Parkway Drive @ Billboard,Melbourne (21/12/08)

Sat 27th Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

As a follow up to an earlier tour in June this year, Parkway Drive blasted their way through an unforgettable set on the Sunday night before Christmas. This show was the last of four over the pre-Christmas weekend which shows just how much the groundswell of support for PD has grown over the last few months. Following sold out shows on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday afternoon, this final show of the Melbourne leg of the tour was a great spectacle and relatively smaller crowd than the previous three shows.

PD received good backup from the large number of support acts with a line up that included Confession, The Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember and Suicide Silence.

The standout of the support acts for this punter was brutal Massachusetts based metallers The Acacia Strain. I was filled with anticipation to see them play live since first hearing their breakdown upon breakdown style and they surely didn’t disappoint. During constant lambasting of the crowd for being too quiet and lack of energy from vocalist Vincent Bennet, they strung together a very heavy and honest live set that had an amazing sound. There were plenty of karate kicks and floor punches in the pit when these guys were playing breakdowns, even to the point where some excited punters were launching off any sturdy structure they could find into areas of the crowd that weren’t part of the pit. The guitar sound was great and formed solid basis for their live show.

It should also be mentioned that after becoming tired of the monotony of four shows in two days of the same set list, Suicide Silence delighted the crowd with a Deftones cover, Engine #9, that was very well received.

The support acts were churned through relatively quickly and by 11:30, everyone left was waiting in anticipation for PD to take the stage. The set list predominantly focused on their most recent studio album Horizons, although there were a couple of tracks played from their first studio album Killing With A Smile and EP Don’t Close Your Eyes. The mix was killer and the crowd really began to get involved once PD had kicked things off.

While the whole set list was great to listen to, the standouts would have to be Carrion, Smoke ‘Em If Ya Got ‘Em, The Sirens’ Song, Boneyards and Dead Man’s Chest. Arguably their best track of the night was Horizons, a sublime melodic offering that belies a raw undercurrent of energy, blast beats and speed picking. I had never heard them play it live and was pleasantly surprised to see how well they could pull it off. Following a relatively brief one track encore, the show was over and Melbourne fans were left to wonder when PD will next make the trek down to our city.

This show was an example of an Aussie metalcore act at the top of their game and a great way to see some emerging talents from the US that haven’t previously made it to our shores for live shows. It is also a testament to the quality of Australian metalcore acts given the international acts were in a supporting role.

CHECK OUT THE PIX HERE