Good Things @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne 5/12/2025

Good Things Festival! You magnificent beast!

With a line up this strong how could anyone pass up the opportunity to head across the border to Good Things Festival at Flemington Racecourse. This festival is right up there as one of the very best festivals in the country that offers enough variety with the line up that there’s something for everyone ticking enough of the right boxes.

The weather was splendid and the express train ride from Flinders Street Station was upbeat and plenty of good time vibes for the day ahead. As they say, follow the black band t-shirts and you’ll be on the right train to Flemington! As with any festival it is always a tough decision who to see, full or parts of sets, to cram in as much music in to the day’s experience as positive. There looked like some good improvements with layouts and getting around but the interest in some of the bands on stages three and four may have been underestimated but more on that later. Whilst it’s always about the music and the festival experience better phone coverage and being able to keep in touch with the outside world is an obvious improvement.

But wow! There were plenty memorable performances and a few surprises from some bands that I wasn’t expecting. The day started out on stage four with Inertia who got the day off to a cracking start with their turbo charged set This band continue to impress every time I see them play and it won’t be long before they are killing it on the main stage. Static was awesome as was The Seeds That You Never Sow and Parallel. It only seemed fitting to finish their set on a song about chasing your dream in Too Far Gone.

English rockers South Arcade brought the energy, fun and positivity to stage three with a lively forty minute set. It wasn’t that long ago either when they were last out here with Bilmuri back in May. It was full throttle from the get go with Fear Of Heights followed by the uber popular Supermodels. This was no time to be sitting down with their catchy and infectious songs designed to jump around and shake those hips to. Just enough time to see songs Nepo Baby and HOW 2 GET AWAY WITH MURDER before pushing on. Literally whizzing past stage five it was up and comer Maple’s Pet Dinosaur who had a big crowd who were going off, well during career starting song lego.

First look at main stage action was New Found Glory who were raring to go having played they last two nights in Adelaide and Frankston “of all places” quipped Jordan Pundik (who was also sporting a really cool Lemonheads t-shirt). Capturing the punk rock spirit I thought they were tops with a back catalogue that bats deep tapping right in to their DNA with songs like Failure’s Not Flattering and going with real old one’s like Dressed To Kill. At the heart of their set was their thoughts with Chad Gilbert who is battling cancer and collectively the Good Things family sending positive thoughts his way. Pundik thought the finger pointing and moshing to Sixpence None The Richer cover Kiss Me was “funny to see” but definitely kicked things up a notch. It was pretty clear that NFG give one hundred percent and nothing less so it seemed on point to play 100%. It was a great set finishing on My Friend’s Over You.

Hard to believe that this was going to be the last time for Swedish hardcore punk band Refused. Hot damn! Absolutely incredibly and compelling listening for forty five minutes. An absolute shame it wasn’t longer but nevertheless this was one of the standouts. With a banner emblazoned “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal” there was plenty of political messaging about the “death and decline of western democracy” and that Refused “are not cheap entertainment”. Vocalist Dennis Lyxzén had some serious front man moves and when he wasn’t doing that he was challenging the masses to educate themselves and not being complicit in this fascist regime by not saying anything. Inspirational set with songs such as The Shape of Punk to Come, The Refused Party Program, REV001 and Liberation Frequency commanding attention.

Stage four was absolutely jam packed for Orange County post-hardcore band Dayseeker. Arguably they should of been on the mainstage and having built such an affinity with Aussie fans it is of no surprise that they have an absolute massive following here touring here every year. There set was mostly focused on their new album Creature in the Black Night with the likes of Pale Moonlight, Shapeshift, Crawl Back To My Coffin and the title track impressing. It was unfortunate that their set ended abruptly after Sleeptalk with their rented gear shutting down. Fingers crossed for a 2026 headline tour.

This couldn’t not have ever been contemplated or scripted but with the withdrawal of The All American Rejects and Knocked Loose the nod was given to Stand Atlantic and Alpha Wolf. But on the morning of Alpha Wolf had to withdraw as a result of an unfortunate medical emergency themselves with Melbourne’s very own Thornhill being subbed in and literally finding out three hours prior that they are on. Having been on tour they were gig ready and came to the rescue pulling together their set list on the way to Flemington. The spirit and intensity they played with was commendable and it was like they were playing their last set ever. Their set might of been short but it’s what they did with it that matters with opener DIESEL and Silver Swarm, Obsession and nerv standing tall.

One of the standouts at Good Things was Fever 333 which was founded by former Letlive vocalist Jason Aalon Butler. Chaotic! Mayhem! Energetic! Those are a few words to describe this band who were tucked away on stage five with a big crowd in attendance knowing that they were about to see something quite incredible. Activism is a big part of their shtick speaking out about social inequality and staunchly opposing capitalism and authoritarianism. The chaos started with BITE BACK and Only One taking that momentum and some on Made In America. Blur’s Song 2 was a ripper and during $WING saw Butler take a stage dive and crowd surf revelling in the adulation. Best rock move of the day was seeing Butler climb to the top of the stage during Hunting Season and by song’s end the crowd were chanting “Fever 333″… you had to of been there.

There was a bit of nostalgia with James Reyne pulling a big crowd playing the hits such as Reckless, Down Hearted, Fall Of Rome, You Again and Errol just before Kublai Khan TX made a grand entrance. “I didn’t come to see you sit on your sweaty nut sack” proclaimed front man Matt Honeycutt. There was just enough time to hear Supreme Ruler, Darwinism, Swan Song and Antpile before heading back to the main stage for Garbage.

Garbage were incredible but their set will be remembered for all the wrong reasons with social media abuzz about Shirley Manson’s rant about “Beach Ball Guy”. Rightly or wrongly Shirley is not backward in coming forward to speak her mind about issues around her. And yes the beach balls are fucking annoying! Was the response disproportionate to the action? Maybe! Maybe not! Is it theatre or just great banter? Maybe just leave the beach balls at home! Making a statement with There’s No Future in Optimism was backed up by a treasure trove of greatest hits including I Think I’m Paranoid, Vow, #1 Crush and Special early in the piece. Hard to believe it has been a decade since their last tour before the infamous “fuck beach balls at rock shows, puncture that fucking thing” giving Beach Ball Guy his fifteen minutes of fame. That aside that didn’t derail their set as they ploughed through Shut Your Mouth then Depeche Mode cover Personal Jesus. Stupid Girl was followed by a heart felt tribute to Michael Gudinski who passed away in 2021. Their set and whole tour was dedicated to him and was the one who backed them in right from that very first tour. Gee whiz, the set finished finished in spectacular fashion with Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!), When I Grow Up, Push It and Only Happy When It Rains.

The return of Weezer who had second billing and your own chance of seeing them was at the Festival. It has been such a long time since they played their own show in Adelaide this was a compelling reason to venture East to see them. A notable absence was drummer Patrick Wilson who was replaced by Josh Freese who has drummed for just about everyone. It was vintage Weezer right from first dropped with My Name Is Jonas followed by Surf Wax America. Big crowd, big festival vibes, big tunes to sing-a-long to with Hash Pipe, Undone – The Sweater Song and Island In The Sun. Hole cover Celebrity Skin was pretty cool with another crowd fav Beverley Hills with the lyrics changed to “Living in Melbourne…” El Sorcho, loved it, a big tick for Pork and Beans and I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams which feature Victoria Asher who is the keytarist from Cobra Starship. Finishing on another couple of Blue album classic Say It Isn’t So and Buddy Holly wrapped up a solid set.

Tool have had an epic Australian tour with rave reviews on all their side shows in Auckland, Adelaide and Perth. This continued again at Good Things kicking off with the infamous Stinkfist getting the crowd thinking they might be in for a greatest hits styled set but not so following a similar set list from the side shows. As the sun was starting to set it was a chance to see the full production. Tool more than confirmed their headline status with a powerful set and despite everything aching and feeling sore it was absolutely worth it having seen them twice within the space of a week. Front man Maynard James Keenan pitted the crowd against Adelaide suggesting “apparently Melbourne is as good as Adelaide” which fired up the masses. Finishing their set in a blaze of glory on Invincible and Vicarious was one for the highlights reel and bringing another Good Things Festival in Melbourne to an end. What a day! I definitely got my fill of great live and let the speculation start for Good Things Festival in 2027.

Live Review By Rob Lyon