I went through a huge punk phase that still lives with me, and NOFX are one of the bands to thank for that. Awesome band, can’t wait to see them live. Expect nothing buy choas, don’t believe me, watch this!

The Prodigy

I’ve never seen them live. Can you believe it? I want know if they still smash the shit out of it live so I’ll be making sure I catch their set. Nostalgia dial will definitely be set to 100 for this one. Looking forward to flipping some pingaz and dancing like a lunatic to Firestater. P.S. I don’t condone to any form of drug taking, unless of course it’s taxable.

Public Enemy

See Frenzal Rhomb. Flavor Flav, Chuck D, the S1W’s, last time I saw them at the corner, it was fucking brilliant.

That’s 10 bands right there. 10 bands that are worth the price of admission as far as I’m concerned. Yes I’ve left out BFMV, BMTH, Disturbed etc, but I’ve seen them before, and whilst they all put on great shows, I’m just focusing on the bands I REALLY cannot miss. If there are 5 more bands that are MUST SEE for me on the next announcement (which I know there is) this will be a successful Soundwave Festival in my eyes.

I’ll probably catch other bands I haven’t listed out of curiosity, because for me, that’s what you do at a festival, go on people recommendations, see something new, find a new sound, be blown away, be surprised. I can’t wait.

Secure your Soundwave Festival tickets from www.soundwavefestival.com.

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2016, BRISBANE

SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016, SYDNEY

TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2016, MELBOURNE – AUSTRALIA DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

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About

Higgo is a radio announcer of 16 years, most recently at Triple M where he hosted 4 shows including the metal show Distortion nationally. He also writes for Heavy Magazine, and hosts a weekly podcast called Distortion. You should follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.