Good Things Festival 2024

Band: Good Things Festival
Location: Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Date: Friday, December 6th 2024
Photos: Nicole Noy
Review: Ned Tepper

The Good Things Festival has become such a staple in our lives since it’s inception in 2018, that now it is legitimately our favourite day of the year here at The Underground! We have been fortunate enough to be able to catch up with some of the bands on the lead up to the festival over the years, making it that little bit more special once that first weekend in December rolls around.

Unfortunately, there was some bad news with Sum 41 vocalist Deryck Whibley being diagnosed with Pneumonia and the band not being able to perform. Let’s hope for a speedy recovery and fingers crossed we get to see them return to Australia before they call it a day.

Our Good Things experience kicked off with Sweden metalcore group Imminence, who are touring Australia for the very first time and their unique blend of violin and metalcore made for must see viewing. It must have been 30 degrees but that didn’t stop the lads from sporting all jet black head to toe and you couldn’t help but feel that little extra hotter just looking at them!

Needless to say, they didn’t miss a beat in their 40-minute set which included hits from their monster 2024 release “The Black” which truly has no skippable tracks. The highlight probably being “Death By A Thousand Cuts” However, it really was a case of take your pick!

Vocalist Eddie Berg teased new material in our interview with them earlier in the year, be sure to keep an eye out for that in the new year and if you haven’t seen our interview yet you can do so here:

Speaking of first off trips Down Under Lancaster, Pennsylvania group “From Ashes To New” hit our shores for the very first time and the wait was well and truly worth it. Taking a hop, skip and a jump to stage 4 for what would be one of the most energetic sets I’ve witnessed in a good minute. Consisting of two vocalists Matt Brandyberry and Danny Case these guys really feed off each other and seem to be genuinely ecstatic to be here.

Despite being the early afternoon the mosh was at fever pitch with circle pits happening and the intensity peaking. Highlights included “Barely Breathing”, ‘Panic” and “Nightmare”, having said that there really was never much time to slow down and take it all in. An amazing set from an amazing group!

Prior to Good Things we caught up with Danny Case of the group, check it out here:

A quick time out in between sets while we waited for our very own Alpha Wolf to take Stage 4 by the scruff of the neck and absolutely obliterate the place, and that they did. Having missed out on seeing them twice throughout the year I was stoked to finally witness the chaos bashing out tracks from their back catalogue and 2024’s “Half Living Things”.

Sub-Zero, Sucks 2 Suck and Bring Back The Noise were stand outs but seriously Australian heavy music is in safe hands with the likes of Alpha Wolf. These guys are an absolute must see, do yourself a favour embrace the chaos and catch them live.

This year’s line-up really did seem to have something for everyone, with a very mixed and diverse line up.

Big shout outs to our photographer Nicole who covered as much as humanly possible. We took some time out to grab some merchandise and food while Nicole grabbed some amazing shots of 311 and Sydney’s Northlane.

5pm hits and so does the rain, fortunately it never really got too bad despite at one stage getting a Thunderstorm warning.

I was hyped for L7 but wasn’t expecting them to blow my expectations out of the water and why wouldn’t they? These ladies have been ripping it up since the mid 80’s and were absolutely phenomenal, kicking things off with Andres and smashing through an array of hits. Even joking at one stage on how they may consider moving to Australia with the way things are in America at the moment. Here’s hoping they get back down under again soon, their 12 song set list had us itching for more.

L7 have been described as mixing punk with heavy metal sludge which kind of described their lighting with the blue and green flashes. An amazing set from one of the best all female groups to ever do it, wow!

For the bulk of the day Stage 3 and 4 were really where it was at for us, you also can’t get to a festival without discovering something new. A band you’ve never really heard that just blows you away.

This year it was The Gaslight Anthem who took to Stage 4 and had big shoes to fill following up L7! They were incredible though, just a super polished band that sounded extremely good throughout their set and vocalist Brian Fallon kept the audience entertained in between songs with some great stories.

For pretty much the first time we wondered over to Stages 1 and 2 for what would be the final three acts of the night. Violent Femmes, Electric Callboy and the boys from Bakersfield, Korn!

Electric Callboy had the difficult job of sliding into Sum 41’s original time slot. Crazily enough though, Sum 41’s drummer Frank Zummo filled in for them after their drummer went home sick. A bizarre turn of events with Frank funnily enough being an Electric Callboy fan and slotting right into the group to save the day! The set itself was a FUN one with the band engaging with the crowd, playing homage to Sum 41, having constant outfit changes and just being all-around entertaining and charismatic.

How could you not be when mixing Pop with Metalcore and Alternative rock? These guys are flat out FUN!

The organisers at Good Things Festival have their work cut out for them to try and find a better headline act in 2025 than the almighty Korn.

Celebrating 30 years of the group, they did not disappoint kicking off their set fittingly with “Here to Stay” before breaking into “Dead Bodies Everywhere” and “Got The Life” from the 1998 masterpiece “Follow the Leader”. Jonathan Davis is just as animated as ever at the age of 53, at one stage telling the Flemington Racecourse crowd how great it was to still be performing to crowds of this size, 30 years on.

The hits just kept coming “A.D.I.D.A.S”, “Good God”, “Blind”, “Make Me Bad”… The list goes on! The highlight though was maybe the performance of “Shoots and Ladders” featuring Davis on the Bagpipes and breaking into Metallica’s “One”. What did we just witness? Pure awesome!

Wrapping up the set with “Y’all Want A Single” before coming back out for a three song Encore kicking it off with Falling Away from Me, followed by Oildale (Leave me Alone) before wrapping things up with Freak On A Leash. Pure Nostalgic bliss! I’ll leave you with this: “Who is the greatest live band in the world and why is it Korn?”.

GOOD THINGS 2024 MEGA GALLERY