This had been one of the best BDO's in years. Heres how it all went down...
Chris and I woke early, and managed to get the train out there at a reasonable hour. Actually, our train wasnt even full - the joys of going before 11am...
We rushed inside and made our way over to the Green Stage to check out
Laura Imbruglia , the girl with fantastic lyrics, country punk sensibillities, gorgeously straight up crowd banter and an amazingly concerned expression on her face as she sings. Her, with a guitarist that was missing at the New Pornographers show, probably crowds the music a little too much, but then again, it could have just been the trappings of playing on such a large stage that her vox got drowned out a bit... Regardless, it was a pleasant way to start the day.
Over to the V Local Produce Stage (where the Lillypad used to be, and the site of last years awesome Bit By Bats show). Who was there?
Tucker B's, a band I knew Chris would adore, and something I needed confirmation on - could they be as rad as when we saw them at The Green Room that time? You know what? They were better here. Absolutely supurb in every aspect, they are a rock band that treads the line between beauty and chaos, funk and rawk and math rock and pop. The only lowlight was a flag-laiden loser continually jumping on stage, messing about with security, harrasing people that wouldnt join in his mexican wave, and generally being a dick. Luckily this was the exception - for the most part, the crowd did me really well throughout the day, but more on that later.
We went and got our wristbands - the banding area now located in the old Boiler Room in what might be overkill, but is actually quite efficient... And from there, we went to see
Macromantics. Missing all but three of her songs, she had whipped the crowd at the Hothouse into a frenzy, especially with Scorch at the end... Good stuff.
We went and lined up for a beer, and came back for what was undoubtably the hightlight of the day -
That One Guy - who played the magical pipe, as seen in the picture that probably this text wont wrap around but hey...
Its kind of a half theramin, half sampler, and loaded up in it are some of the phattest basslines, wickedest breaks and a million other tricks that basically allow him to make a one man hectic drum jam, that looks amazing, is incredibly creative, and most of all, exceedingly fun. Completely original, charming and joyful, That One Guy had me running for the merch booth, and I bought his cd, sadly 7 years old now, but still incredibly rad, called "Songs in the key of Beotch"
Realising that we were actually two of the worst metalheads in the world, having missed
Trivium, at least getting some pop punk emo schmemo into us could make up for our horrid blasphemy, and so we headed back to the Local Produce stage to catch
Something With Numbers. Only we couldnt get in. The kids were hanging from the rafters (literally, aparantly), and in a scene reminiscent as to when the Hilltop Hoods played the Hothouse 2 years ago, Numbers had a massive crowd, lapping up every moment of it. Seeing as we couldnt see a thing, let alone get withing 10 metres of being inside the actual audatorium, we bailed down, got a drink, and the biggest shock of the day happened.
I heard two or three three tracks performed by
The Drones, one of the worlds most deathly dull recorded bands, and found out why people rate them... Live they are off the chain... Pure rock and roll courses through every fibre of their being, and apart from one song where the drummer was really really out of time, they kicked my preconceptions back to whence they should have remained... to a garbage planet several hundred light years away...
Still, we were at that stage (green/converse) to see
Faker. And once again the band I consider one of Australia's best failed to get their sound right in a festival setting. The big stage doesnt suit them, but there is to be no blaming sound guys - this is a consistant problem that Faker have, and one that detracts from the impact of their really wonderfully anthemic songs...
Skipping away as Hurricane was played, we got across the The Boiler Room and saw
Lilly Allen, who put on an excellent show. 8 Peice band, wonderful stage presence, and it was so nice to be in there for both Alfie and Smile...
We cut her short though for a bit of
TZU. Walking in to hear the accapella of the best verse from Recoil, they then broke into "Fuck You" (their song for Johnny and George) and really played the crowd well. Twas pleasant, and made me really think that out of all of them TZU are my fav aussie hip hop act, followed by The Herd, and Curse ov Dialect...
Fearing
Peaches after last time she was here, Chris and I stuck around for
DJ Gedo Super Mega Bitch Mrs Flint 4, who played funky house, which was pleasant enough, and electro house, which got the kids coming in. Possibly the hottest girl to ever be armed with a laptop and wear a bikini and mega boots, we stuck around at the end as she graciously signed our stubby holders... This dude comes over and chris picks it "Oh, do you two know each other" and the guys all like "Yeah, thats my wife" and then it clicked that it was Keith Flint from the Prodigy and his wife had just signed my You am I stubby holder, and OH MY FUCKING GOD! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Yeah, noone else seemed to care either...
Anyway, we ran away whooping and cheering and yelling and being the best people ever, and copped a bit of
Kasabian. Man they are a great band. They totally know big stage sound. They are one of those mega bands that will be immensely popular for a long time, and in 3 or 4 years time a whole bunch of people are going to be amazed that they were not topping the bill on the main stage... But yeah, solid, excellent performance from them...
We got told we should check out
Snowman, and to be honest, this was the first band that was a real disapointment. Messy, sludgy rock, that just seemed so much less mature or thought out than Tucker B's earlier in the day... So we bailed and went and checked John Cooper Clark over at the Lillyworld stage. A fantastic Post Punk Beat Poet, he told the best haiku ever, the made us laugh, and most of all told some really cool poetry... If there was not to be an EAR stage this year, at least there was this.
We went and caught
Justice, and mainly rocked the bar line - waiting for beers... luckily they played We Are Yr Friends, and so we could get out of there quickly, fulifilled that we got to yell really loud, and thats all you really ever need.
From there it was back to Lillyworld to see if we could see Keith Flint and go out for a drink with him and his wife a bit later, but his set sucked and we left.
And from there it was a green/converse way to finish the day.
Something for Kate rule my world, always and forever, and we might have missed a couple of their songs, but Deja Vu was my highlight, and they looked really really happy on stage, all of them... im glad - i think things are really good in the world of SFK, and thats a grand grand thing.
Finally, I stuck around somewhere long enough to see
You Am I. The classic Australian band, I had never seen them to this point, and wow. They have got over their hardcore troubles of 2 years ago, and Timmy and the boys played well... It only really hit me however just how rad this band is when the fuzz guitar and the words "If half of what im saying, of what im saying is TRUE", and you realise that sure, you have a million friends in a million bands that try and be exactly like You Am I, but these guys are the band that everyone trys to bite the style of, and wow, they do a really really good job of being themselves. That probably makes no sense, but it does to me, and gosh it was a satisfatctory show. And yeah, you need Berlin Chair live before you die.
The
Violent Femmes finsihed the day. They played Kiss Off, Add It Up and Blister In The Sun. The crowd rejoiced, and we went home with happy heads, despite the blisters and chafing...
One of the most pleasant Big Day Outs in recent memory.
A few notes...
The number of Flag Wearing Idiots was about 300% reduced from the year before.
The 2 at a time beer limit is annoying, but it cut down the number of drunken dickheads dramatically - by about 50% id say, and thats an immense reduction
Staying away from the main stage apart from a brief look at My Chemical Romance was possibly the best thing ive ever done at a BDO
Just having 2 people in yr crew is awesome.
Lily Allen had the best merch, though the girls Violent Femmes top was hotter than spicy sambal, and those diplo shirts werent too bad either...
Anyway, that should tide you over... any questions?
Big Day Out
TZU