Kicking off the new year with a gig at Big Day Out, Byron Bay’s Parkway Drive has announced a run of regional dates for February and March. The Sick Summer II Tour commences on the Sunshine Coast and will visit towns along the east coast, including Tweed Heads and Byron Bay, before winding up at Melbourne’s Push Over Festival.
‘Summertime in Australia. Is there any other place you’d want to be?’ front man Winston McCall asks.
‘For us it means a chance to hit the road in the country we love, and play as many of those places we don’t get to stop at as much. We figure the major cities have had their chance so it’s time to bring the show back to regional Australia, and let’s see how crazy the small towns can get. These tours always end up being some of the most fun shows we play anywhere. Sweaty venues, stage dives, singalongs, beach hangouts. Sick Summer indeed.’
Blasting out of Byron Bay in 2003, an affront to the sun-soaked serenity of their surroundings, Parkway Drive has achieved milestones both here at home and overseas that hitherto seemed beyond the realms of imagination.
A five-piece of astonishing power and understated charisma, Parkway Drive created unseen hysteria with their brutal 2005 full-length debut, Killing With A Smile. Released by Resist Records in Australia and Epitaph for the rest of the world, the album spent time in the ARIA National Top 40, affirming the astounding popularity of a band who had grown their fan base from genuine hardcore roots. Indeed, Parkway Drive’s success might have seemed like some kind of amazing dream if it weren’t for the all the hard work and sacrifice that has gone into making it happen.
But with the release of their second album the phenomenon was about to get a whole lot more phenomenal.
On 6 October 2007, Parkway Drive unleashed their standout sophomore effort, Horizons. Recorded once again by producer and Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz in Boston, MA, Horizons debuted at #6 on the ARIA chart, #1 on the Australian Artist chart and # 1 on the Independent chart.
Relentless touring has been one of the keys to Parkway Drive’s success. Selling out shows across Australia, they spent a large part of the 2007–2008 abroad, crisscrossing North America, Europe and Japan, a 31-date stint on the 2007 Vans Warped Tour and a sold-out European Tour being just some of the many highlights. The world, it seems, is catching onto what we in Australia have known for a while.
In August 2010 the band released their first DVD, fittingly titled The DVD, which debuted at #2 on the ARIA chart and achieved Gold sales status a week after its release. In support of The DVD the band set out on their biggest headline tour to date with close to 5000 people attending their Brisbane show.
The quiet confidence and lack of arrogance expressed by the band is what lies at the heart of Parkway Drive’s massive appeal. Parkway are just five ordinary dudes who came together to create one extraordinary band.
See Parkway at Twin Towns on 19 February and Byron YAC on 18 February.
