It never ceases to amaze how fast music festivals seem to develop in Australia. The turn around from small acts and $50 tickets to showground-filling artists at $150 asking price seems to be no more than a few years. A perfect example of this is the yearly Soundwave Festival which has clawed its way to the top of the ladder and can now be considered on par with the epic Big Day Out.

Since its conception and birth in 2007, the festival has seen it’s headliners grow dramatically. Starting with Deftones and +44, followed by Incubus and Offspring in 2008 which was eclipsed by the 2009 lineup of Nine Inch Nails on their final Austarlian tour along with a reformed Alice in Chains as well as metal staples Lamb Of God and The Dilliner Escape Plan.

To say expectations for 2010 were high is an understatement. The much anticipated announcement revealed that A.F.I, My Chemical Romance, Meshuggah, Eagles of Death Metal, Paramore, H.I.M, Alexisonfire, Taking Back Sunday and many more would be joining the hallowed Soundwave halls. As if this wasn’t enough, the announcement of Faith No More and Jane’s Addiction to the lineup, along with 30-odd metal and indie bands made the festival a no-brainer for anyone with a pulse who knows what distortion is.

The lineup was made all the more potent considering both Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More had been disbanded a decade or more with no intention of returning. Though Jane’s Addiction played Perth mid 2009, it was the irresistable temptation of reliving the early 90’s through the addition of Faith No More that saw tickets shifting faster than any previous Soundwave.

Aside from My Chemical Romance pulling out days before the festival commenced due to Gerard Way suffering a vocal injury, Soundwave 2010 went off without a hitch. Jimmy Eat World stepped in to fill MCR’s custom Converse one-stars and the day went ahead as planned.

Starting at a cool and respectable 11am, first act worth catching was Baroness from the USA.  A band who we owe thanks if not for their blistering prog-metal, then for colour coding their albums (Red Album and Blue Record being their LP’s to date) which makes things a tad easier when navigating the dense and overwhemling metal section at 78 Records. Their performance was powerful but somewhat samey, with many songs melding into others or losing their defining moments amongst the distortion and questionable mixing.

After a 20 minute pause, the epic Isis took the stage for their first show in Perth since their In The Absence of Truth tour in 2007. The set had something for old and new fans alike. Though if you are a fan of one Isis song it stands to reason that you like them all. That being said, I found myself struggling to contain the excitement of hearing some of Panopticons key tracks being played.Leaving Isis early was rewarded with a 20-minute viewing of Taking Back Sunday on Stage 1, such is the curse of festivals. From what I caught, they put on a strong performance that the crowd clearly drank in greedily.

As their angsty tumult died down, the incredibly rocking Eagles of Death Metal took Stage 2 in time to witness the surge of punters from one side of the main oval to the other. For a man pushing 40 with a handle-bar moustache, Jesse “The Devil” Hughes exudes an amount of sex-appeal that had the ladies in the crowd reaching for their silk fans. The guys joined in with this enthusiasm, but only after Hughes promised that Eagles of Death Metal would be going to the bar after their set and invited everyone to join. Before this exercise in binge drinking, the band managed to bounce their way through a strong set of some of the most seering rock riffs heard this side of early Led Zeppelin. Though many were clearly skeptical of the band having as much pull without their other founding member (Josh Homme, bust with Queens of the Stone Age commitments), they were soon convinced that Eagles of Death Metal could work on Hughes’ personality alone. Strutting up and down the stage in a Jagger-tight tshirt with a cigarette dangling from his lips, the eccentric frontman won over everyone and had most of the crowd screaming along through standards such as Cherry Cola, I Gotta Feelin (Just Nineteen) and I Want You So Hard (Boy’s bad news).

The Alabama pub rock vibe died quickly as Hughes bowed and Alexisonfire started their Stage 1 set. For me, the band have always fit snuggly into the ‘heard of but haven’t heard’ category, though I was fully aware of the intensity of their devoted fans. The crowd lived up to this reputation as the first true mosh of the day swung into full effect within the first 30 seconds of the first song. The remainder of the set continued in much the same way with fans being literally dragged from the throng by concerned security. The band did nothing to alleviate this pressure as their songs continued to come thick and fast, though their inter-song banter left something to be desired as it was reminiscent of a chat with a distant family member.

Before the stop start nature of Alexisonfire’s performance had time to grate, they left the stage and Paramore quickly filled the silence. The band seemed to fade into the background as singer  Hayeley Williams quickly stole the show. For a girl two years my junior, she carried herself with an air of exceptional confidence and profession, flying through numbers without missing a note and keeping the crowd tucked under her arm with personal banter.  The setlist was nothing a fan couldn’t have predicted with Hallelujah and Decode making timely appearances.

Next was the post-punk rockers Placebo, the first truly epic band of the day. Since replacing drummer Steve Hewitt with the 23 year old Steve Forrest, the band has shaken up its song book with most tracks coming from recent albums. The band have been noted as saying this is due to them seeing themselves in a different place to who9 they were during certain songs such as Nancy Boy and Pure Morning. Though fans mourned these cut backs, the tracks that made it through were far from disappointing. The latest album Battle For The Sun was given plenty of attention with Ashtray Heart, Breathe Underwater and the set opener For What It’s Worth.Older tracks including the preictable Every Me and Every You and Taste In Men among others.

With spirits heightened to an unprecedented level, the crowd applause faded as Placebo showed us their backs and A.F.I took the other stage. Being a fan of only the Sing The Sorrow album, I was taken aback at just how amazing the band were live. Davey Havock had the crowd in his palm for most of the set, not that this was a huge effort for the mascara-stained youth that made up the majority of the crowd. The set was nicely varied with earlier numbers scattered through the ‘big three’ albums (Sing the sorrow, Decemberunderground and Crash Love). Opening with Medicate followed by Girls Not Grey and The Leaving Song Pt. 2, the set was strong through to the closing.

At 6:15, thousands of punters turned their collective gaze to Stage 1 to witness one of two reasons to attend Soundwave 2010. Jane’s Addiction. The band hit the stage right on time and launched into a predictable set list which essentially could have been Ritual De Lo Habitual in its entirety. There was little to no effort required on the bands part to keep the attention rapt, an opportunity they made full use of by saying very little other than Perry Farrell’s obscure rant about rock stars getting whores for free. They played flawlessly from within the forest of silk scarves, tattoos and Asian backing dancers wearing little more than seductive smiles.

By the time Jimmy Eat World appeared, fatigue was setting in and people had started to form close-knit grass communities with questionable clouds of smoke lingering above. The bands performance had a thick sense of tension as it was apparent many fans had not realised that My Chemical Romance would not be making an appearance. This didn’t seem to affect them too much as they launched through a greatest hits of singles such as Pain, Work and In The Middle to a generous response from the crowd.

As Jimmy Eat World drew to a close, the longest ten minutes of many lives began while the final touches were made to the tasteful but sparse Faith No More backdrop of red curtains. As the backing music faded, the band appeared decked out in suits with flowers in their lapels, hair slicked back and ties pulled tight. Opening with a Peaches & Herb number, Mike Patton slunk forward from the shadows leaning on a cane, singing about his regret for leaving ‘us’ alone for so long. With no pause, the band ironically launched into From Out Of Nowhere. Patton was clearly the star of the show, walking in tight circles around the middle of the stage with his age-referencing cane in one hand and a megaphone in the other. His vocal talents were on full display with impromptu beat boxing, popping, clicking and screeching scattered throughout the songs. The hour and twenty set went far too quickly with numbers such as Epic, Easy and Midlife Crisis disappearing before many bleary-eyed on lookers realized they were being played.

When the band said their goodnights and thousands of people headed for the limited train services a few kilometers away (thanks TransPerth), a dedicated few detoured to the huge canopy covering the fourth stage. With moments to spare, love-metal pioneers H.I.M made themselves known to generous applause. Getting the big ones out of the way early, the Finnish lads rushed through Join Me In Death, Right Here In My Arms and new single Heartkiller.

As I joined the throng of smiling faces leaving Bassendean oval,  ambling along amidst the hundreds of brand new tour shirts, I couldn’t help but thinking ‘I wonder who’s playing next year?’

By Levi Dobbie