Parkway Drive- Club 334, Santiago de Chile

I have seen a fair few videos on Youtube of the Parkway Drive show a couple of nights ago- I think it is imperative to see them in another country- particularly one that doesn't speak English to see just how big they have become.

It's all well and good to play the big festivals, but a real test is to play in a country that speaks a different language, for the first time, and from what I could see, not a lot of advertising. Dad said he saw some advertising for their show in Argentina, but I definitely did not see any at all for the show here. It was similar when we saw Machine Head and Sepultura, I only saw any advertisements about one block away from the venue.

Funnily enough, the two different venues were only a couple of blocks away, on the same street. I guess that is a bit of poor form, we've been here for a month and only seen two shows, both of "big" bands. What was really weird though, at both shows is that there were no supports- I made a comment to someone that Parkway Drive would never had got anywhere if it weren't for some generous bands giving them a hand over the years- particularly with support slots. For me it has been a bit of a weird feeling- I'm getting old enough where I really don't care about the other bands and just want to get straight to the point, however I've just arrived in a foreign land, I want to check out some new bands, and international supports are often a great way to find out about a new band- as they are usually somewhere around the cream of the crop.

The video above (I didn't film it), it may make you feel a bit dizzy, but I think it shows exactly what the show was all about- apart from the inflatable beach balls, boats, crocodiles, but in general- flips off the speakers, everybody knowing all the worlds, and kids generally going crazy.

I do say kids, because most of the crowd seemed fairly young. It must be a weird feeling for Parkway Drive to turn up each night in somewhere far away from home, Serbia, China, tonight they play in Ecuador, and have the whole crowd screaming back at them- amazing to think about really, how a gang of surfer bums from Byron Bay could come so far, playing this aggressive style of music.

I had a lot of fun at the show, and I really hope they tour in South America again while we are still here- maybe they could bring some mates like Break Even and/or I Exist, now that would be a very fun show.