Parkway Drive

There was an absolutely MASSIVE lineup outside the gates of HQ in Adelaide on Sunday the 17th February. Melbourne hardcore lads Parkway Drive, supported by 50 Lions and a couple local bands, were on their latest rampage through our little town, and nobody wanted to miss out. With good reason, as it happened.

HQ was decked out with an inordinate amount of security guards for the show, probably due to the nature of the night’s music. This made it quite difficult to get drinks, since entire areas of the bar were cordoned off, and it ended up being entirely unnecessary anyway. Damn mangagement… One of the good other things I did notice was the sheer amount of merchandise that Parkway were flogging. With 6 different shirts, hats, jumpers, hoodies, shorts and skate decks, they’d gone all out.

The first band onstage, locals Word Up, caught me by surprise in that they all looked to be around 18 years old, pretty young to be supporting the likes of Parkway Drive. While sounding a little raw and looking considerably nervous, the band played a reasonable mix of hardcore and punk tunes to start the night. They eventually gave way to the next support slot, Cry Murder. A little more experienced, Cry Murder was lead by a singer of intense skinniness and bubbling energy, who bounced all over the stage, belying his appearance with some of the deepest screaming I’ve ever heard. Cry Murder were highly technically proficient, belting out some mighty complicated riffs and beats. Maybe a band to keep an eye on there...

50 Lions, the minor headline, then came onstage. They generated a huge response from the hungry-for-hardcore fans, who by now packed out all floors in the multi-tiered HQ room. Mostly supporting their new album, the acclaimed Time Is The Enemy, 50 Lions let rip their pure hardcore. At their first song a barrage of crowd surfers started up, fists shot into the air, and the circle dancing began in the mosh pit. The crowd were sorry to see them go.

Finally, Parkway Drive themselves came in, bounding out onto stage to pulse flashes and swinging spotlights. Immediately ripping into crowd favourite 'Gimme A.D.', Parkway set about making the mosh “Shake the f**king walls!”. Which they did. Parkway were also supporting their new album, Horizons, yet they played many of the older songs during the concert. Surprisingly, many of the new songs like 'Dead Man’s Chest' got bigger crowd responses. Watching singer Winston McCall up on stage clothed in black, with red spotlights playing on him and smoke swirling around his face, distorted guitar echoing him as he roars “NOW BRACE YOURSELF” at the top of his lungs, one can easily imagine the floor cracking open and Satan’s voice booming through from the depths of the Abyss in a similar way. Throughout the gig the crowd lapped it up. As the band closed with 'Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em' and 'Picture Perfect Pathetic' the crowd went ballistic, at one stage even having a naked guy jump into the mosh. Pure hardcore power. While guitars were a little too distorted, and the whole thing was a little too loud, the right songs and high energy from both band and crowd made it a bloody good show all up.

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