Parkway Drive @ ChallengeStadium, Perth (27/05/11)

Tue 31st May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

A Parkway Drive show has an almost festive feeling these days, as they always seem to bring a slew of international bands with them, giving the punter more bang for their buck. This time it was set at Challenge Stadium, the perfect venue for such a bill.

Michael Crafter is certainly no stranger to the general public. If one could be bothered to look at his colorful past, they would find that he once fronted a hugely successful (arguably groundbreaking) Australian metalcore band, joined an equally successful American metalcore band and, in a progression that only seems natural, starred on a reality TV show. With all this in mind, watching him front Melbourne’s Confession proved to be an interesting time.

The music itself was generic, predictable hardcore/metalcore, certainly nothing groundbreaking, that’s for sure. If anything, more of a hardcore oriented progression of I Killed the Prom Queens early sound. Thankfully Crafter had a few tricks up his sleeve to capture the minds of the young naïve crowd. At the cusp of a breakdown in one song crafter announced “Alright, let’s do something here; spread that floor out nice and wide!” Could it perhaps be the old faithful over-used wall of death? No, no dear reader, surely Crafter has something, new, something hip, perhaps even controversial to unleash upon this quite impressionable crowd. “I want you all to plank the fuck out of that pit!” He barked.

That’s right, planking, the craze that has been sweeping the globe. Crafter managed to convince at least half of the punters to lay flat on the carpet covered basketball courts, then return to a standing position at the appropriate time of the selected riff. That alone proved his undeniable skill as a front man. And if planking wasn’t enough, maybe a trip down ol’ nu metal lane would seal his win over the kiddies. Confession, unbelievably, pulled out Limp Bizkit’s angst ridden hit, Break Stuff. It seems to have transcended the generations, as it was clearly a hit with youngsters who bounced around like it was 1999. Throw in a couple of older Confession songs-and a few new ones-and that was the end of quite a spectacle for an opening band.

Up next were Pennsylvanian punkers The Wonder Years. They provided a radical name (to anyone over 25); tight playing; modern issue-laced lyrical subject matter and a lumberjack sized bass player. Yet this wasn’t even close to being enough for the crowd. Sadly, they may as well have set up out the front near the merch stand as hardly anyone cared. Which sucks hard for a band who had evidently travelled miles to be there, were well rehearsed and executed a good show, but were undeniably the odd band out on the lineup. They quickly ripped through a short set, singer Dan Campbell saying “We’re the Wonder Years, fuck you, this is our last song” and ended the show.

Perhaps Ohio’s Miss May I would fare better. Their name did evoke the idea of a modern emotive group at the very least. As if by some form of high power, they magically resuscitated the crowd with their opening tune. Circle Pits, jumping and crowd surfing was the norm from here on in. It was all there, everything you would see at a typical metal show.

Miss May I could be compared heavily to As I Lay Dying, but they do the metalcore thing so well that you can hardly accuse them of any plagiarism. Singer Levi Benton commanded the crowd like marionettes, as they swayed to the bands symphony of destruction. They did extremely well, and clearly fit the bill with guitarists Justin Aufdemkampe and B.J. Stead’s shredding riffs to drummer Jerod Boyd’s beats backed up by Ryan Neff’s bass rhythm and occasional clean singing. Not bad.

So how do you open a headlining set on a five band bill? How do you top the incredible crowd response that precedes you? Parkway Drive kicked it off with a fart mix tape and the YouTube viral song, Ride the barrel and get pitted naturally. Mix that with some huge inflatable waves either side of stage and an enormous rainbow over the drum riser, and you’ve got the one of the best Australian arena shows going around.

As they first emerged-through the tubes of course-it was apparent that something was wrong with guitarist Luke Kilpatrick. He was in a wheelchair! Kilpatrick quickly showed that this hardly hindered their performance, merely improved it as he wheeled around the stage backwards and forwards, members hitching a ride or pushing him along. Hilarious to watch and didn’t seem out of place with the quirky backdrop.

Quite a few cuts were given a spin and fit perfectly into their ever growing catalogue. Karma, Sleepwalker and Home is for the Heartless got the crowd a fizzing. Singer Winston McCall announced that the tour was the only one in their home country this year and thus made way for some older classics like Guns for Show, Knives for a Pro and Romance is Dead that had the crowd singing along ecstatically.

Spirit fingers twiddled the air during every one of lead guitarist Jeff Ling’s solos, McCall’s mike shares were shouted loudly and proudly while bassist Jai O’Connor and Drummer Ben Gordon held the rhythm section tightly together. Throw in a grommet dressed in a shark suit sailing the mosh pit in a blow-up dingy, a few beach balls and more fist pumping anthems like Carrion and their set was more than complete.

A two song encore joined by two dozen or so fans-perhaps a nod to their old all ages gigs-showed that Australia’s favorite metalcore sons indeed have grown up, and blossomed into arena-slaying men. Well, men that still enjoy a good fart tape. Then again, what man doesn’t?