Project Description
. Tool, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Refused, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . All Time Low, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Scene Queen, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Alpha Wolf, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Dayseeker, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . James Reyne, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Fever 333, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Garbage, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Stand Atlantic, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Machine Head, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Headwreck, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . High Vis, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Kublai Khan, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Make Them Suffer, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Tonight Alive, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Beachball kickers during Stand Atlantic’s set, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . Kublai Khan fans, Good Things Festival 2025, Brisbane, Queensland. Photo: Alec Smart, 7 Dec 2025 . . CLICK THE PIC TO VIEW THE NEWS
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GOOD THINGS FESTIVAL
@ Brisbane Showgrounds,
Brisbane, Queensland
7th December 2025
(Live Review)Photos and Review by Alec Smart (@alecsmart_fotos)
The Good Things Festival, took place at Brisbane Showgrounds in central Brisbane on Sunday 7 December, in scorching heart on the first weekend in Summer. The one-day spectacular takes place in three cities – Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane – over three consecutive days, during which the same 31 bands perform on five main stages (plus 3 bands that only played in their cities of origin).
The 2025 Good Things Festival was the sixth annual event since its foundation in 2018 – minus two years when the festival was suspended during the global coronavirus pandemic. Headliner was progressive metal band Tool, with main support Weezer, both of which flew to Australia to appear exclusively at the festival. Other main supports (that played additional side shows whilst in Australia) included Garbage, All Time Low, Machine Head, Lorna Shore and Refused, the latter of whom announced it was their final overseas concert outside their home of Sweden.
This reviewer photographed 18 of the 31 bands, racing back and forth beneath the burning sun to catch their (management-approved) first three songs, so this write-up focuses on the bands I witnessed. After a long queue to collect media accreditation and pass through the turnstiles, I caught the effervescent Scene Queen (aka Hannah Collins) at her fiery best in the main arena. It’s early in the day, but she’d already inspired a lively moshpit with her pop-metal-rap overlap. She calls it ‘bimbocore’, because it champions women’s sense and sexuality while simultaneously spoofing the stereotype of the blonde, dim-witted women defined only by their looks.
Four of her songs – Pink Push-Up Bra, Pink Panther, Pink G-String and Pink Rover – celebrate her favourite colour, albeit with caustic lyrics on feminist themes.
During Barbie & Ken, she sang a duet with Joey Fleming, vocalist for In Her Own Words, with whom she is in a relationship. Prior to performing 18+, the controversial lead single from her album Bimbocore 2, which is highly critical of sexually predatory men in the alternative rock ‘n’ roll scene who target young teenage girls, she suggested, for legal reasons, the audience not call out the name of one of the bands she was referring to in the lyrics.
Collins’ lyrics could refer, in part, to the former guitarist of New Found Glory, Steve Klein, who was arrested for possession of child pornography in 2014 and convicted of indecent exposure in 2021 and required to register as a sex offender. However, the audience responded in unison, “All Time Low!”, and indeed the lyrics of her song reference All Time Low’s long-running concert tradition where female fans throw bras onto the stage.
After the pop-punk band reportedly amassed a huge collection of 2,500 bras that filled a semi-trailer truck, the practice of souveniring female undergarments became controversial with allegations on social media of misconduct among band members, particularly guitarist Jack Barakat.
Scene Queen’s lyrics state, “Pink wristbands on the guest list, bras hanging on the bus; yeah, you get a lot of girls, but not one is eighteen plus!” They refer to an Oct 2021 TikTok video in which a young woman claimed a ‘famous pop-punk band’ invited her onto their tour bus when she was a 13-year-old girl, offered her beer and suggested she remove her bra for their collection. The band was then accused by other TikTok users. All Time Low denied the claims as defamatory and “completely and utterly false.”
Considering All Time Low were scheduled to appear on the same stage a few hours after Scene Queen, one can speculate on the amicability of any backstage interaction between Collins and Barakat.
New Found Glory hit the main stage (#1) in a blaze of energy. The sun was at its peak and many of the audience were congregating around the cooler edge of the arena, beneath the shades of the stands. Nevertheless, the band drew a sizeable crowd – most of whom were dressed in heat-attracting black – out into the open to enjoy their spirited set.
Vocalist Jordan Pundik revealed “It’s been eight years since we last played in Brissy town.” He added, “Do you call it Brissy town?” When there’s a unanimous reply to the negative, he conceded, “No? Alright!” Later, he repeated, “It’s been eight long years since we were here,” spoken in a nasal attempt at an Australian accent, then promptly apologised. Guitarist Chad Gilbert asked him, “Sorry for what, eight years since we were here, or that awful Australian accent?!” “Both!” Pundik replied, which amused the crowd.
New Found Glory have released 12 studio albums in their 28-year career, with a new album, Listen Up!, set for release in February 2026. At Good Things they performed the recently released Laugh It Off, which will feature on the new album. They also performed their cover of Kiss Me, originally written by Sixpence None The Richer and used as the theme song for 1999 teen romantic comedy film She’s All That (and reportedly the first song a 12-year-old Taylor Swift learned to play on guitar).
Stage 1 featured a sign language interpreter for the deaf and hard-of-hearing who stood at the stage edge in front of a camera, which broadcast his hand signing on a corner of the right-side video screen. During New Found Glory’s set, the bearded signer in sunglasses danced while translating the lyrics with his hands! In fact, he and the woman who succeeded him both danced whilst signing at the side of stage 1, all the way until the concert’s end.
Swedish hardcore band Refused were among the most politically vocal bands of the day, with a Palestinian flag draped on a speaker and the words ‘This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal’ displayed on a large banner behind them. Vocalist Dennis Lyxzén, a sincere socialist, made several statements, including the optimistic, “It’s time we created a system that took people’s needs into account!”
Lyxzén, voted ‘Sweden’s Sexiest Man’ by Elle women’s magazine in 2004, is surprisingly athletic, frequently jumping or high-kicking like kung fu film star Jackie Chan, although he’s not trained in martial arts.
He does follow a healthy vegan, straight-edge lifestyle. However, on 13 June 2024, a week before his 52nd birthday, Lyxzén suffered an unexpected heart attack, which necessitated cancellation of Refused shows to allow for his recovery. In an Instagram post the day after the shocking incident, he revealed “I had a massive heart attack at my hotel room. It’s was extremely painful and wildly scary. Thanks to the wonderful doctors and nurses at the Uppsala hospital I’m still around to fight another day. The good news is that with medication I can get back to my rocking self….” And indeed, that’s what he’s done, as evidenced by the lively show at Good Things.
As the heat became unbearable, this reviewer sought shade as a substitute to the warm tap water or expensive beers on offer, and journeyed to the margins. Beneath the covered side stages – 3 and 4 beyond the railway station to the north of the showgrounds, and 5 to the south – large crowds were gathered to watch a diverse range of talent.
This included surprise inclusion James Reyne, the former Australian Crawl singer, a talent unexpected on a bill dominated by alternative rock, punk and metal bands. The 68-year-old was in fine voice and inspired a spirited crowd singalong to his former band’s well-known hits from their 1978-86 heyday, such as The Boys Light Up, Errol and Things Don’t Seem, which have become popular classics.
Other great performers on the northern side stages were Tonight Alive, featuring singer Jenna McDougall (who joined the band in 2009 a day before her 16th birthday) and American metalcore bands Dayseeker and Kublai Khan.
Tonight Alive opened their set with The Edge, which originally featured in the soundtrack to the 2014 film The Amazing Spiderman 2. They also covered a Mumford & Sons’ song, Little Lion Man. Over on the southern edge of the Showgrounds, Headwreck performed their knock-out two-punch metalcore-meets-electronica songs. Only appearing at the Brisbane Good Things, the singer growled the verses while the guitarist – densely covered in floral tattoos like the floor of a rainforest – sang the melodic choruses in a high voice.
They were followed by Fever 333, this reviewer’s surprise discovery of the day. Watching Fever 333 is like witnessing early Bad Brains or Rage Against The Machine in their prime; they have extraordinary presence, incendiary lyrics and their rap-metal-hardcore-hip hop hybrid swings like a wrecking ball between calm and cataclysmic.
Multi-tattooed singer Jason Butler, who recently toured Australia fronting his post-hardcore former band LetLive on their final world tour, has relentless energy. During the first song he hurled the microphone over a gantry above so that it was hanging down by its cord, then stood on a speaker and leapt high into the air. Throughout their set he frequently pounced up onto a monitor speaker and back down to the stage while virtuoso bassist April Kae, with her resplendent mane of Afro hair, gave a similarly dynamic performance. The band also performed a cover of Blur’s Song 2.
Incidentally, the 333 in their name represents the letter C and stands for Community, Charity and Change, the basis of their socially-conscious idealism.
High Vis performed later, a gritty outfit, their name inspired by the high-visibility clothing worn by tradespeople. The London band – although vocalist Graham Sayle is a Northerner from Merseyside – merge the ‘Madchester’ Indie of Oasis and Stone Roses with streetpunk Oi and hardcore, plus a bit of contemporary house dance music thrown into the equation (!), and the lyrics explore personal and class struggle issues.
Meanwhile, back in the main arena, Stand Atlantic (Sydney) and Alpha Wolf (Melbourne via Tasmania) were compelling performers, the former playing while beach balls were bounced around by the audience, the latter drawing a wall of additional security as the moshpit became a writhing circle-dance followed by enthusiastic crowd surfing.
Talking about crowd-surfing, whilst Stand Atlantic played, fronted by the charismatic Bonnie Fraser, who played guitar for several songs, Hannah Collins (Scene Queen) clambered into a rubber dinghy that was lifted high by a sea of hands. The hand-waves then passed her along from front to back, then back to the front again.
Veteran headbangers Machine Head took to the main stage, fronted by singer-guitarist Robb Flynn. Flynn founded the thrash metal band in 1991 during what the media described at the time as the ‘new wave of American heavy metal’. This era embraced a heavier sound and punkier attitude than traditional metal bands, with growlier vocals and less reliance on guitar solos (often utilising seven string guitars and five string basses tuned down to accentuate deeper notes).
By now, due to the density of the crowd and the difficulty moving between stages, the audience in the primary arena was divided in half, with one side in front of stage 2, the other in front of stage 1. Depending on which stage the band was performing, the opposite half were obliged to watch the performance on the giant video screens.
Machine Head inspired what was at that point the wildest crowd-surfing of the day, with many of those riding aloft passed down the front to the waiting hands of security in the photo pit, who guided them back onto their feet. Not to be outdone, All Time Low on the adjacent stage, who attracted younger, more energetic fans, praised them for enthusiastically crowd-surfing in between songs, when there was no accompanying music.
Before departing, All Time Low’s singer-guitarist Alex Gaskarth, who co-founded the group with his bandmates while they were still in high school, urged the audience to “support local bands, go to see new bands, pay the cover charge and help them,” adding, “we came from a basement!”
Garbage, formed in 1993 and still featuring the same founding four, includes famous record producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, L7, Sonic Youth) on drums.
The band ambled onstage with Scottish pop diva Shirley Manson wearing bright red boots, a checkered skirt, red-framed sunglasses, and a black T-shirt bearing the words ‘Stop Genocide, End Apartheid, Free Palestine’.
She also wore a collar of 9 gold neck rings, similar to those worn by the Kayan Lahwi women of northern Thailand. The Kayan, part of the ethnic Karen people that extend into Burma, originally wore theirs to protect their necks from the bites of tigers emerging from the dense jungles around.
Considering the controversy Manson stirred during their Melbourne Good Things concert when she barked a long, F-word strewn series of insults at a man who whacked a beach ball across the crowd in her direction, the 59-year-old may well have warranted tiger-proofing. Acknowledging the furore – which led to furious condemnation of her rant across social media – she told the Brisbane crowd, “Apparently I’m the anti-Christ!”
Ironically, even as she declared it, a series of beach balls bounced around the crowd, many ricocheting onto the stage and landing in the photo pit below her, allegedly brought by people who wished to taunt her about her previous week’s obnoxious outburst. Manson, who also twice called the Melbourne beach ball offender a ‘douchebag’ and claimed he had a ‘small dick’, later issued a formal apology when Garbage returned to play in Melbourne a week later at The Palais Theatre.
In Brisbane the band worked their way through a set of their better-known songs, including Stupid Girl and the finale, I’m Only Happy When It Rains. The band departed the Brisbane arena with Manson announcing, “Thanks for 30 years. You won’t see us again,” a farewell as deflating as, ahem, a punctured beach ball.
Make Them Suffer, the last band over on stage 4, is a ferocious five-piece, with four hyperactive men and what appears to be an under-utilised woman at the back in the shadows, who seems to spend more time flailing her long hair than playing chords. That said they’re a great visual band and their more recent songs veer into symphonic metal but sit well alongside the darker death metal of their older compositions.
Weezer, formed in 1992 in Los Angeles, USA, (although on hiatus between 1997-2001), have retained the same core line-up for the past quarter of a century. The geeky power-pop-rockers are a multi-million selling album phenomenon and renowned for their witty, often bizarre lyrics. They played a selection of their better-known songs, including Undone (The Sweater Song), Pink Triangle and Say It Aint So from their earlier albums (Weezer and Pinkerton), and Hash Pipe, Island In The Sun, Beverley Hills and Pork And Beans from their later releases. They also covered the Hole song Celebrity Skin, and were accompanied on vocals by Victoria Asher (aka VickyT, guitarist for Cobra Starship) during I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams.
Weezer were the only band at Brisbane Good Things to perform an encore – performance times being very strict to accommodate 31+ bands – as road crew prepared the neighbouring stage for Tool. They returned to perform Buddy Holly.
Tool is a multi-media musical phenomenon, elusive, enigmatic and difficult to categorise. Their music could be described as symphonic metal – the complicated compositions are lengthy, heavy and hypnotic. The four-piece performed ten songs in 90 minutes surrounded by large video screens playing surreal and nightmarish animations featuring biomechanical figures, flames, spiritual and religious icons, anatomical examinations, and stop-motion clay-mation.
Singer-artist Maynard James Keenan, ever-elusive and now sporting a Mohican haircut with pyramid-like spikes, loitered in the shadows at the rear of the stage, shouting his vocals through a portable megaphone. The translator to the stage-side hand-signing for the hard-of-hearing did a wonderful job gesticulating Tool’s notorious lyrics, which range between doom-laden misanthropy to smutty double meanings to surrealist themes to the artistic embrace of chaotic elements.
A thunderstorm forecast for late afternoon was delayed when the weather gods peered down and were distracted by the intricacies of Tool’s sonic spectacular, obviously mesmerised by the laser-lights and spectacular graphics. Not until the concert reached a crescendo did they allow a trickle of rain to sprinkle the thousands of transfixed punters in the main arena, but we all had time to vacate the showgrounds before the heavens above opened.
Check out Alec Smart (@alecsmart_fotos) full gallery of this event HERE
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Press Release 2nd December 2025 (below) HERE
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