Soundwave

Saturday 21st of February 2015, a.k.a the best fkn day of my life, I attended soundwave (Australian music festival) for the first, and sadly last time.
The day started off with little sleep, due to excitement. I stayed at my best friends house with two of my best friends. We quickly got ready, tied our hair back and wore shorts and band shirts. My friends parents drove us to the Melbourne Showgrounds, as we figured public transport would most likely be quite busy.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, meaning it had already made me so happy when I woke up (good weather is always a good start to the day). When we finally arrived at the venue, after a slightly long drive, we came face to face with the biggest line I've ever seen in my life. I can't remember how long we actually spent in the line waiting to get into the venue, but once the gates opened it did move quite quickly and soon enough we had passed the gates into an unforgettable day.

The three of us had studied the line up and when every band was playing the night before, and had all agreed on which band we'd see when. First on our list was Dayshell at Stage 3. This band was an absolute must for me to see, as they'd helped me through a bunch of shit the year following up to this day. And it really was a great way to kick off Soundwave by seeing them. My two best friends had never been to a concert or festival so the first band they saw live was these guys. As it was only the start of the day, the crowd was awfully shy and just stood there and watched the guys play. That or they were watching and had no fkn idea who these amazing people were. (I seriously 110% recommend listening to dayshell if you haven't already, cause they're so good!)
It came to the second last song of their set, and I was slightly horrified that I hadn't screamed along with their songs, purely because no one else was and I didn't want to be the only one in the crowd singing.. I didn't want to look like "that fan girl". But my next decision did not help me with that. In between the songs, the lead singer had stopped to get a drink of water, and I took this as my opportunity to scream "I love you Shayley!" However, now I was not aware girls voices could do this, but my voice broke like a 12 year old boy's, which caused, no joke, every one in front of me to turn around and stare at me. Probably one of my most embarrassing moments in my life, but my friends found it hilarious. So after that we didn't stay for the last song, but that wasn't the reason why. The night before we had agreed not to stay for their whole set as This Wild Life  was playing at the same time and we wanted to see them as well.
This Wild Life were playing on stage 5, that was the only one indoors, and even though it was still the morning.. well basically lunch time, it was already getting very hot in there. We got to see them play a couple of songs, including their cover of Bring Me The Horizon's 'sleepwalking' (which was amazing). If you're looking for a band that's really, really chill.. like the sort of music you could listen to before you go to bed, or to calm you down before an exam, listen to these guys. I really don't understand why their genre is listed at pop-punk as it's all so relaxing and calm.

After we saw This Wild Life, there weren't really any bands playing that we were extremely keen to see live so we took this opportunity to get some lunch. Mind you, the food at Soundwave was ridiculously priced. near the food area we saw a giant shed and wandered down to it. This shed was where the meet and greets would be held, I can't remember exactly but I think you had to pay $2 to meet your favourite band (well not all the bands were doing this). Unfortunately there was limited places and they had mostly been taken up already. So if I can give you any advice for if Soundwave ever comes back, go here first to assure your place! Anyway so we ate our lunch while sitting on some plants, Yes on plants, there weren't any free seats around where we were. Then we wandered over to the free water area, filled up our bottles then went to have a look around the tents filled with an amazing amount of merchandise. After we had bought some shirts and what not, we went over to Stage 2 where we waited for Tonight Alive. To me tonight alive were one of those bands I loved but not very openly. Like I didn't have any of their merch or posters and *cringes* Only knew who Jenna was in the band. So when I saw the crowd they pulled I was so shocked. I never realised just how big they were. The performance they put on was seriously so good. They're really an 11 out of 10 kinda band, especially when it comes to playing live. If you ever get the chance to see them, 100% do it! So because their crowd was so huge, AND it was that time of day when it was the hottest I learnt the hard way not to wear so much make up in a mosh pit. All of my foundation was dripping off my face and into my eyes along with my mascara and eyeliner. So I had very, very irritated eyes. I did not purposely cry the first time seeing Tonight Alive. I just could barely see them cause my eyes hurt so much.. and it didn't help that I was rubbing them. Everyone's sweat was making this mosh pit feel more and more like a swimming pool as we jumped and slipped around off each other. It's totally gross thinking back at it now, but it was just kinda normal at the time.. and we could't exactly help it.

Straight after Tonight Alive played, All Time Low were playing on Stage 1. We could still see Tonight Alive from stage 1 so we went over there to get a good spot for All Time Low. (We did take a quick detour to the water stands so that I could wash my face and fix my eyes). All Time Low had been number 1 on my "have to see live" list for a really long time. They were my gateway band into this music scene. So you could only imagine just how happy I was seeing them. I was beginning to feel quite exhausted from having the hot sun on me and doing intense cardio all day, but that didn't stop me from enjoying them. Jack and Alex shared their usual banter on stage, Alex ripped a hole in his jeans and the crowd acted like they were at a death metal concert when really they're just pop-punk.  My friends and I were in a spot in the crowd where all the crowd surfing was being done, so I did get an extremely sore neck.

In the photo above, my friends and I are standing to the left of the guy who's down on his hands and knees, it's impossible to tell which ones we are though cause there's so many people. After All Time Low played, I felt sad that they'd finished but totally complete that I'd been able to see them. They put on a really good performance as well.  We then wandered around for awhile, seeing parts of several bands sets including: Papa Roach, Crossfaith, Millencolin, and Coldrain. We caught up with some friends that we'd bumped into in a crowd of 35,000 people. Then sat down in the grand stands to watch the start of Marilyn Manson's set. He pulled the biggest crowd i'd seen so far, but later it looked like it was beat by Slipknot. We weren't overly keen on watching his whole set although he was amazing we were hungry, so we went and grabbed some dinner. Just more overly priced, unhealthy food. But it tasted so good. After we ate we headed back to the stage we started at, which was Stage 3. We saw the end of Escape The Fate's set, got dragged into many circle pits and walls of death and happened to loose one of our best friends because of them. We found her at the end though. Then we waited for Of  Mice & Men to come on stage. I'd seen this band previously when they'd come on tour to Australia with Bring Me The Horizon so I sort of knew what to expect in the sense of the rough crowd and extremely angry looking Austin Carlile. Even though I sort of knew what to expect, it was so much worse than what I thought. The crowd pushed each other so hard that I couldn't breathe. Also being short and surrounded by people taller than me it was only hot, sweaty air around me to breathe so I struggled with that too. I had people crowd surfing over me, and while I was busy trying not to break my neck I lost my best friends and found myself surrounded only by tall, rather fat, sweaty, middle-aged men. To say the least, I was a little scared that I may die. Even though that sounds like I'm over reacting, don't judge until you've been in an Of Mice & Men crowd. The guys around me went absolutely nuts, I got quite beat up by their limbs that were swinging in the direction of where I was. I had my hair pulled at, my shins kicked at, my shoes stood on so much that they ripped and I also walked away with bruised ribs. Other than the terrifying crowd the band was really good live, and like I mentioned earlier, for those of you who are fans of Of Mice & Men, you'd know their lead man Austin Carlile is the sweetest guy ever, but then when he's on stage screaming into the microphone, he is one of the scariest looking dudes ever. 

After getting beat up at Of Mice & Men, I needed to sit down and just catch my breath and also look at my injuries. Before I sat down I bumped into another friend, this one I went to Primary School with so it was really cool to see how his taste of music was now fkn amazing all this time later. Straight after Of Mice & Men, Slipknot was playing on Stage 1, so we headed over in that direction.. just like sheep as seriously that's where everyone was going. We got seats in the grandstand and I relaxed for a little bit. We watched two of their songs before one of my friends asked to leave because she was scared of clowns. The part of their set I did see however, contained two of my favourite songs by them, a giant crowd, and lots of fire included into their act. At the same time of Slipknot playing, Fall Out Boy and The Smashing Pumpkins were on, so we firstly went and head a quick look at The Smashing Pumpkins (mainly for bragging rights) and then spent the rest of our night at Fall Out Boy. I was far too sore to get into the crowd, I even struggled walking from Stage 1, to Stage 4, to then Stage 3 where Fall Out Boy was playing. Even though the whole day was so amazing, I feel as though Fall Out Boy was the highlight of my day. I stood back from the crowd and really took in the atmosphere. Surrounded by people like me, listening to music we love, made by people who aren't so different from us. 

I walked away from Soundwave with my two best friends, the tiredest I've ever been, the sorest I'd ever been and the happiest i'd ever been. I'm so devastated that the festival has been cancelled, but at least my first and last Soundwave experience was a really, really extraordinary one. It's a day I'll hold with me for the rest of my life, as it's the best day I've ever, EVER had.