Parkway Drive, Dropsaw, CrimeScene, Dead Kings @ SouthernCross Basketball Stadium,Canberra (7/03)

Tue 10th Mar, 2009 in Gig Reviews

For a second, I thought I was at The Veronicas.

Screaming girls under the age of 15, bright blonde fringes hiding swollen lip piercings, a line of parent’s cars outside the venue…

This was Parkway Drive, and if it weren’t for the crusty hardcore – œkids’ who have been at every gig for the past five years, even before the Sound Underground days, you’d wonder when hardcore lost it’s teeth. Friday night’s location was a basketball stadium, with one court being the hangout area, and the other being where the bands were playing. It certainly made the sound of the bands difficult to hear, just think of a hardcore show in your old school’s gym.

When Crime Scene took to the stage, they announced proudly that there would be lots of breakdowns for the audience to, uh, break down to. Sure enough, from the first song they weren’t lying. In fact, it seemed like they would play a breakdown and then breakdown that.
They also had a habit of telling the crowd to start circle pits for everything. Literally, everything. I’m a bit surprised they didn’t ask them to initiate one during between song banter. Maybe they weren’t my cup of tea, but as expected, the rather large crowd were hanging on every word, or scream.

Newcastle’s Dropsaw brought the brutality up a few notches. From the outset, they were jumping all over the stage, up onto the crowd barrier, and vocalist Jarrod McIntosh’s scream was enough to make blood curdle. Rather than the cookie monster stylings of a lot of hardcore bands, McIntosh actually screams and hisses his lyrics out, which certainly changes the dynamic, not only of the music, but also of the audience.

As soon as it had begun, it was over. Dropsaw played for about twenty brutal minutes, if that, which was nice because if they played for longer, I think my heart might have exploded from my rising blood pressure caused by the ferocity of their tunes. During Dropsaw, I noticed an interesting trend among the crowd of crutches and walking sticks. What that means, I do not know, but it was still interesting.

If anyone is of the belief that hardcore is a trend overstaying it’s welcome, you’ll be disappointed to hear that Parkway Drive aren’t going anywhere. Well before they came on, the 1200 strong crowd were chanting for them, and eventually they came out, after an intro going from classical strings to some intense beats.

Winston McCall was a man possessed all night. He was batshit crazy as he moved around the stage, and Parkway’s performance was faultless, aside from what seemed like Winston losing his voice from time to time, but relentless touring and performance will do that I’m sure.

Playing a setlist equally comprised of songs from 2007’s Horizons and 2005’s Killing With a Smile, Parkway Drive seemed to be overwhelmed with the response from the crowd. Winston could hardly keep the smile of his face and at one point exclaimed “it’s hard to stand up here and look pissed off and scream when it’s this much fun.” And it was fun.

Australia’s undeniable kings of the hardcore scene wrapped it up with KWAS album closer A Cold Day In Hell, but came back out for an encore of Romance Is Dead, which as expected, brought the house down one last time.

I’d imagine there are a few bruised heads after the amount of crowd surfing going on in the sets, but the best quote I heard all night was from a friend of mine who said “stagediving with a couch cushion is the best thing because you don’t hurt your ribs as much” which, I think, is great. Check the photos for that one.