Good Things Are Coming

Good Things Are Coming
Image: Bullet For My Valentine. Photo: Supplied

As summer approaches, so too does music festival season. The Australian music festival season is littered with a diverse array of options for fans of all but one genre, that being punk-rock/heavy metal. This gaping hole in the market was created following the collapse of Soundwave Festival in 2015, thankfully for Sydney’s punks and metal-heads Good Things Festival is aiming to fill that void with their inaugural outing this December.

Featuring a lineup of some of the greatest alternative music acts from around the world, some with a nostalgic bent and others right at the forefront of the genre today, this festival is set to transform the Sydney music festival scene.

Included on the bill are acts such as; The Offspring, Stone Sour, Bullet For My Valentine, Babymetal, Northlane, Waax and Ecca Vandal.

Ahead of the festival City Hub had the opportunity to sit down with Noodles (aka Kevin Wasserman) from The Offspring and Jamie Mathias from Bullet For My Valentine to hear about their festival experiences and thoughts on the evolving music festival landscape.

For Noddles the prospect of a brand new genre specific festival on the Australian scene is the antithesis of the changes he has witnessed in the United States.

“There never used to be that many festivals in the United States. When we first started most of the festivals were very genre specific, Warped was the punk one and OzFest was heavy metal, but nowadays you’re getting more and more eclectic festivals like Coachella.

Despite Australia taking this different approach to festival curation Noodles still has a positive outlook on the future for Good Things Festival, “I hope it does well, it’s certainly a very strong lineup with a lot of great bands so I’m expecting it to be fantastic.”

Whilst the festivals themselves are changing and evolving The Offspring are actually going back to the music which saw them explode in popularity. They are doing this by building their Good Things Festival live show around a full play through of their breakout record Smash, with a select few other hits mixed in to spice it up.

“We’ve done shows this way a few times before because people were asking for it, plus we love all of the songs on that record and think it still holds up,” explained Noodles, “It’s a little self-indulgent but all of the songs translate well into the live show and fans are enjoying it.”

For one of the other bands on the bill, Bullet For My Valentine, Good Things Festival is their first opportunity to showcase a reinvented sound to an Australian audience.

“Last time we were in Australia was October 2016, and that was amazing, so we’re definitely excited to come back down and play Australia, especially at a festival,” said Jamie Mathias.

For this tour Bullet For My Valentine will be performing a selection of songs from throughout their highly decorated six album catalogue, but particularly focusing on their newest release Gravity.

“Six albums into the career of Bullet we all wanted to try something different. We wanted to keep some elements of the old school Bullet but also add some new flavours into it to shake up the live performance.”

Over the course of their career Bullet For My Valentine have received an array of accolades but most notably they were named ‘Best British Band’ for three consecutive years. Despite this Mathias explained that the group knew constant evolution was the key to longevity.

“A band always needs to try new stuff and see how it goes otherwise you’ll be stuck in one spot forever and may not get to the next level.”

With its stacked lineup Good Things Festival certainly has the potential to cement its place in the Australian musical landscape, and very likely take the entire festival scene to the next level.

Dec 8. Parramatta Park, Corner Pitt St &, Macquarie St, Parramatta. $178+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.goodthingsfestival.com.au

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