Live Reviews : Parkway Drive, Thy Art Is Murder, Memphis May Fire & The Word Alive @ Riverside, Brisbane 02/10/2015

Words: Jake Patton

Images: Amanda Brenchley

(Click here to view the full gallery)

Metalcore is a bit of an institution in Australia. As a genre that has had many pioneers in our country, its definitely something that we love to come out in force for and support, especially when the draw card is one of our own. So to say that I wasn’t expecting Parkway Drive’s return to Brisbane’s Riverstage tonight to be a massive night would be a very big understatement.

The Word Alive

Starting at the very early 6pm opening time slot, The Word Alive took the stage, to a surprisingly filled out crowd. Having never been initiated on the band before and coming in completely fresh, I was pleasantly surprised. Normally for me these post-hardcore/metalcore hybrids can go one of two ways, be interesting, or mundane. These guys filled out the former, and played a really enjoyable and catchy set. Its a band that I’m now going to explore a bit further following tonight, and if you haven’t had a chance to check them out before now, then I would strongly recommend that you do.

Following on after a really quick changeover, Memphis May Fire was up. This for me was the same deal as The Word Alive, a band I had heard of before, but never really paid much attention too. I’m glad that I was close to the front for this one because while the music might not have been as captivating for me as others, the crowd reaction was infectious for these guys and the energy that was put into their performance was such that it could stand up against some of the greats of the genre. As with their predecessors, it was disappointing that just as they were dragging me in musically that they had to finish up, but all things considered it was an enjoyable set.

Memphis May Fire

Sydney stalwarts Thy Art is Murder were a late addition to this tour, covering the withdrawal of Suicide Silence, and in all honesty they probably should have been an inclusion from the outset from the show that they put on. For the uninitiated, Thy Art Is Murder as a band goes about their business in a particularly routine fashion, its loud, its heavy and its crushing, but then you need to add in the wild card, front man CJ McMahon that each time brings something unique to a show. Sharing some choice words in between songs, jokingly remarking that of the two Australian bands performing, that people were there to watch the ‘Best band in the world, and then five surfer dudes from Byron Bay’ and even starting a ‘Twerkle Pit’ at one stage, there is just no words to describe the antics that this one person brings to the stage, and the extra elements that he adds to the bands show.

Antics aside, Thy Art played a pretty strong set for such a short time (only seven songs) and before it seemed like they had really hit their groove their time was up. Having Winston McCall from Parkway Drive quietly sneak out to help on ‘Coffin Dragger’ would have easily been the highlight, but having the crowd help out on ‘Holy Wars’ was definitely the perfect way to close off the set, in preparation for the headlining act.

Thy Art Is Murder

Parkway Drive has always been a big band for Australians, a guiding light for other local artists to know that eventually there is a progression out of the Australian music scene, and if you can capture the right opportunities, then the sky is the limit. Watching the difference in the band and their performance and production now, in comparison to their show on the very same stage 18 months ago, you would swear you were looking at a different band. Their stage set up is still stripped back, but the production value has been amplified hundred fold.

With the band opening up by performing behind a giant silhouetted IRE banner, which dropped just as the music hit peak performance mode on’Destroyer’, and confetti cannons shooting out over the crowd, showed just how far removed from their stroll out on stage that occurred 18 months ago. I’m not going to lie either, but the second that the first lot of pyro jets shot up during ‘Karma’, well it was difficult from that point on not to admire how far these guys have actually come.

Parkway Drive

You can really see the influence that some of the bands time traveling across the world has had on their performance. While Australian shows have always been massive, I have really enjoyed watching the band get more and more comfortable on the stage over the past 6-7 years. The band looked as composed as ever and have probably cemented their rights to be performing these big stages. Instrumentally it was a very tight performance, with my only minor criticism being that the rhythm guitar was a little soft in the mix, but this was only a minor criticism and it only appeared in certain parts where the lead guitar was performing one of it’s solo sections.

Parkway’s back catalog is the bands greatest asset with so many great songs to pick from (of which they hit alot tonight) but still so many that they don’t cover them all. And If you had any doubts about how Parkway’s new tracks stack up with the old catalog in a live setting then don’t. I think that the loudest that the crowd got was during the much questioned ‘Yeah Yeah’ section of “Vice Grip”, but tracks like those already mentioned and “Bottom Feeder” all got the same crowd reaction as tracks that have been in their live setlists for many years. I won’t spoil the encore for you, but I implore you to hang around once the venue gets dark.

I think that CJ said it best during the Thy Art set, that they were warming up the stage for the greatest band in the world at the moment, and after watching the show tonight, well, I guess it’s hard to argue with the man.

Parkway Drive

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