EVENT: GOOD THINGS FESTIVAL
VENUE: RNA SHOWGROUNDS, BRISBANE
DATE: DECEMBER 7TH 2025
REVIEWER: HAYLEY TREADWELL – REAL WOMAN REAL REVIEW
LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER: MERT TYSON – MERT TYSON PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHER: LACHLAN DOUGLAS – SOMEFX
Good Things 2025
Brisbane – The Ball Show
Whenever Good Things rolls into Brisbane, it’s hot as sin! You know from the moment you wake up it’s going to be a long day! And one we look forward to all year!
We arrived nice and early, scoped out the venue and made our plan for the day.
First up, ‘Yours Truly’. It really makes my day when a festival is opened by a female fronted band, and this is something we have seen at Good Things a few times over the years. And Mikaila Delgado did it in impressive style as she took the stage and kicked off the final stop of Good Things 2025. The female fronted bands were everywhere this year and again I just love seeing this. Perhaps another reason the likes of Shirley Mason should set a better example, but we will get to more of that later on.
I was excited to see ‘Maple’s Pet Dinosaur’, they have been popping up in all my socials for the last few months, and now I understand all the hype. At just 15 years old, this young lady has something to say to the world – and on stage at Good Things, she delivered it with her band in a way that had fans eating it up! I see this young lady going very far.
We wandered back across to the main stage to catch ‘Scene Queen’, a new one for both of us. I very quickly fell in love with this rock queen and danced my way through her set and quickly added her to my Spotify when done! I wanna go back to this set again and again, it was a bunch of fun! I enjoyed seeing new and interesting things like GWAR and people leaving the pit covered in blood. The intensity and excitement of Fever 333 – and I always love when a frontman gives a special shout out to his female band members! Check out Mert’s photos of these guys, wow just wow mate!
Early in the day we checked out the Good Things Battle of the Bands, Brisbane winners ‘Boof Heads’ who I think were amazing! Rugged and rough and really passionate on the stage, I hope we see these guys on more Good Things stages in the future.
I thoroughly enjoyed Stand Atlantic’s set, from the blow up boat races, their homage to the band they had ever so kindly filled in for, ‘All American Rejects’, and the release of beach balls into the pit, their sound and energy was on point. As was Thornhill’s, who were subbing in for Alpha Wolf who were subbing in got ‘Knocked Loose’! What lads! And I heard so much talk through the day of people who were so excited they were added to the bill, and lots of talk after about how good they were!
One of the funnier moments of the day was the switch up from the laid back and mellow James Reyne set into Kablai Khan absolutely tearing things up and the crowd joining in! Watching on it looked intense and the punters reckon this was the maddest craziest pit of the day! But I also heard how well you all looked after each other and that’s awesome metal pride right there! A lot different to the stories I have heard from the headliners pit.
There were some fantastic acts on stages 3, 4 and 5 that absolutely deserved spots on the main stage. But hey, I don’t work the logistics of a festival and I am sure there are reasons for how everything runs, but how we had Weezer on stage 2 before Tool, not Lorna Shore is a bit perplexing. Weezer are good, consistent, pop rock that felt a bit like ‘James Reyne in the middle of a metal festival’ to me. Enough said really.
And Tool was…. Boring. I don’t know how to not be honest about it. For me, this is not the type of band to headline a festival. Too niche. And if you are going to headline a festival, let the people see you! Not having video of the performance on the screens and Maynard hiding at the back of the stage was confusing and I heard so many people asking ‘Where is Maynard’. With a field that big, no way everyone can be in front of the stage to see you. Not very well thought out if you ask me. But then, like I said, I am not a Tool fan so maybe the lead singer hiding is a thing the fans understand. Guess I will never know.
We ended the night at stage 5 with a band we all love ‘Palaye Royale’. I fell in love with these guys at the first Good Things and have been a fan since and it was really great to see them back in Australia. They absolutely killed the final set on stage 5 and it was great to see a decent crowd there enjoying every moment. Thanks for giving us an awesome ending to our day!
And now, I have had to circle back, because I don’t even know how to write my review about Garbage. Shirley Manson’s behaviour in Melbourne was the talk of the festival. I have to say it’s kind of beautiful to see how passionate music fans become about defending one of our own when someone unnecessarily victimizes them – whether you are from one of the biggest bands in the world or not.
I am a 44 year old woman who grew up listening to the band Garbage. I idolized Shirley Manson as a teenager, wished I could be her! Well, hasn’t that feeling changed dramatically now. And you may think it’s all around the Beach Balls, and what happened to the poor festival going fan in Melbourne, but it’s more than that. Yes, victimizing him and the things she said were awful. Threats and incitement of violence, is actually a crime in this country (FYI Shirley), but my experience as a Garbage fan in Brisbane was bitterly disappointing.
And don’t get me wrong, the band was amazing! Note for note, kicked it out of the park. Shirley’s vocals are still incredible and she delivered them with a little more edge which adds to a lot of the lyrics. But every time Shirley stopped singing and spoke to the crowd, she was awful. Horrible. Disrespectful. Being at that show made me feel like shit. For being a fan.
Now, had Shirley taken accountability for her actions, we may have all moved on and left the beach balls at home, but there has been no accountability of her actions, only a refusal to
apologise and deflections to things she thinks we should be more concerned about. The judgement is absurd.
Because we are at a festival, does that mean we don’t care? Because we are standing up against one wrong doing, it does not have any impact on how we feel about other issues. Surely, someone who thinks they are educated enough to be so vocal could understand that.
Or surely understand – it’s not about the Beach Balls!
Anyway, I have to leave that one alone or I am just going to keep going, so I will move to the other thing that upset me the most throughout the day – $18 for 6 pieces of watermelon!!! This is outrageous! If there was something that could be better mandated at festivals for me, it would be the prices the food vendors charge. Some of the prices are outrageous! I seriously think the watermelon people have retired after yesterday and are on their way to the Bahamas!
And while I hope they enjoy their retirement, I am sitting here still recovering from a fantastic day yesterday.
Yea there were some controversial moments and topics throughout this festival, but I guess at the end of the day, it all adds to the excitement of the wonderful end to the year we all look forward to each December, Good Things!
We really did have a fantastic time, big shout out to the guys and girls at Death before Decaf coffee for keeping us awake throughout the day and having the best coffee in Brisbane (if you haven’t, go check them out), you guys are amazing, thanks so much!
To all the bands and everyone behind the scenes that keep bringing us these festivals, thank you so much for having us along, we appreciate you all and we cannot wait to do it all again.
Until the next gig
Hayley
