You’ve gotta hand it to Soundwave - they certainly know how to build anticipation. Instead of just, y’know, announcing next year’s line-up in one go, the festival’s promoters have been slowly unveiling the roster one by one, ensuring plenty of discussion as to who'll be revealed next (and lots of tasty cross-promotional opportunities). This week saw the addition of four bands to the roster, two of them announced via Triple J tie-ins and one announced by a forlorn Wollongong youngster who
dropped his lunch in a puddle.
The biggest name is probably 30 Seconds to Mars, but only because they feature Hollywood’s own Jared Leto (you may remember him being really, really good in Requiem for a Dream). By far the most exciting announcement this week - in The Vine’s opinion, anyway - is The Bronx, who bring their mighty stage show back to Australia for the third time in as many years. They absolutely destroyed Meredith in 2008 and last played Soundwave in 2007 - since then they’ve also done a double-headline tour as themselves and their Mariachi El Bronx incarnation. No word yet if the latter will be appearing again this time around- we hope so, because it gives us the excuse to use lots of gratuitous ¡upside-down exclamation marks!
As well as those two, there’s squawky US post-hardcore band Alesana, who were announced yesterday via Triple J’s ShortFastLoud show, while those whose tastes run in a darker direction will be happy to know that deep south psych metal crew Kylesa will also be deploying their Sabbath-esque atmospheric heaviness on the Soundwave tour next year.
This means that the confirmed line-up so far is The Blackout, Protest The Hero, The Ataris, Trash Talk, All That Remains, Less than Jake, Veara, There For Tomorrow, Mad Caddies, A Skylit Drive, The Sword, Asking Alexandria, Bayside, Kylesa, 30 Seconds to Mars, Alesana and The Bronx. The full line-up will be confirmed next Thursday, but there’ll doubtless be other surprises between now and then.
The tour itself kicks off late next February; it heads to Brisbane on Saturday 26 February, Sydney on Sunday 27 February, Melbourne on Friday 4 March, Adelaide on Saturday 5 March and Perth on Monday 7 March.