In recent years the music festival circuit has taken a battering, firstly with the reckoning of the pandemic and in the subsequent years, major festivals have struggled to keep financially afloat due to the cost of living and high inflation.
In Australia, music festivals are a cornerstone of our popular culture and at the heart of what makes this country's legacy in music so influential to music lovers locally and abroad.
With the likes of Big Day Out, Soundwave and the brief stint of Download Festival all defunct, one of the very few remaining touring rock music festivals left to platform incredible acts in punk, metal and alternative music as well as providing opportunities for emerging bands is Good Things Festival, which this year boasted a line-up of some of the top legacy bands in the world such as TOOL, Weezer and Garbage as well as a host of wildly diverse acts to satisfy young metal, punk and emo fans alike.
Image © Sinan Beytas
Since debuting in 2018, Good Things has proven there's still an appetite for the counterculture of heavy guitar music where crowd goers get to mosh, are unashamed to wear dark eyeliner, and show off their incredible mohawks! More importantly, this is also a festival that prides itself for its line-ups of stellar overseas acts while championing local talent.
For the Sydney leg, Centennial Park has been the long-term home, but as this touring machine continuously grows, this year would be the first ever Good Things convened at Sydney Showground (6 December).
The iconic location where Big Day Out and Soundwave hosted incredible festivals for many years, it only made sense that one of the only remaining touring rock festivals in the country would land in this venue.
Good Things, since its inception, has always landed on the first weekend of summer and across New South Wales, a scorching summer promptly arrived reeking hellish temperatures as the early crowds at Sydney Showground bore the brunt of the sweltering atmosphere as they surged in.
Image © Sinan Beytas
Fans immediately sought shelter, while slopping sunscreen and staying hydrated were the orders of the day with plenty of free drinking water and cool sprays around the grounds, the roasting weather became bearable as Sydneysiders Yours Truly opened their set, bringing their pop-punk bangers to kick of the day's music mayhem.
With five music stages to choose from, it was impossible to see every act but what was notable in what I managed to see were bands willing to speak up about the political turmoil of our times.
When Scene Queen came belting onstage, the feminist metalcore outfit didn't shy away from how they felt about the US President and his egregious attacks on minority groups, reminding us how their shows are a safe place for LGBTQIA+ people all while performing chugging guitar riffs with heavy grooves and rap-like verses.
Swedish hardcore punk veterans Refused also brought their ideological conviction to their performance with their words. 'This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,' loomed in big, bold, black letters on the screen behind them; also on display was the message 'Free Palestine'.
Refused - image © Sinan Beytas
Whether you agree with their politics or not, Refused played every note with such rage and intensity you could not help but hear their music sounding amazing on the huge speakers. Frontman Dennis Lyxzen spoke passionately about how we are witnessing the death of democracy in America, and said if you have a problem with immigrants and minority groups, you're the one with the problem.
They truly gave everything they had as this would also be the last ever Refused show in Sydney considering the band are soon ending their nearly three and half decades long chapter together.
Warlord savages GWAR combined political theatre with metallic madness as their shock rock, comedy and heavy metal prowess all blended in a blood thirsty soup for their pumped-up audience.
Wearing such massive costumes in the brutal heat gave them yet another dimension of madness, but the most shock-value moment of their performance came from a performer dressed up in a Donald Trump costume with fake blood spurting out everywhere and Trump's actual voice blaring through the PA blabbing about his support for white masculinity.
GWAR - image © Sinan Beytas
On stage 5, the only indoor stage of the festival, formidable punk, hip hop and highly politicised quartet Fever 333 were a force of nature and brought their A game to the festival.
This new line-up of the band are all highly accomplished musicians as Jason Aalon Butler told the audience how black, brown and indigenous community have always been involved in the metal and punk arena and will always continue to be there.
He also spoke about the importance of celebrating women and ensuring their safety in the scene. His demeanour onstage was unlike any other performer at the festival, climbing and screaming from the top of two giant amp turrets and even aggressively flinging his microphones on the stage floor, displaying a raw and uncompromising showmanship that the audience clearly loved.
Fever 333 - image © Sinan Beytas
As the day turned to night, clouds were forming in the sky bringing desperately needed relief to the scorching heat as a short and temporary burst of rain and lightning unfolded as '90s alternative rock icons Garbage took to stage 1.
Revellers were treated to classic hits such as 'Stupid Girl', 'I Think I'm Paranoid', 'Only Happy When It Rains' and the feel-good anthem 'Cherry Lips'. Singer Shirley Manson was also very grateful for the support the Australian fans have given them throughout their career and gave a special acknowledgement to the late Michael Gudinski, who she said was key in making Garbage a recognised name in Australia.
The audience excitement grew stronger as the hippest nerds you'll ever see at a music festival came onstage, wearing their glasses and fidgeting with their instruments; none other than Weezer.
Their status in '90s and '00s alternative rock culture is well earned, proving their Los Angeles hipster vibes are genuine. Many of their songs made you feel like singing along to the choruses on songs such as 'Beverly Hills' or 'Hash Pipe'.
Weezer - image © Sinan Beytas
With current Nine Inch Nails and ex Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese hitting the sticks hard, Weezer gave the festival an act with very catchy tunes and who don't care for being theatrical or wild onstage; rather they play to give people joy, and a feel-good time.
Watching Weezer, you might have been distracted by the laser storm erupting from Stage 1. That spectacle foreshadowed the festival's grand finale, the sinister masters of the most mind-altering sonic transcendence, TOOL!
The quartet is a juggernaut in alternative popular music, playing highly sophisticated progressive rock and alternative metal compositions with deeply spiritual and cult-like rhythms.
If Good Things Festival was a musical temple, TOOL was the deity of this religious encounter. Some of their songs go on for ten-plus minutes; time in TOOL shows does not exist as you're completely lost in a trance-like state where guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey cast spells that make you feel aliens are amongst us, and other planetary dimensions are real.
TOOL - image © Sinan Beytas
Singer and frontman Maynard James Keenan appealed to his most gothic and punk aesthetic and made us feel like we were witnessing our worst nightmare onstage. He however just wanted to make sure we were cheering louder than the Melbourne crowd the previous night, and wound up the audience further by saying the Adelaide crowd was much louder!
This TOOL performance had a great balance between new and old songs, such as the grungy composition 'Prison Sex' from their 1993 debut album 'Undertow'. Maynard made the point that if you were under 23 you weren't even sperm when the song came out.
The closing song to this truly awesome spectacle of music and trippy visuals was their apocalyptic masterpiece 'Vicarious', which oozes with trembling sonic menace while huge eyes watch on the giant backstage screen, and fish-like forms swim from those eyeballs, delivering a mind-bending vision beyond human comprehension.
It's also important to mention that throughout the entire TOOL set and for many other bands, an Auslan interpreter was conveying the magic of the music to people in the audience who were deaf or hard of hearing, and the festival ought to be congratulated for including this access into their preparation.
A sensory, friendly space was also available to use throughout the day and with everyone immensely enjoying the incredible acts, 2025 Good Things Festival was one to remember for its fantastic music, venue upgrade and for creating a safe and inclusive space for diverse voices to be heard, and for diverse audiences to participate.
