Parkway Drive @ The HordernPavilion, Sydney (24/7/10)

Sun 26th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

What does an oompa loompa, a surfboard, palm trees, a life raft and a ball of death have in common? No, this isn’t a trick question and this reviewer is not under the influence of illicit substances. The common factor is one of the greatest hardcore outings the Australian metal scene has ever seen.

On a single night at the Hordern, the likes of 50 Lions, The Ghost Inside, The Devils Wears Prada and Parkway Drive gathered under a single roof for a night of mayhem, chaos, violence and brutality.

From the outset it was clear that it was going to be one hell of a violent and unique night. 50 Lions managed to rouse the crowd early on in the night, with a series of violent circle pits as the product of their malicious metalcore, despite the dwindling crowd that failed to fill even a third of the venue.

Vocalist Oscar McCall opened the night with some of the most well executed growls of any opening band the Hordern’s ever seen, which comes as no surprise considering that he’s the younger brother of Parkway Drive vocalist Winston McCall.

One of the most bizarre aspects of the whole night came as a result of 50 Lions opening set, but more specifically from the opening of their actual set which came in the unexplicable form of a fully costumed oompa loompa dancing and singing across the stage, which led to many punters wondering what the hell was going on.

Continuing in this trend, The Ghost Inside began their set with the blasting of a rap song, much to the crowd’s dismay, before energetically bursting onto stage with their unique style of melodic hardcore. Vocalist Johnathan Vigil kept the crowd entertained by running all over the stage whilst belting out his signature screaming, who really draws a number of parallel’s with Melo-Hardcore outfit Rise Against’s vocalist Tim Mcallrath, both in vocal style and stage presence.

There are two key points which can be made about the trends that The Ghost Inside set for the night. Firstly it was clear that the audience didn’t just show up to see Parkway Drive, with a hardcore following for both The Ghost Inside and The Devil Wears Prada making themselves known. In particular was the vast expanse of the fans of the Devil Wears Prada, who haven’t toured in Australia since 2008 after their Soundwave cancellation this year.

Secondly The Ghost Inside set the tone of the night, which was that of both extremely relaxed and also that of extremely aggressive, which presents somewhat of an oxymoron. The casual aspect of the night was evident in the humble nature of the band, with a consistent stream of thanks to the audience and to the other bands of the night, as well as a number of bystanders in the wings of the stage and the Deep Blue Parkway Drive Banner that hung in the background, with no attempt being made to cover it, whilst the aggressive nature of the night stemmed from the range of militant hardcore performed across the night.

With fan favourites Provoke and Faith or Forgiveness the band closed out their set by getting the audience to form the biggest circle pit yet of the night, whilst showcasing the talents of drummer KC Stockbridge who kept the band together with a flurry of crazed fills and double kicks.

After the two lesser known bands finished up their sets, the masses descended on the Hordern and packed it to capacity, in restless anticipation for hardcore act The Devil Wears Prada. However the combination of impatient bogans and negligible lines at the bar, due to the fact that the majority of the audience wasn’t even old enough to drive, led to a group of extremely intoxicated idiots managing to start a circle pit before the band even took the stage. This however, was not before they sang “Aussie Aussie Aussie”, the national anthem and “tits out for the boys” whilst provoking fights within the audience, which looked about one stray hit away from starting a riot.

Mercifully before the violence escalated, The Devil Wears Prada took the stage for a set of destructive metalcore, in which they largely ignored material of their latest Zombie EP, in favour of older material better known by fans. The real destruction however, came not from the band but from the mosh pit, in which the inebriated bogans had not hesitation in trying to start as many circle pits as possible, whilst trying to push the mosh in all directions, causing a myriad of injuries to unwary punters.

The most impressive aspect of the Devil Wears Prada has to be their truly massive stage presence, that dominates the whole mosh of sweaty fans. Between the Hardcore dancing and dives of keyboardist James Barney and the diving all over the stage and of Mike Hranica, the band felt truly enormous.

Once again, it was clear that a hardcore fan base was present, with the mosh screaming every word along with clean vocalist and guitarist Jeremy DePoyster. But before they could finish out their set, The Devil Wears Prada had to have a crack at trying to create the biggest circle pit of the night, which they nearly achieved, with a 15m wide hole opening at the heart of the mosh.

What resulted from the frenzied performance was a sea of absolutely knackered punters, who led a mass exodus from the mosh in order to try and recover from the destruction of The Devil Wears Prada’s performance. Before long however, the Hordern was once again packed to capacity with the whole audience waiting for the headliners Parkway Drive to take the stage, who began with the instrumental Samsara leading straight into Unrest, who continued with the theme of the night – that being a theme of true brutality.

However as with the previous acts, Winston McCall’s casual demeanour in chatting with the audience continued the relaxed mood of the night, with a constant stream of “Holy Shit, this is In-fuckingcredible” expressing his disbelief at the 5500 strong crowd at the Hordern, for what was the biggest gig in Parkway’s History.

The band continued to plow through their catalogue, including a large proportion of extremely well received tracks off their latest release – Deep Blue, being that of a concept album. A concept which was embraced on the night, with a complex set up of lighting and backdrops, which were swapped out from the deep blue album art and wave banners to that of a sunset on a beach, complete with plastic palm trees.

This new material really highlighted the band’s progress, with guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick taking plenty of opportunities to shred, tap and sweep their way through a variety of complex lead licks as well as drummer Ben Gordon demonstrating his insanely quick drumming speed, with a constant stream of complex fills.

With Smoke Em If You Got Em Parkway put the previous acts in their place by forming what may be the biggest circle pit the Hordern has ever seen, which occupied the full width of the hall by throwing what Winston dubbed “The Ball of Death” into the mosh and promising $100 in free merch to anybody who managed to get the ball to the stand, which naturally led to complete anarchy.

The peak of the new material for the night however, came with Home is for the Heartless led by Winston, who by this stage seemed incredibly tired and got the whole audience chanting along, despite a now extremely drunk oompa loompa running all over the stage and later throwing an inflatable raft into the audience to crowd surf on.

But of course, that wasn’t crazy enough for Parkway Drive, who laughed hysterically as the oompa loompa redefined Crowd Surfing during Guns for Show, Knives for a Pro, by literally surfing on a surfboard on top of the crowd.

The true high of the night however, came from the brief encore that took its place as part of an even briefer set and whilst it may of only been an hour, judging from the demeanour of the band on stage, and from the sweat covered red faced punters, everyone had given it their all.

Parkway classic Carrion opened the encore, to great applause from the fans who sang along to every word, before they summoned every last ounce of energy for the fast paced Boneyards and managed to finish the night on a real peak, with the audience leaving incredibly satisfied after both they and the band gave their all on the night.

Check out the photos from the gig