Show: Parkway Drive
Date: March 12, 2011
Venue: House of Blues
City: West Hollywood, CA
Parkway Drive
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Lindsay Murphy
Parkway Drive know how to put on a show.
The Australian metalcore masters have established a global name for themselves, as evidenced by the energetic, sold-out crowd that packed themselves into the House of Blues in Hollywood to witness the band at work. The previous acts, including Whitechapel, Set Your Goals, The Ghost Inside, and The Warriors, couldn’t manage to wear out the ecstatic crowd.
As the house lights dimmed, impatient fans chanted “Parkway Drive!” with surging speed. Spotlights swirled, and the band members sauntered out sporting various pieces of packaging as hats, like empty cardboard boxes and waterbottle pallets. This silly display set the tone for the night and demonstrated a central facet of the band’s likeability: they don’t take themselves too seriously and focus on fun.
After shaking the makeshift headgear, they launched into their first song. An intense pit immediately formed in the middle of the crowd and continued vehemently for the entire set. The audience’s rabid excitement only increased at the inception of the second song “Boneyards” — they sang along with all the lyrics, especially loud while chanting the bridge, “Sinking! Always! Sinking!”
Set standout “Idols and Anchors” allowed guitarist Jeff Ling to show off his shredding skills, with foot elevated on front monitor and full fledged finger tapping tearing up the solo.
While natural lulls normally creep up at some point in every show, both the band and fans maintained an impressive, volcanic level of vitality throughout the hour-long set. Parkway drive plays like a regular act on fast forward.
Before kicking off “Sleepwalker,” frontman Winston McCall exclaimed, “I fucking love this, keep this shit up!”
At the onset of “Home is for the Heartless,” they hurled a half-dozen beach balls at the audience. The crowd emphatically sang along with the softer (well, if you could qualify anything Parkway Drive does as “soft”) song’s anthemic “woahs,” while bassist Jia O’Connor focused on power kicking the inflatable balls at the balcony. Switching over to “Romance Is Dead,” guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick engaged in a ball-dribbing battle, all while continuing to play flawlessly and cracking up the entire time. The band’s continual laughter and antics created an ambiance of camaraderie, underscoring their unpretentious nature and rendering them easily likeable.
Parkway Drive played a show that pulled pretty evenly across their discography, from oldies off Killing With a Smile like “Mutiny” to “Set to Destroy” on 2010 release Deep Blue. A cavalcade of impromptu guest vocalists emerged from their entourage and bolstered McCall’s screams on several songs.
The band broke out fan fave “Carrion” for the encore. Toward the end of the song, an unruly fan managed to hop onstage and ran around high fiving the band members. They then proceeded to pick him up, swing him around, and dog pile the guy — all while continuing to play instruments. Parkway Drive seem to utterly satisfy the need for a good metalcore performance every time they play a show; this night at the House of Blues on Sunset was no exception.