Gig review: Good Things Festival at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne

Live review: Good Things Festival at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, December 5 2025

By BRENDAN DELAVERE

“IS it still a Brat Summer?” asks Yours Truly vocalist Mikayla as the band jump into a cover of Charli XCX’s “Von Dutch”. The midday crowd on the green lawns on Flemington racecourse are turning out early for the pop punk trio. It’s the beginning of festival season, Flemington train station is a constant flow of black shirted folks and I’m here on this beautiful December day for some rock and metal.

It’s girls to the front for Good Things this year, with Yours Truly kicking things off, swiftly followed by the trap metalcore of Scene Queen. Like a heavy metal Barbie, Scene Queen, real name Hannah Rose Collins, has the pit thumping and booties shakin’! “Pink Panther”, “Pink G-String”, “Pink Push-Up Bra” – not what I was wearing, but all songs for the girls and the gays in the crowd. I don’t fit in those categories but damn I had fun dancing early to Scene Queen.

Having heard the name across social media, I went to check out Maple’s Pet Dinosaur and this reviewer is an instant fan. Mixing grunge and nu-metal, this bunch of 15 year old kids, most of whom aren’t legally allowed to buy tickets to Good Things, were ripping it up. With over 55 million views within a week for their debut track “Chorus”, a huge crowd had turned out to sing along. “This song is about being bullied on the bus” says Maple. “Fuck them”. “Lego” is a grungy fuck you to people trying to dull your shine. MPD are certainly ones to keep an eye on.

Having caught their final club show ever (outside of Sweden) the night prior, Swedish punks Refused lit a fire early and proceeded to detonate main stage. Dennis Lyxzén is a blaze of dance moves across the stage, the mic a constant aerial device. Their last ever Melbourne show, the set leaned heavily on their cult classic The Shape Of Punk To Come.

Political as ever, Dennis spoke to the crowd about the genocide in Palestine: “Talk to your friends, your family, talk about politics and the world”, closing with “New Noise” and an explosive circle pit.

With a circle pit of their own, UK electrock duo Wargasm kicked out the jams mixing hardstyle, rap, rock and a couple of breakdowns for good measure. The crowd chanting “Drink Fuck Fight Love” during “D.R.I.L.D.O.” One part dance party, one part mosh pit, the duo of Milkie Way and Sam Matlock trading instruments and vocals to keep the party going.

With the sun shining and temps rising, the $12 beers just weren’t doing it. Time to cool off with a nice blood shower courtesy of GWAR.

Last here in 2013, this is their first tour down under since former front man Dave Brockie’s passing. The interplanetary warriors waste no time spraying the bodily fluids across the thousands of blood-thirsty punters as a train engineer is pierced with a steel beam during “The Great Circus Train Disaster”. “El Presidente” sees everyone’s favourite American president get what he deserves with more streams of blood showering the crowd. The stage show is wild, a dinosaur is given steroids, biting the hand off a helper, Blothar the Beserker sprays fluid from his teets, it’s a fever dream and the blood red stained front row are frothing it.

With the last minute cancellation of Knocked Loose, Australian deathcore stalwarts Alpha Wolf were tapped to replace. Unfortunately due to an emergency they were forced to cancel themselves, with Melbourne’s Thornhill jumping on board with an hour to spare. This reviewer chose to catch the high octane energy of Fever 333 instead. Recently here with the resurrected LetLive, Jason Aalon Butler’s Fever 333 were billed for Good Things in 2023, cancelling after Stephen and Aric both left the band abruptly but finally the band have made good on their appearance.

Utilising every square inch of the stage, Butler running about like a man on speed, as they played through “BITE BACK”, “SWING”, the politically charged “Made An America” and a cover of Blur’s “Song 2”. Bassist April Kae is just as energetic, fist pumping between funky bass lines and blasts of EDM and screams. Closer “Hunting Season” sees Butler ascend the stage rigging, finishing the song from up high.

After the sweat fest that was Fever, this reviewer took a moment to sit under the trees, enjoy an expensive beer and a bit of a feed. The sounds of James Reyne doling out Australian Crawl songs floated on the breeze: “Reckless”, “Errol”, “The Boys Light Up”. A surprisingly large crowd had formed, though some may have gotten in early for Kublai Khan. But after much internet questioning of why is James Reyne on the bill, it’s safe to say he still has plenty of fans.

No stranger to these shores, Texans Kublai Khan are always ready to beat down. Despite the late afternoon heat, the pit was heating up, pit ninjas and moshers going at it, a head bangers ball. Latest single “The Mountain of Corsicana” a thunderous, ripping slab of riffage, “Theory Of Mind” had the pit screaming “Monkey see, Monkey do!” and “Boomslang” hits like a sledgehammer to the chest. Time to cool off after that.

Making my way back to the main stage, Flemington Racecourse a sea of people, the ground is mostly beer tins, but the vibe is perfect. Their first time back to Flemington since Soundwave 2013, Nineties alt icons Garbage took the main stage under the gloriously golden, afternoon sun. Shirley Manson is resplendent as ever, sporting a jumpsuit painted in Palestinian colours and a Keffiyeh, with an opening salvo of “There’s No Future In Optimism”, “Hold” and “I Think I’m Paranoid”. A cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” was a delightful surprise, much less delightful was the tirade from Manson against one specific punter in the crowd.

After a warming speech about peace and unity and decrying the evils of Spotify leeching off artists it was unexpected and somewhat disgusting to see her abuse a guy for having a beach ball. “You’re a small man with a small dick” she sneers, continuing with suggesting she should send her crew out to beat him. Not exactly the great finish despite closing with “Only Happy When It Rains”.

Following that whole debacle, it was back to stage four for some more deathcore with West Aussies Make Them Suffer. It seems I wasn’t the only one still keen for a circle pit as the band pull tracks off each and every album- “Bones”, “Widower”, “Blood Moon” – the pit spinning around as much as guitarist Nick McLernon. Closing out with a double hit of “Erase Me” and “Doomswitch”, the sun fading behind the trees, still more to go before we’re done.

It seems as almost all of Good Things had turned out for Tool. Frankly that’s fair enough when you’re the headline band. What was strange though, as the four piece launched into the unmistakable ticking intro of “Stinkfist”, was the amount of sunlight. Witnessing Tool in this much sun seems criminal, we could actually see Maynard!

“Melbourne!” calls Maynard, the classic taunt of “Adelaide were louder” garnered plenty of boos amongst the crowd. “Rosetta Stoned” rolled along, the crowd settling in, swaying and nodding. Considering this would be a near two hour set, I used this time to steal away and catch even more deathcore in the form of Lorna Shore.

With bursts of fire every which way, the deathcore quintet were raining their own unholy fire down, with some of the most insane drumming humanly possible and the most inhumane screams courtesy of Will Ramos. “Oblivion”, “Unbreakable”, “Sun//Eater” – the pit was intense, the vocals were brutal, the bass drops were felt in the cockles of my heart. “Prison of Flesh” and closer “To The Hellfire” lived up to its name, the pyrotechnics working overdrive as the stage became an inferno.

After the intensity of Lorna Shore, it was back to Tool. Thankfully their songs are really long.  “Jambi”, “Pneuma”, “Crawl Away”: a track that for anyone under 21 “were still sperm when this was written”. The sky filled with green lasers, the mind bending visuals flashed across the entire stage. With “Invincible”, all four members converging, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor and Maynard, masters of their craft, closing out Good Things 2025 with “Vicarious”.

Despite the last minute cancellations of two huge international draw cards, and a third by one of the replacements, despite all the internet whingeing about set times, and coming so close to a sold out festival, Good Things Festival proves again and again why it is a constant staple on the summer festival calendar and the best heavy music festival in Australia since Soundwave. Bring on 2026!