Review: Good Things Festival 2026 @ Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne 05/12/25
Good Things 2026 delivered standout sets from Garbage, Weezer and TOOL on a genre-spanning day of rock, punk and metal, cementing its position as country’s premium heavy festival.
Words by Tobias Handke
Good Things Festival 2026 @ Flemington Racecourse 05/12/25
Melbourne really turned on the weather for Good Things 2026. On what was a beautiful mid-20s day at Flemington Racecourse, thousands of punters – dressed mainly in black – witnessed some of the biggest metal, rock, alternative and punk bands on the planet do their thing across six stages.
Strolling in to the sounds of Florida punk rockers New Found Glory, the crowd was surprisingly big, with plenty of people rolling in early to catch them do their thing. Their set was great and included fan favourites ‘All Downhill From Here’ and ‘Hit Or Miss’, along with their trademark cover of Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’. Frontman Jordan Pundik gave a shoutout to missing guitarist Chad Gilbert, who is currently battling cancer, with Dan O'Connor from Four Year Strong and Will Pugh from Cartel filling in. They ended with punk pop classic ‘My Friends Over You’, kicking the day off in enjoyable fashion.
I caught Refused earlier this year in their home country of Sweden and was suitably impressed. While I wouldn’t call myself a diehard fan of the hardcore quartet, their energy on the live stage is visceral, with vocalist Dennis Lyxzén part advocate, part lounge singer. Despite suffering a heart attack last year, Lyxzén doesn’t hold back, shimmering across the stage in a puffy purple shirt, thrusting his hips and throwing the mic around with ease. He looked like he should be fronting a boy band, not a hardcore act. He’s ably supported by drummer David Sandström, who hits the skins as hard as anyone, bassist Magnus Flagge and guitarist Mattias Bärjed.
The set is The Shape of Punk to Come heavy, with Lyxzén the first of several artists throughout the day to use their platform to get political, telling the crowd that Refused have always been a political band while taking a not-so-subtle dig at many of the bands on the lineup by calling them “cheap entertainment”. With the Palestine flag hanging onstage, Refused ended their last ever Melbourne show with their most famous song, ‘Now Noise’. If you want a more in-depth review of Refused’s solo Melbourne show at Northcote Theatre, click here.
Sydneysiders Stand Atlantic were called in as last-minute replacements and did an admirable job. Their brand of inoffensive pop punk had people moshing, with Bonnie Fraser’s vocals sounding magical. Great assist from the mixer.
Post-hardcore heroes Dayseeker drew a decent crowd, but they failed to spark my interest. That’s not to say they aren’t good at what they do, but there was nothing about their time on stage that got the blood pumping. The same can’t be said for GWAR. It was like watching a violent cartoon come to life. The costumes are mindblowing, but it can’t be easy performing in them. There was some story running through the show about a baby dinosaur, but they lost me when Donald Trump arrived on stage. Looking more like Fat Bastard, he geed up the crowd before having his arm cut off, spurting blood all over the front rows in classic GWAR fashion. It was an interesting watch, and I was glad I wasn’t too close to the stage, as the front rows were covered in fake blood. As for the music, meh. But I am glad to have finally witnessed the insanity that is GWAR.
Goldfinger didn’t waste any money on their stage setup, with a crudely drawn banner proclaiming: “LA Skate Punk Goldfinger”. But there was nothing makeshift about their late arvo performance. Combining punk with ska, they are like Blink-182 before Blink-182, with fratboy stage humour mixed with original bangers like ‘Counting the Days’, ‘Open Your Eyes’ and ‘Superman’, which was dedicated to Tony Hawk, and a smattering of covers, such as The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’ and Nena’s ‘99 Red Balloons’.
The odd man out on the day was James Reyne. The last name you would expect to see at a heavy festival gathered a decent crowd of oldies as he blitzed through a set of originals and Australian Crawl favourites. Reyne jumped on the harmonica for the intro to ‘Boys Light Up’, ‘Reckless (Don’t Be So)’ had the crowd singing along, while the safest circle pit ever formed during ‘Errol’.
The energy was way up for All Time Low, who put on a polished pop punk performance, but it was the band that followed who provided one of the highlights of the day. Garbage blew me away, and there is no doubt Shirley Manson has still got it. Her voice continues to hold up incredibly well after 30 years on the road. It was also a pleasure to witness Butch Vig behind the drums. Garbage played a greatest hits set, with fans dancing and singing along to songs like ‘I Think I’m Paranoid’, ‘Vow’, ‘Stupid Girl’ and ‘When I Grow Up’. While musically on point, Manson must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. She made her displeasure known about beach balls at gigs, calling it “disrespectful and musicians have had enough.” Her wild rant also included discussing artists’ pay and the chastising of one punter who she caught holding a beach ball, calling him “a fuckin middle-aged man, in a fuckin’ ridiculous hat” and saying she pities him because he’s “a small man with a small dick.” Uncalled for, maybe, but it was impressive how she went from cussing out Beach Ball guy to singing ‘Push It’ like nothing had happened. If there’s one takeaway, it’s that Garbage can still go, and Manson is one hell of a frontwoman.
Having never seen Weezer, it was pretty much what I expected. Not the most exciting stage show, but Rivers Cuomo and co played all the hits, opening with ‘My Name Is Jonas’ and cycling through the likes of ‘Hash Pipe’, ‘Beverly Hills’ and ‘El Scorcho’. There was a cover of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ thrown into the mix and a cool rendition of ‘Jamie’, the first time the song had been played live in over a decade, which pleased a couple of longtime fans nearby who lost their shit. Victoria Asher of Cobra Starship joined Weezer onstage for ‘I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams’ before they closed with ‘Say It Ain’t So’ and ‘Buddy Holly’.
There’s been a lot of talk about TOOL’s Adelaide setlists and who got the better deal, and while both were great, I was pretty darn happy with the ten songs they delivered at Good Things. Opening with ‘Stinkfist’ set the scene as the massive audience, stretching back further than the eye could see, became entranced by the band’s unique sound. Maynard James Keenan took his usual place to the side of drummer Danny Carey near the rear of the stage on an elevated platform, and grooved along as guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Just Chancellor stood on either side of the stage. With the big screens playing trippy images and videos, TOOL took us on a journey through tracks like ‘Fear Inoculum’, ‘The Grudge’, ‘H’ and more. Even ‘Crawl Away’ got a showing, the first time since 1998! The band were as tight as ever, and Carey, dressed in a skin suit reminiscent of the cover of their album Lateralus, was a phenomenon behind the drums. The dude is a stone-cold killer! Ending with ‘Vicarious’, TOOL might not have played all the hits, but for this fan, they hit all the right notes and made my first Good Things a day to remember.
