Parkway Drive-Viva The Underdogs Documentary Review

Parkway Drive, a band named after a street in the hippy town of Byron Bay, Australia are a band unlike any other.

That’s not hyperbole, after six albums the band have scaled new heights to the point where without having achieved a number one in the mainstream charts they are now headlining festivals as big as Wacken Open Air and Bloodstock Open Air. In the current societal atmosphere which demands conformity and three minute bubble gum pop or cheesy rap lyrics with no meaning, that is saying something. It suggests that Parkway Drive are a band unlike any other, a band who are unafraid to stick the finger up at the rules and do things their own way.

What else would you expect from four guys from a hippy town?

The Parkway Drive approach is most apparent on their newest documentary Viva The Underdogs. It charts the band’s progress from a cold German warehouse where they prepare for their upcoming tour for their latest album Reverence to the day they step on stage as headliners in the biggest festival in Metal and perhaps the world. Where, normally in such a documentary, you’d see shots of a band preparing and the odd bit of banter cut to scenes of them relaxing, Parkway Drive start off with a spoken word intro narrated by vocalist Winston McCall before we see little snippets of what went into preparing for the run of shows that took the band to Wacken.

We see four individuals and their friends and employees working to deliver a stage show that would make Kiss’ jaws drop. Enough pyro to make a pyromaniac jizz themselves, and a light display that would put Gene Simmons in hospital from shock. We see how all of this comes from the minds of the four men who make up Parkway. We see how they struggle to get everything just perfect, the heart ache of a failed run through, the anger when someone fucks up, and the euphoria when it goes right.

We learn that Parkway Drive are self managed and therefore there’s no other fall guy but themselves. Seeing just how much they care about putting everything into the show for their fans makes the viewer reconsider Parkway in a new light. If you saw them as just four dudes who played music, you get a whole new respect for them as musicians and as businessmen. As they navigate the avenues of the music business set to the deadline of the greatest show of their lives, you can see the strain it’s taking on them and how they’re trying to cope and adapt.

When the PA dies during their show in Hollywood, instead of throwing a fit like other bands might, the band stay at the venue until closing, talking with fans, commiserating and taking photos. It is only when the last fan has gone home that the band go into business mode and tough decisions are made. We see that again during their aborted set at Resurrection Fest, where a lightning storm delayed their entry, where security guards deserted them during their walk on stage through the crowd, and when the stunt with the molotov cocktail goes wrong. The band put on their game faces and deliver an impressive set, and only when the final note is played, only then do they sort things out behind the scenes.

That might seem unremarkable as that is what any professional would do, but when you’re in an industry that rewards primadonnas and jerks, being composed and statesman like is a praiseworthy feat.

Seeing the band taking a break and still hanging out together during a break from the tour is an interesting insight in how they unwind. Unlike other bands who might portray a facade of friendship, these four guys remain tight and do most of their off tour activities together to keep the bond between them strong. That is incredibly refreshing.

The finale is the great pay off. Parkway Drive headlining at Wacken in front of 80,000 screaming metalheads. The journey that the viewer and the band have been on culminates in what is an amazing set. Whilst we only get to see snippets of the songs performed, you can tell by looking at how the band are smiling and moving and the pure joy on the faces of members of the crowd that the show was one to remember. Be it the insane moshpits to “Bottom Feeder,” or the absolute insanity that “The Void,” brings in or even seeing bass play Jia’s mother crowd surfing, you know that the band and the fans were having the time of their lives.

Viva The Underdogs shows a band on the ascent into Metal stardom, it shows a band that despite  all the trials and tribulations of their career has managed to keep their feet planted firmly on the ground and kept their love for what they do firmly within their collective mindset. Whilst some of the piecing of the live clips was a bit surprising at times, it works well to convey just how much the planning the band went through for their tour helped them become metal legends.

Keep an eye out for Parkway Drive, and go to one of their shows when they play near you. You will not regret it.