| Soundwave Festival 2011 - NEW FOUND GLORY |
| Written by Sarah Mudgway |
| Sunday, 20 March 2011 20:17 |
 NEW FOUND GLORY were another major drawcard for me personally, and after all expectations were blown out of the water at their first New Zealand show last year, I was expecting nothing short of the best. Arriving on stage in matching basketball outfits, the pop-punk crew wasted no time launching straight into ‘Understatement’ before working their way through classic tracks such as ‘Hit Or Miss’, ‘Don’t Let Her Pull You Down’, and ‘All Downhill From Here'. It was a best-of forty-minute set in which the band managed to cram in twelve songs including their Sixpence None The Richer cover of ‘Kiss Me’ - and as a New Found Glory fan, I really couldn’t have asked for much more.  Guitarist Chad Gilbert humoured the crowd with his own personal re-branding of Brisbane to "Brisneyland" and the lighthearted banter between Gilbert and vocalist Jordan Pundik allowed a moment for fans and the band members to re-catch their breath after many circle pits and mass sing-a-long's took place. Before launching into ‘Failure’s Not Flattering’, Gilbert urged the crowd to sing "as loud as possible" for the introduction, so he did not have to hear Jordan’s voice by itself - a request that the audience offered no hesitation in fulfilling. For a band with six studio albums, it is true testament to their fan's dedication that every song was met with an instant sing-a-long from the majority of the audience, whether it was an old or new track. Sadly, the band didn’t play any new songs off their upcoming album as Chad Gilbert explained the night before at their signing: "If we play a new song, someone will record it on a camera, put it on Youtube and people will say it’s shit." Ending their set with ‘My Friends Over You’, they unfortunately didn’t pull people up on stage for a massive dance party à la their 2009 Melbourne Soundwave performance, however the dance party on the field was more than adequate. Pundik’s vocals were a lot more consistent than their Auckland show, and the energy from all members seemed to increase as the energy increased in the crowd. In all honesty, I could have left Soundwave right then and there and have been fully content with the day. |
