Well, it was time again for Good Things, Australia’s new heavy festival. And what a time it was, especially after years of concerts cancelling and postponing. Everyone was just glad to finally get back into one of our favourite pastimes; watching live music. It was so hard to choose who to see with the inevitable clashes but my picks were Jinjer, Thornhill, Sabaton, Lacuna Coil, Nova Twins, TISM, Polaris, Deftones, and finally Bring Me The Horizon.
So, where to begin? With an almost sold-out show the line to get in was epic. It went from the entrance past the Old Museum, around the corner to the hospital and doubled back into the RNA carpark behind the train station. Lucky it was only a little humid and overcast. At midday the gates opened and the line began to move. By 1pm I was through the ticket gates and finally in the festival with just enough time to catch most of Jinjer on the main stage.
As official ambassadors of Ukraine, Jinjer absolutely represented the best in metal from the beleaguered nation. The vocals from Tatiana were what we’ve come to expect; jumping from the beautiful to the brutal, riding over punchy metal riffs and booming drums. They were the perfect opener for my Good Things experience. Midway they dedicated with fists raised to their home country, joined by the whole crowd, and for the last song got a circle pit going despite the official Good Things warnings.
Next up were Melbourne’s Thornhill on the covered stage. I had seen them previously and once again they did not disappoint. Soaring vocals backed by equally soaring guitar flowing into heavy melodies marked their sound. I came in on the Hellfire Club, followed by Hollywood, Leather Wings, Lily & the Moon, and Raw, ending with Casanova.
After finding some friends we headed back to the main stage for Sabaton. The tone of this act was apparent when I saw the stage – a backdrop of an army of Emus swarming a tank and assault rifle mic stands with army helmets. The band marched out in matching outfits then began with bursts of smoke and gouts of flame. Opening with Ghost Division, their set was really fun, complete with epic synchronised headbanging, more fire and smoke, and guitar picks being stuck to the front man’s head. Self-described as military historians crossed with the Village People in camo pants, Sweden’s Sabaton delivered epic literal hair metal with Great War, Stormtroopers, The Red Baron [featuring a crowd chant of ‘Higher’], Cliffs of Gallipoli, Bismark, Primo Victoria, Swedish Pagans, and lastly To Hell and Back.
And then it was back to the covered stage for Italy’s Lacuna Coil. Their set began with ominous off-stage distortion, then out they came in matching white jumpsuits and corpse paint in true dramatic style. They began with Blood, Tears, Dust, then Reckless, Layers of Time, Heaven’s a Lie, and Tight Rope. Then they launched into their rightly famous cover of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence which prompted the whole crowd to sing along. They ended with Our Truth, Swamped, and Nothing Stands In Our Way. Lacuna Coil delivered truly operatic metal with soaring double vocals and guitar into brutal epic breakdowns.
And now it was time for the first of my clashes. I really wanted to see Gojira but ultimately went with the emerging Nova Twins on the smaller stage 5. After some slight sound issues, they got the show going with their signature rap\rock sound. On such a small stage their set was nice and intimate with the Twins coming down to the crowd a few times. During Bassline Bitch Amy Love got an audience member to hold the mic, and during the last song, Choose Your Fighter, they both came over the barrier to rock out with the crowd.
TISM were my second clash. Seeing as how they hadn’t toured in nearly twenty years, I had to sadly miss Soulfly. The stage was covered by a giant curtain which simply said Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass over a cheese grater. They began with a voice describing said tale of Herb Alpert and then came out as the curtain dropped. They were wearing silver jumpsuits with giant silver balloons attached at the neck. They played for an hour in those things in the humidity with only one band member stripping down to hot pants. Their set began with I Drive a Truck, then went into crowd favourite Whatareya?, I’ll ‘ave Ya, Thuderbirds Are Coming Out, Lillee Caught Dilley Bowled Milli Vanilli, What Nationality is Les Murray?, I’m Interested in Apathy, Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me, The History of Western Civilisation, Greg! The Stop Sign!!, Saturday Night Palsy, Martin Scorsese Is Really Quite a Jovial Fellow, Death, Death, Death, Amway, Amway, Amway, [He’ll Never Be An] Ol’ Man River, and ended with Defecate on my Face. Interspersed were several slam poetry sessions.
All through this there were several things of note. A balloon was lost from the main vocalist to drift away past the festival grounds. Behind the band was a construction site complete with tradies having a smoko. They eventually got to work attaching a TISM logo to the fence around their site with zip ties. At first the S was back to front, then instead of M was a N. They fixed it by adding an I to it. DuringEveryone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me they hit tennis balls out into the crowd. Two of the singers swapped balaclavas with crowd members. During Defecate on my Face the TISM logo and the spare boards they were made from were brought out into the crowd for people to literally surf on with one girl managing to get from the middle to the front on the T.
After that amazing art performance, I went back one more time to the cover of Stage 3/4 for another type of art, Polaris. Hailing from Sydney, their stageshow featured gouts of flame, trippy videos and lights to accompany their epic heavy groove backed by screaming harsh vocals. Their set included Consume, Hypermania, Pray for Rain, All Of This Is Fleeting, a ballady opening to Masochist, and Lucid which had the second circle pit and an epic drum solo.
Finally, I made my way back to the main stage for the last two acts, Deftones and Bring Me The Horizon. The Deftones show began with a blacked- out stage and an ominous overture. The synth came in and they began with Genesis. They followed with Diamond
Eyes and Be Quiet and Drive [Far Away]. My favourite was next, My Own Summer [Shove It], then Needles and Pins, Digital Bath, RX Queen, Swerve City, Rosemary, Rocket Skates, and Ohms. Then the other crowd favourite began, Change [In the House of Flies], ending with Bloody Cape and Headup.
There were some sound issues which meant that it was a little quiet but honestly that kinda suits the restrained tension of Deftones, Chino’s voice was as beautiful and harsh as ever, as was the band’s signature alternative sound. Despite missing Soulfly there was a welcome surprise guest during Headup. Max Cavalera came out and closed the set with Chino with obvious emphasis on the ‘Soulfly!’ chorus.
After a full day of standing, moshing and running around the Showgrounds in boots I found a good spot to sit for the last act of the day, England’s Bring Me The Horizon. as expected, the screens lit up with Enid, the AI responsible for ensuring a good time at a BMTH show. After Enid detected the mosh the band came out to open with Can You Feel My Heart complete with confetti and an accompanying video. Next was Happy Song complete with robotic cheerleaders and S P I R I T chant on the screens. To end came the ‘open up the pit’ instruction and a count to the heavy breakdown. Next came Teardrops, MANTRA, Dear Diary, sTraNgeRs, the brutal Shadow Moses, the electro Kingslayer, Die4u, the acoustic Follow You, Drown, and then the encore of Obey and Throne.
BMTH were a perfect way to end a long, humid, rainy heavy festival. They went from brutal to melodic and despite everyone having partied for 9 hours already got the crowd going one last time, including getting people up on shoulders for Follow You.
Good Things 2022 was an absolute blast with acts from all over the world plus a fair share of homegrown bands. It’s definitely shaping up to be Australia’s foremost heavy festival, with the likes of the upcoming Knotfest only providing healthy competition. Many thanks go to the staff and crew of Good Things and the venue, the RNA Showgrounds, and hopefully we shall be back next year.
Photos by Nine Lives Media | Review by William Ferguson
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