18 September 2024 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Luke Petty
After a canceled run of headline shows during the pandemic, Parkway Drive have finally made good on their first headline tour of Australia in six years. The Byron Bay locals also have brought along an embarrassment of riches when it comes to support acts for this tour. Marking their third tour of Australia in as many years, Detroit titans I Prevail are on this tour, alongside The Ghost Inside, who are doing their first full tour of Australia since their bus accident in 2014. And to open the shows, they could not have picked a better local act, than Melbourne’s Void of Vision.
After a brief welcome to country, and a history lesson about Indigenous Australian history, Melbourne metalcore heavyweights kicked off the night’s festivities. Void of Vision opened the chaotic proceedings for the night with a song I didn’t recognise (could have been a new song from the record dropping next week), before getting into the tunes I know and love, with ‘Blood for Blood’ and ‘Into the Dark’ popping the crowd off loud. As to be expected, lead vocalist Jack Bergin is energized and throws all his love and energy into amping the crowd up throughout the set. He led a clap along for the intro for ‘Gamma Knife’, which the crowd sustained through the silent break in the song. Void of Vision is such a fun band live. If you’re not firmly on this train yet, get on it as soon as you can. Jack expressed gratitude to the audience for showing up early, before launching back into the tunes with a new song called ‘Empty’. Jack led some circle pits as ‘Altar’ kicked in, before closing with ‘The Lonely People’.
Void of Vision – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
After a very quick 15 minute change over, our first international for the night took over the Entertainment Centre. The Ghost Inside walked out to a rapturous applause. This was their first Brisbane show in 10 years, and Brisbane went nuts for every song in their set. Opening with ‘Death Grip’, The Ghost Inside blitzed the best songs from their catalog. ‘After Earn It’, lead singer Jonathan Vigil mentioned that it’s only night one of the tour, and he’s already having the time of his life, before encouraging circle pit insanity for ‘Mercy’. They then ran through songs like ‘Wash It Away’, ‘Dark Horse’ and ‘Avalanche’, before landing on a real 1-2 emotional punch to the heart for me, personally.
Before playing ‘Aftermath’, Vigil thanked Parkway for a second chance for another run of dates, and set closer ‘Engine 45’ sent the set off perfectly. I remember the first time I heard ‘Aftermath’. The first song after the accident. I had resigned myself to never hearing new The Ghost Inside music because I thought they’d never come back. I don’t get super emotional listening to music. But this song elicits a strong reaction for me every time I hear it. And I have finally seen it live. I almost cried. And to top it off with the final lyrics of ‘Engine 45’ being “All my life I’ve been searching for something/To break these chains/To break these chains/I’ll keep swinging”, shows The Ghost Inside are far from done.
The Ghost Inside – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
Another quick changeover, and as the lights went down, a video package played, showing a hooded figure talking about the end of the world, and how we need to embrace the fear. I Prevail walked out to a thunderous ovation, as ‘There’s Fear In Letting Go’ kicked in. ‘Body Bag’ was next, before Eric led a chant for “If you don’t know the Devil, then you don’t know me”, before ‘Self Destruction’ played, and we got another video of our hooded friend, before ‘Bad Things’. Brian and Eric took a break for a minute to talk to the audience about being a band for 10 years, and that there is a specific song that got them really popular. They don’t like playing it anymore, but they played it for us, and they launched into the cover of ‘Blank Space’ by Taylor Swift. They changed it up though, adding probably the heaviest breakdown of the night, before the quiet part of the song, which was actually pretty sick.
‘Visceral’ was dedicated to The Ghost Inside, and Eric screamed for circle pits, and led a run chant before ‘Judgement Day’. Eric introduced ‘Choke’ as the song dedicated to “motherfuckers that run their mouths”, and encouraged everyone to bang their heads until their necks snapped. Which honestly, would have sucked to have a broken neck for Parkway, but I digress. ‘Hurricane’ brought the mood down, before a final video package from the cloaked man, as ‘Bow Down’ and ‘Gasoline’ finished off an incredible set of songs that did exactly what Eric said he wanted to do. Get everyone nice and warm for the main act.
I Prevail – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
A bit of a longer break for Parkway, but right on cue, at 8:55pm, the lights grew dim, as the video screens lit up with a six minute long opening montage of the last 20 years of Parkway Drive. There was footage from the Byron PCYC shows. There was footage of them putting Australia in a stranglehold from their ever expanding popularity. There was footage from the multiple documentaries they’ve dropped, leading to their insane European live productions. This was all underscored, with an orchestral version of ‘Home is for the Heartless’, which really hits hard. As the video finished, the lights went out, and Parkway descended from the back of the venue, through the crowd, as the woah ohs from ‘Home is for the Heartless’ played the band out. Winston and crew then took to a small stage in the middle of the venue, that no joke would have been no bigger than the size of the stage at the Byron PCYC shows, and belted out ‘Carrion’ and ‘Prey’ in the middle of the Entertainment Centre.
We were only two songs into this show, and I truly had no idea what to expect next. As they finished ‘Prey’, they got up, turned to face the stage, as a bridge between the stages descended from the roof, and the set was revealed, which had been hiding behind a black curtain the entire time. Words can’t describe the chaos on the stage, but go look at the photos in this article. I’ve truly never seen anything like it before. The intro to ‘Glitch’ started, as the stage had the band weaving between back up dancers, doing some honestly unhinged shit. It was so awesome. In the first deep cut of the night, we got ‘Sleepwalking’, which is one of my favorite songs, before Winston talked about how this show, and the scale of this tour, have been twenty years in the making. Winston then led “the Vice Grip call”, before ‘Vice Grip’ started up.
Parkway Drive – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
Winston then asked the mosh to activate, as “the heaviest song we’ve ever made” was up next, ‘Boneyards’. Before the breakdown, something appeared to be going down on stage, which the crowd thought something had happened. But it was all a ruse, as ascending from the middle stage, Michael Fucking Crafter appeared to do the breakdown of ‘Boneyards’ with Winston. Winston talked about it after the song, but Crafter has been the most influential person in the rise of Parkway Drive, so to see Crafter, doing ‘Boneyards’, on Parkways biggest ever Australian tour, was truly something special. Winston asked for more circle pits, before ‘Horizons’ kicked in, which has been out of the set rotation for quite a while. Another deep cut that I absolutely adored. Also, Jeff ascended on the bridge as fireworks sparkled off the bridge, in one of the coolest visuals of the night.
Some hooded figures appeared on Stage B, before ‘Cemetery Bloom’ played. Winston had a sick mic stand here, that was essentially made of gigantic thorns. Very aesthetically pleasing with the hooded monks around him. We got ‘The Void’, before a rain machine poured down on Winston on the second stage while ‘Wishing Wells’ played. This was such a cool visual, of the rain belting down on Winston as he sung this song. Probably my favorite moment of the night. At least, until what happened next.
Parkway Drive – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
Winston talked about not becoming a nostalgia act. The novelty of it seems boring. But, it’s also important to acknowledge your roots and where you came from. So, Parkway have cooked up a mash up medley of their best songs from their debut record, Killing With A Smile. This thing, is HUGE. Eleven and a half minutes of pure nostalgia. Starting the medley, was the intro and first verse and chorus of ‘Gimme a D’, before we got the best parts of ‘It’s Hard to Speak Without A Tongue’, and ‘Smoke ‘Em If Ya Got ‘Em’, before we got the most iconic part of the night. A broken up version of ‘Romance is Dead’. ‘Romance is Dead’ is my all time favorite Parkway Drive song, as it is for a lot of people. Getting the chance to hear it one more time, filled me with such joy I cannot explain. I came unglued in my seat as we got every part of this section of the show. It was absolutely incredible.
‘Dedicated’, was naturally dedicated to the audience for sticking with the band for twenty years, before Winston disappeared into the crowd to lead everyone in a sing along to the iconic opening riff of ‘Idols and Anchors’. Winston even grabbed a kid named Jack and put him on his shoulders, as a massive circle pit opened around them. This kid has some core memory shit unlocked after this show. If that were me, I’d never shut up about it. Winston crowd surfed back to the stage, before the bridge descended with a string section, for ‘Chronos’ and ‘Darker Still’. After the slower songs, it went from zero to one hundred real quick, with ‘Bottom Feeder’ closing out the main set. Winston told us there are no standing only tickets. It’s all pit. The crowd went nuts, as the venue went to black.
Parkway Drive – BEC – photos by Luke Petty
The encore began with a drum solo from Ben, with the dancers coming back to set fire to the stage for ‘Crushed’. A shirtless Winston took to the smaller stage, surrounded by fire, as ‘Crushed’ literally crushed. The band returned to the stage in the middle for one final song, as Jeff left the crowd in a sing along to the opening riff of ‘Wild Eyes’ to close out, one of the single greatest live performances I’ve ever seen.
My standard for what I would consider the greatest shows of all time I’ve personally witnessed, is pretty high. I saw Iron Maiden in 2008 in this very building, doing the Somewhere Back in Time tour, where nothing was played from any record after 1992. And until last year, that has been my number one all time show. I traveled to America, to spend a week on a boat with two thousand Coheed and Cambria fans, who love that band as much as I do. Those shows do not even touch what Parkway have been able to accomplish with this tour. This is a must for old and new fans. The level of production rivals the biggest pop acts. And for five surfers from Byron Bay, this is as close as it gets to being one of the biggest live exports that Australia has ever seen.
