© Lauren Baxter 2021.
No amount of rain could turn punters away from the Riverstage for a Sunday sesh of epic proportions courtesy of Parkway Drive.
Right from the start it is clear that a large portion of the crowd are there for de facto headliners Killswitch Engage. Perhaps there to win over a younger audience, perhaps just wanting a holiday Down Under, the metalcore mainstays are greeted as the giants they are as they power through a set to please the diehards in attendance. There’s an audience poll as to whether pizza is better than sex (sex with pizza the prevailing winner) and a strong showing of headlock singalongs in Rose Of Sharyn, My Last Serenade and My Curse. One thing’s for sure, Killswitch ain’t no support act.
Seniority debates aside, when the Parkway Drive chants start 20 minutes prior to the band taking the stage, there is no doubt who the crowd is really here for. A soundtrack of Farnsey, Barnsey and Daryl Braithwaite’s Horses over the intercom is a strange choice but vocal cords are warmed up in the only way Aussies know how.
When the Byron Bay fellas eventually make it onto the stage, after a heart-stopping bang of pyrotechnics, we think they are possibly on the wrong side of the river with a stage production that would be more than at home on the Performing Arts Centre stage.
Frontman Winston McCall is operatic in his stage presence, orchestrating the sea of black from centre stage Fantasia-style. The show is pure production, with non-stop pyrotechnics, a blinding light show, fireworks and even a live string quartet thrown in for good measure but nothing can top the spinning rig mounted drum kit during Crushed.
McCall makes a comment that “this is the most people we’ve had at a fucking show in our life” but with a performance like that, we think there’s still a whole lot more to come.
Original article: Parkway Drive @ Riverstage