Parkway Drive, Miss May I, TheWonder Years, Confession,Skyway @ Riverstage (18/05/11)

Wed 25th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Due to release their new album Finders Keepers in July this year, Gold Coast pop-punk band Skyway has a handful of new material to throw at the crowd in the slowly filling open air venue. The five-piece perform a Tracey Chapman cover of Fast Car, and receive a pretty decent response from those listening, front man Daniel McMaster manage to get the surprising number of young’uns out on a school night to perform some sort of interpretative dance routine in attempt of a pit circle.

Best known for being the band Michael Crafter formed after I Killed the Prom Queen (who are due to perform in the same venue 9 days later, minus Crafter), Confession fight both travel fatigue and a less than average mix throughout their short set. Having coming straight off the tarmac to the Riverstage, the Melbourne five-piece put on a decent showing, even with a potentially set-derailing cover of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff. Despite the pitiful sounding drums, the boys get the crowd moving and are ultimately a great selection of support band for headliners Parkway Drive.

Apart from tonight’s local support act, it shouldn’t take a musicologist to point out that The Wonder Years are ridiculously out of place on this line-up. Frontman Dan “Soupy” Campbell’s constant long-winded rants of always being the outcast in life fail to land any emotional punches within the stoned face crowd. Apparently it takes three guitarists to make this band sound remotely like rock music, and besides a handful of obvious pop-punk fans, the Philadelphian boys’ overly sentimental lyrics fall on deaf ears.

While the accusations of being an As I Lay Dying rip-off may be harsh though partially true, Miss May I puts on an exemplary performance this evening for their first ever Australian showing. With earth flattening breakdowns and huge audience response resulting in mass circle pits and intense moshing across their entire set, the crowd begged the Ohio based band for an encore. The usual three syllables “Park-Way-Drive” clapped after the last support band has played was now replaced with “One-more-song”.

The already amped up crowd could barely contain their excitement as Byron Bay boys Parkway Drive walk- one wheeling- on stage. The badly sprained ankle of guitarist Jeff Ling left him in a wheelchair for the night though this doesn’t put him at any musical disadvantage. The set this evening was an ironic multi-sensory experience with inflatable rainbows, beach balls and dancing lobsters/turtles combined with an amazing light show.

With an impressively filled Riverstage – the same crowd size as their highly acclaimed Deep Blue tour- and a set exceeding all expectations, the boys perform crowd favourites from album Killing With a Smile, including It’s Hard to Speak Without A Tongue and an early appearance of Romance Is Dead. With a perfect sounding mix, Horizons sends the crowd mental as does the brutal cuts from Deep Blue such as Deliver Me, Sleepwalker and Karma, with the crowd forming a massive circle pit throwing limbs in all directions.

As usual, the show is an interactive experience with Oompa Loompa’s dressed as lobsters (as you do) crowd surfing on an inflatable boat after front man Winston McCall demands the boat make it back to the sound crew delivering a piece of birthday cake. Somehow, his request is impressively met and the lead vocalist is lost for words. After a brief exit, the boys return to play crowd favourite and predictable closing song Carrion sending chills up the crowds spine. Although it’s the first show on the Mix N Mash tour, the bar has been set ridiculously high after another flawless performance by Parkway Drive.