Forthcoming Vans Warped Tour Aussie headliners Parkway Drive are none too happy with the live performances from some big name bands they’ve played with.
The Byron Bay-bred hardcore outfit have slammed the integrity of bands that use backing tracks, calling them out as ‘karaoke popstars’ while proudly plugging the Australian hardcore scene they’ve been repping for over a decade as slaying its international competition.
Vocalist Winston McCall claims the outfit have seen firsthand how some of the biggest international hardcore and metal bands commonly resort to mimicking along to backing tracks, saying there’s “a lot of bullshit involved in this music.”
“You hear the most amazing record in the world, and you watch them and they can’t even play it live. It’s all recorded guitars,” the singer told Music Feeds in a recent interview. “The amount of big bands that we’ve played with that…are pretty much karaoke bands is shocking. The only live sound you hear is the drums and even that’s triggered to hell.”
The vocalist didn’t go as far as naming bands, but notes that some have been clearly humiliated when caught in their pre-recorded antics. “You hear the most amazing record in the world, and you watch [the band] and they can’t even play it live… [there’s] a lot of bullshit involved in this music.”
“I’m not going to say names but they know who they are. And the thing is, they watched us laughing at them on stage and looked embarrassed as hell,” says McCall. “I watched the mic turned the wrong way and yet the singing coming out absolutely perfect and the guitarist dropping the guitar.”
“You sit on side of stage and think, ‘Why are you even doing this? Are you stoked? Is this fun? Is this creative?’ It’s just bizarre. I don’t know why you’d want to bother,” quizzes the frontman.
“Integrity always meant a hell of a lot to me,” he continues, saying that playing live is as authentic as a band gets. “That’s where you see that person’s involved in it because they get to ride on a bus and have thousands of people screaming along,” he said. “But that’s what being a popstar is – go on fucking X Factor!”
It’s unclear who Parkway Drive could be specifically recurring to, the Sydney five-piece have played with an awful lot of bands in their decade-long-ish career, including supporting the likes of In Flames, Alexisonfire, The Devil Wears Prada, and forthcoming Warped Tour compatriots, Hatebreed. Never mind the international bills Parkway Drive have shared with the likes of Megadeth, NOFX, and Dropkick Murphys.
No matter who the culprits are, McCall says that Australian artists in the same genres are outstripping their international contemporaries, with a skill that doesn’t require any kind of pre-recorded aides.
“The Australian bands, especially in this crop, are very good, very inventive, and can play their music and can play as well as – if not better than – ninety-nine per cent of the big bands you hear about from overseas that are getting pushed and have massive labels behind them and all the hype,” says the vocalist. “You play with them and then you realise that Australian locals leave most people for dead.”
Parkway Drive will be playing among many of their killer contemporaries on the Vans Warped Tour 2013 lineup this November and December. Aussie bands Tonight Alive, The Amity Affliction, Buried In Verona, Hand Of Mercy, Hands Like Houses, and Confession will be playing alongside The Offspring, The Used, Millencolin, and more on the punk and hardcore lineup.
The Warped dates marks Parkway Drive’s return to Australia following more international touring after their last national trek in September, which followed the Byron Bay five-piece announcing the release of a hardcover book to commemorate their 10th Anniversary.
The 300-page tome, appropriately titled Ten Years of Parkway Drive, scours the band’s archives to bring a fan-savvy chronicle of the band’s rise to fame, put together by long-term friend of the band, Callum Preston.
Vans Warped Tour 2013 Dates
Friday 29th November Brisbane RNA Showgrounds
Saturday 30th November Coffs Harbour Showground
Sunday 1st December Barangaroo, Sydney
Friday 6th December Exhibition Park, Canberra
Saturday 7th December Birrarung Marr, Melbourne
Sunday 8th December Adelaide Showgrounds, Adelaide
Tickets and info head to http://vanswarpedtouraustralia.com/
