No Big Day Out in 2015?

[gUt]

Let's be honest here, soundwave is just BDO but 15 years in the past.

As the only big rock festival in town it will likely try to include current popular acts next year and suffer the same problems

They gave the game away billing the likes of Green Day and f**king Placebo so highly. At least they balanced it with a string of awesome to go with those.

 

[mongoose]

Let's be honest here, soundwave is just BDO but 15 years in the past.

As the only big rock festival in town it will likely try to include current popular acts next year and suffer the same problems

It already has, the amount of douche bags who were their this year only to see Greenday. I couldn't stop face palming. Next year it will probably be headlined by the Killers.

 

[thorson1987]

As long as they don't have the Chemical Brothers headline like BDO did in 05.

Good thing I was well past smashed at that stage and heavily sunburnt so I passed out during their set.

 

[Red Bear]

Soundwave will probably never be anything like the BDO because at least the BDO gave something back to the Australian scene, rather than further marginalizing it

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

What does the Australian scene have to do with anything?

 

[Red Bear]

What does the Australian scene have to do with anything?

Well any music festival needs big, overseas acts to draw a crowd. Obviously that's true.

Most festivals though also have several local bands on the lineup, from a range of popularity levels. It helps keep the local scene strong, gives some bands pretty big opportunities etc.

The Big Day Out had this consistently, and several Australian bands through the 90's and 2000's benefited greatly from the exposure the festival gave them. As they do at most other festivals.

Soundwave though gives almost nothing back to the local scene. Metal, punk, hardcore etc (especially metal) lack a great deal of exposure on the greater stage. Well punk goes alright from time to time, recently Smith Street Band and Violent Soho and the occasional hardcore band such as Parkway and Ammity Affliction get pretty big, but for the most part they're small, with metal almost completely ignored.

Now when you have a big touring festival such as Soundwave, that will bring punters through the gates to see big name bands (and Soundwave has been very successful in doing this) it represents an opportunity to increase the profile of these punk, hardcore, metal bands. Grow the Australian scene. Punters are there much of the day, they go see other bands, discover new artists during the day, it's one of the better things about music festivals - you come for the big names but get exposed to a heap of other acts along the way.

Instead, Soundwave fills not just the top tier, the top 10-20 bands with internationals, not even the mid range acts as overseas. Virtually the entire festival, from top to bottom is international. 6 of the 90 odd touring bands (+ 2 locals at each venue) were Australian. It's band 50-90, the ones that don't really draw the punters, almost all being from overseas that is terrible.

It's a massive missed opportunity as a festival, and it almost marginalises the local scenes further by giving no exposure to them.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Don't they have unearthed artists start the day off?

Also bigger bands like amity, in hearts wake, Northlane have played recently off the top of my head.

 

[gUt]

Music is either good and viable to the punters or it isn't. Whether it's Australian or not is irrelevant, at least to me. If we forgive an Australian act that's slightly worse than something else coming from O/S, all we do is water down the product we're producing. Then we end up with a sickening chimera like "Aussie Hip Hop" that everyone pretends is just as good as the stuff from America because it's done in our accent. JJJ has a lot to answer for.

The best metal act in Australia at the moment is King Parrot imo. They are pushing into the USA because they are good enough. I don't like them because they're Australian, although they themselves are proud Aussies and that is appealing. I like them because they're good.

 

[Red Bear]

Don't they have unearthed artists start the day off?

Also bigger bands like amity, in hearts wake, Northlane have played recently off the top of my head.

As I said, 6 out of ~90 bands. Not many for an Australian festival. Close to none.

Music is either good and viable to the punters or it isn't. Whether it's Australian or not is irrelevant, at least to me. If we forgive an Australian act that's slightly worse than something else coming from O/S, all we do is water down the product we're producing. Then we end up with a sickening chimera like "Aussie Hip Hop" that everyone pretends is just as good as the stuff from America because it's done in our accent. JJJ has a lot to answer for.

The best metal act in Australia at the moment is King Parrot imo. They are pushing into the USA because they are good enough. I don't like them because they're Australian, although they themselves are proud Aussies and that is appealing. I like them because they're good.

It's not so much just liking them because they're Australian, it's that many people never get exposed to them to find out whether they are good or not when the only major metal/punk/hardcore festival gives almost no exposure to local acts. It'd rather fill out the bottom tier of bands, bands 60-90 on the bill, with overseas acts those outside the metal scene would also no almost nothing about and would not impact these peoples decision to go to the festival (they're already there, based on the headliners).

There's obviously a heap of dross in the Australian scene, as there is in any scene (yes Aus Hip-hop is largely terrible). But many people simply don't know, because there is so little exposure available to these bands because the festival that should help their scene simply doesnt.

 

[Twizzle]

Don't they have unearthed artists start the day off?

Also bigger bands like amity, in hearts wake, Northlane have played recently off the top of my head.

They used to have a stage for not only Aussie bands but bands local to the city where it was being played, thats how I first came across Parkway many moons ago. Being from Byron they had a gig at the Gold Coast BDO.

I don't recall seeing the local band stage for the last few years.

 

[Zigwaa]

The best metal act in Australia at the moment is King Parrot imo. They are pushing into the USA because they are good enough. I don't like them because they're Australian, although they themselves are proud Aussies and that is appealing. I like them because they're good.

Has to be Thy Art is Murder