H.P.K.:
Right-o kids, my weekend consisted of going to the big day out on Friday, and spending the rest of the weekend walking too far and whinging about my sore feet.
Here’s my complete review of the once mighty Big Day Out.
First of all. I’m stunned that they haven’t re-named the event The Big Jack Daniel’s Day Out, or at least added The Big Day Out, proudly brought to you by Optus. It borders on disturbing the amount of advertising there is. That said, Homebush is a better venue that the Sydney Showgrounds, and miles better than the black boogers dustbowl that is Moore Park (Livid).
Anyway, the day's about seeing bands and then saying how shit they were. That I can do.
First stop, The Sleepy Jackson. Unfortunately, Dorffie and Petya weren't into seeing them and decided to wander around for a bit. One of the Sleepy Jackson was playing a Flying V anyway, so I gave them a miss.
The Darkness. AC/DC, get your lawyers on the phone. These guys are either 30 something hair metal throwbacks or youngsters whose hair metal antics have seen them age prematurely. Either way, they look old, they wear tight leather pants, sing in falsetto, and play wailin’ AC/DC rip-off guitar solos. Nup, not for me.
Next up, Gerling. They get points for getting the guys in the crowd to sing ‘come on girls’, then the girls to sing ‘whose your daddy'... Which when you think about it, doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Still they were good enough for me to rate them.
On to the Lillypad (read crap entertainment with possible nudity) stage to waste a bit of time. Ok the first part I saw was indeed crap house entertainment (no nudity), but then along came Kamahl. Honestly, he was probably the second best thing I saw all day. When he hit the rendition of Waltzing Matilda, either tears were welling up, or I had something in my eye. I think it was the latter. Oh due to the fencing off of the mosh pit (or the VIP section as Dorff called it) on the main stages the crowd were going off to Kamahl more than anywhere I’d seen (or would see) all day... Rate!
Time to go see the Dandy Warhols. First and foremost, this band need a bass player badly. Their drummer drums like he’s in a church service, so without a bass player even their most kicking songs (and they have some) sound flat as. That said, these guys win the plumbers cleavage award for most chicks on shoulders. To clarify, unfortunately (some might say fortunately, but not me who thinks any chick who gets on a guys shoulders at a concert is the definition of pathetic. I was going to say skanky, but I don’t think that’s exactly the case)... Where was I? Unfortunately, due to the prevalence of bumster pants these days, any chick who get onto the shoulders of a guy exposes a lot of bum cleavage to a good 80% of the crowd. Speaking of bumster pants, more power to chicks who wear them (so long as they don’t get on the shoulders of anyone), but for God’s sake guys, if you’re going to wear them, put on a shirt. I cannot stress enough how uninterested I am in seeing... hmm how should I say this... Way WAY too far down the snail trail... Anyway, back to the Dandy Warhols... Overall, pretty crap.
Next band. Muse. Probably not my thing, as was the case with most bands at this BDO I realised, but either way, they were killer. All out quality rocking. Rate (but not enough to buy any of their cds).
On to the Boiler Room and David Holmes. Thank you Mr Holmes for providing me with an easy choice for worst of the day. For one, he has a bunch of cds of original music out. Play these? Nope. Play a DJ set instead. Fair enough I suppose (actually I think that’s seriously debatable), except that he plays the crappest DJ set I've ever heard. 1 in 3 of his records are scratched, beat matching? Nah forget about it... I’ll admit he played some diverse songs (for a boiler room act), but seriously, I could've brought my cd collection along and filled in for him doing a much better job. That for mine, screams worst act of the day
Still I sat (stood) through it near the front so I could get a prime spot for Aphex Twin... which I utilised for a good 10 minutes. Aaaah, Aphex Twin. As much as I love his albums, watching him live is like watching a couple of nerds in a lan gaming session with a soundtrack. He was playing with Luke Vibert. They both sat behind their little Mac laptops (product placement?) and played various degrees of difficult to dance to music. This was disappointing to no end. So much so that when a chick started trying to dance with me 10 minutes into the set, I walked out in disgust.
The Strokes. Actually pretty good. I’m almost certain the Strokes roadies have been ordered to ‘let all hot chicks backstage’. He was clearly in it for the ladies... and for the drugs for that matter. Definitely gets my most out of it front man award.
Metallica \m/ Well two songs worth at least... I’ll give them this, they packed out the main stage. They were pretty cliché in my opinion. Providing a wailing bass solo for the fans to turn on the love for their new bass player and all. I suppose, they helped write that cliché, so maybe that’s understandable.
Off to see Thursday. Not my style of music (hardcore), but geez the nicest guys on the planet... Gave away my spare earplugs to the chick also waiting for the Flaming Lips (one the adjacent stage next) whose brain was about to explode.
The Flaming Lips. Last band of the day. Welcome Flaming Lips, to Scotty Taylor’s top five live bands ever. Now I try not to be too sentimental or emotional, but these guys made me feel so wrm and fuzzy inside I thought I’d need to eat an asbestos suit so as not to spontaneously combust from the inside out. Absolutely fucking brilliant. They could've played non-stop through to Tuesday and I would’ve been happy...
And there in lies my Big Day Out. To put it in perspective, next year, I'm going to pick one band that I really want to see, and just buy a ticket to their gig instead.