Of all the recent festival lineup announcements, like this morning’s Meredith lineup, the bill for Soundwave 2013 has been one of the worst kept secrets in the music industry. What with the likes of Blink 182 and The Offspring confirmed ahead of last week’s official announcement of the highly-anticipated Soundwave Festival lineup for its 2013 iteration.
That’s not to say it wasn’t without its surprises – such as two of ‘The Big Four’ in Metallica and Antrhax – and some populist appearances from Linkin Park to Garbage and Paramore, but with this morning’s presale tickets going on sale, its fair to say that all attention has turned now to the impending announcement of the second round of bands that will be joining the lineup.
Much like the rumour mongering ahead of the first official announcement, round two has already seen some high-profile names leaked, and now we can confirm one more to the list.
In a forthcoming interview with Mike Davenport, the former bassist for The Ataris discussed all things to do with his latest outfit, Versus The World. Including casually letting slip that they’ll be appearing as part of the Soundwave 2013 lineup.
When asked if his band had any Australian appearances on the cards, Davenport responded: “We got a couple of things in the works. For sure we’ll be out there for Soundwave!”
Best to take Davenport on his word, but to solidify things, Versus The World were recently signed to 3Wise, Soundwave’s record label, for the release of their latest record, Drink Sing Live Love. Something Soundwave Festival helped plug on their Facebook page back in early August.
Davenport added that their confirmation on the lineup came via 3Wise, and though they were not “technically supposed to talk about it”, confirmed that “we are heading out there in summer time so you guys can come check us out!”
Founded by Davenport, Versus The World is a perfect fit for Soundwave with a lineup featuring members from legendary skate punk acts, Lagwagon and Crooks And Liars. Formed in the back The Ataris-owned record store, Down On Haley, in Santa Barbara, California, it seems Davenport now has the perfect day job.
Versus The World join Billy Talent – off the back of their Australian tour – Welsh rockers The Blackout, UK hardcore punk act Gallows and Puscifer – Maynard James Keenan’s other other side-project; as bands all pretty much locked in for the second round announcement, with festival boss and twitter connoisseur AJ Maddah saying we can expect it to arrive in the next week or so, sometime between the ticket pre-sale and general release; and once again, he remains at the centre of many of the delicious rumours and leaked confirmations.
Hawk-eyed tweet diggers will also have picked up on confirmations from American mathcore act, The Chariot and “crunkcore” act Blood On The Dancefloor; and as usual nearly every band that plays loud, heavy and/or fast have been linked in to second round announcement – with stronger bets being The Vandals, Deftones and Killswitch Engage.
All will be revealed soon enough…
UPDATE 17 AUG: The second lineup has now been announced including Slayer, Cypress Hill, and more
