I’m not a festival kinda guy; I hate long lines, long waits and big crowds -  I suppose it’s part claustrophobia and part impatience but when it came to the Big Day Out line-up this year I really couldn’t pass.

After the extremely long wait to get in we went for a quick look-see of Los Romanticos who are an extremely talented Mariachi band that brought the sounds and atmosphere to the Mexican themed Lilyworld.

More searching and getting to grips with my massive surroundings took me to the blue stage where Mastadon were playing. Up close the weak, bass riddled sound didn’t do them justice but further back they sounded excellent. A lot of people made it into the D-ring for the early show by these modern metal innovators and they certainly didn’t leave unimpressed.

Up next door on the Orange stage were Kasabian, one of England’s best bands around who brought a considerably large crowd and didn’t disappoint. After they played all their hits including “Fire”, “Shoot the Runner”, “Empire”, “Club Foot” and “Lost Souls Forever” it left me with the feeling that they should’ve been put much higher up on the bill instead of 2 o’clock in the afternoon which actually seemed quite insulting.

The talk of Big Day Out in the lead-up was that of Girl Talk who’s a dude doing some of the most interesting and relevant things in dance music today. Decked in tennis gear and armed only with a laptop and some party-police with TP blasters he mixed hundreds of songs together in the hour he was on-stage.

“Girl Talk was most definitely a hard act to top today”

The only way I can possibly describe the atmosphere at times was that of pure euphoria and energy. I faced my own claustrophobia in the most sweaty and crowded space I’ve ever been in and enjoyed being squashed, knocked about and holding onto my other half for dear life. Girl Talk was most definitely a hard act to top today and if you ever get the chance to witness him in action don’t think twice about it.

Dizee Rascal was up on the Blue Stage afterwards riding on the success in Australia his latest album has brought him and played a set that reminded me how many great songs he’s actually had.

Rise Against were but a mere flash out of the corner of my eye but from what I caught had the largest crowd of the day and easily doubled that of fear factory who headlined later on.

I’m not really a Lily Allen fan, her single “It’s Not Fair” last year appealed to my country inclinations but her brand of ned-pop (well, she’s English, so make that chav-pop) has never impressed me. The crowd that gathered to the Orange Stage certainly didn’t share the same sentiments and roared as she took to the stage wearing an Aussie flag as a dress. She played all her hits and satisfied all but me I’d reckon. The highlights of her show were calling out the bouncers for being dickheads and a dance outro to “LDN” (or was it “Smile”? They all sound the same to me).

Now was the time I was really excited, my main reason for attending the mighty Big Day Out was to see the guy who pretty much invented rap and has been sampled by various greats including Jay Z, Beyonce Knowles, Ice Cube, Wu Tang Clan and a shitload more… Blowfly was but a mere 10 minute wait.

Playing before him however was a guy I’d seen on TV called Bangs who’s a Melbourne based rapper from Sudan that raps broken English in an upbeat, friendly tone.

His song “Take U 2 Da Movies” was an internet sensation that received over 1.7 million views on Youtube. The small mob that gathered at Lilyworld was there for one reason obviously and he saved that gem till last in which he promptly threw popcorn all over the crowd.

Blowfly up next was intensely good. His parodies of well known songs with dirty lyrics were great fun and the dirty old man promptly called every woman a lesbian bitch and guys gay ho-men. Amongst the parodies were “Now I Wanna Fuck Your Dog” (Now I wanna be your dog) and “Should I Fuck That Big Fat Ho” (Should I stay or should I go) he also fired out three Michael Jackson piss-takes as well as his originals “Rap Dirty” and “Porno Freak” which I believe was the first rap song to be banned in America.

“Who should give a fuck about Lady Gaga when Peaches has done it all before?”

Peaches on the Converse stage was a revelation; who should give a fuck about Lady Gaga when this woman has done it all before here AND with better songs? Opening up with a hair suit she burst into “Talk to Me” as well as more from her newest record. A few songs in she does an Iggy and walks on the crowd (sadly, sans the peanut butter). Many outfit changes later and sadly it’s time to leave her and head back to the Blue stage.

Muse are about to start up and tens of thousands of people are there to witness these modern legends in action. With three massive screens, three smaller screens and a load of lighting that doesn’t quite hit the spot in daylight it takes 20 minutes to get the desired effect. Sadly the sound just doesn’t cut it for me and listening to the drunken bogans in front of you isn’t nearly as much fun as actually hearing the band.

Saying that though I certainly did enjoy Muse. A lot of people from the UK will remember them as they were just coming out and none would expect how insanely big they now are but they definitely have the music chops to back it all up. There were murmurs of disappointment post-set for the lack of favourite “Stockholm Syndrome”, but really this was just a minor disappointment because there was plenty of other Muse hits in the set and everything went down well.

Most in the crowd have turned away from Muse now and averted their eyes towards the roof of one of the drinking areas where a punter is running along and avoiding bottles to the face to my amusement. He spends around 20 minutes up there until security eventually gets up but fails to catch him only falling on their arses to a massive cheer below.

My girlfriend being a big metal fan leads me off back to the Green stage where Fear Factory are playing to a relatively small crowd compared to Rise Against earlier. They were very good though and really kicked some butt as they thundered there way through around a dozen or so songs. Although most of the band looked very out of shape and past their hey-day the new material still packed a considerable punch and the musicianship was phenomenal.

In an incredible amount of pain from working all night to standing around all day I sat on the ground and soaked it all in; what an incredible day I thought, what a great line-up and oh what fun I had. If this year was 10x better than last what’s next year going to be like?

Big Day Out? No kidding!

© Danny Crombie

Shows To Go To is a new monthly preview which we’ve began to coincide with our new site design that we officially launch tomorrow night, 18 January, 2010. Look out for more Shows To Go To in February.

Australia

Big Day Out

Rise Against are part of Big Day Out 2010

Aren’t those Australians lucky? While all us poor souls in the Northern Hemisphere are freezing our butts off, Down Under the sun will be shining at the first major music festival of the year. Headliners at Big Day Out this year include Muse, Lily Allen, Kasabian, The Mars Volta and Rise Against. And yeah, we’ll be there too!

Dates:
Auckland, January 15
Gold Coast, January 17
Sydney, January 22
Sydney, January 23
Melbourne, January 26
Adelaide, January 29
Perth, January 31

Full info and tickets at: www.bigdayout.com

Canada/US

Anti-Flag ‘The Economy Sucks, Let’s Party’ Tour with Aiden, Cancer Bats and guests

Catch Cancer Bats on tour in the US with Anti-Flag

Anti-Flag are on tour across America from January 12 to February 6 with Aiden and Cancer Bats. If that line-up wasn’t enticing enough already for you then look out for special guests including Trash Talk who join the tour from January 19 to January 27 – we’ve heard lots of good stuff about Trash Talk, definitely worth checking out. Dates at: MySpace.com/Antiflag

REDUCED FEE tickets available at: https://tixx1.artistarena.com/anti-flag
USERNAME: anti
PASSWORD: flag

Dinosaur Jr.
Did you think that great fuzz and distortion-fuelled music was extinct? Go see Dinosaur Jr. for the best kind of evidence that it’s still alive and roaring like a T-Rex!

Milford, CT, January 15
Bowery Ballroom, NYC, NY, January 16
Music Hall of Williamsburg, NY, January 17
Brooklyn Bowl, NY, January 18
Castaways, Ithaca, NY, January 19
The Ale House, Kingston, ON, January 20
Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON, January 21
Capitol Music Hall, Ottawa, ON, January 22
More info and ticket links: www.dinosaurjr.com/tour.htm

Tegan And Sara
Canada’s most famous musical twins kick-off the new decade with a January tour in Canada!
6 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Orpheum
7 – Kelowna, British Columbia – Community Theatre
8, 9 – Calgary, Alberta – South Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
11, 12 – Edmonton, Alberta – North Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
13 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – TCU Place
14, 15 – Winnipeg, Manitoba – Burton Cummings Theatre
18 – Montreal, Quebec – Place des Arts
19 – Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall
20 – Toronto, Ontario – Kool Haus
22, 23 – Ottawa, Ontario – Bronson Centre
25 – Quebec City, Quebec – Imperial Du Quebec
26 – Fredericton, New Brunswick – Fredericton Playhouse
27 – Halifax, Nova Scotia – Halifax Metro Centre
More info at: www.teganandsara.com Ticket links: Live Nation, GEG

United Kingdom

The Prodigy
Shake off your New Year hangover by catching The Prodigy, who are ripping up the UK with a January tour.
Dates and ticket info at: MySpace.com/TheProdigy

Jamie T
For something a lot less aggressive, a bit less manic but overall equally as cool, catch Jamie T, with UK dates throughout January and extending into early February. These are the rescheduled dates originally planned for Autumn 2009 – original tickets are still valid for the new dates.

January dates:
Tue 19 Nottingham – Rock City
Wed 20 Birmingham – 02 Academy
Fri 22 Sheffield – 02 Academy
Sat 23 Manchester – Academy
Mon 25 Leeds – 02 Academy
Wed 27 Glasgow – Barrowlands
Thu 28 Newcastle – Northumberland Uni
Sat 30 Preston – 53 Degrees
Sun 31 Norwich – UEA
More info at: www.myspace.com/jamietwimbledon

Gig/Concert: The Famines
Venue: Claremont Showgrounds, Perth, Western Australia
Date: 1 February, 2009
Headliners: Neil Young, The Prodigy
In one word: Surprising

Attending a festival is something that requires military precision in my book; like any trip you have to be prepared for what’s in store. The first concern for any music fan is to work out who you’re going to see and when and with festivals you have to please everyone.

My girlfriend and I arrived at the Claremont Showground around 2.45 with surprisingly very little delay or queuing and tried to find the stage where the Ting Tings were doing their thing. They are a band that I consider to be pretty much just a fad with throwaway songs, so I wasn’t too upset when we got lost at the other end of the grounds and missed them.

“TV on the Radio were an absolute delight to watch, a great new discovery for me.”

Next I stumbled upon COG whilst scoping out the scene, and I was left fairly unimpressed by their average songs which a lot of people seemed to know. I’ve never heard of them, and personally I won’t be hearing anything from them again.

Bullet for My Valentine came onto the blue stage and played a loud and energetic performance to a crowd of dedicated metal-heads. They were tight and a fun band to watch, even in blistering heat.

TV on the Radio were an absolute delight to watch, a great new discovery for me. They played a fantastic eclectic set ranging from blistering electro punk to funk, a band consisting of incredibly talented musicians I will surely see again in the future.

Sneaky Sound System gave a strong performance and should be named “recycler’s of the day”, after reworking other people’s songs for their own. I must admit I didn’t pay full attention to them as I was waiting for the band next door to play.

Pendulum’s show was probably the biggest of the daytime, I’m sure the show was an honour for them to play to such a massive hometown audience. We made the foolish mistake of entering the D-ring, only to get knocked around and elbowed by shirtless idiots with no manners. The band was good though and I’m certain they entertained most.

I’m afraid to say that My Morning Jacket are a band I’ve never felt the need to listen to. They are one of those groups whose names you hear thrown around all the time, yet some kind of stubbornness within forces you to ignore them. The great thing about festivals is that you can go and check out bands and it’s no massive loss if you don’t like them. As for My Morning Jacket…I loved ‘em! A real good band with weird rockin’ songs and when the pedal steel came out I became a fan – I’m a sucker for that pedal steel!

Serj Tankian was a weird choice for a main stage, although extremely big with his other band, not big enough for a main stage. We went quite near the front so I couldn’t really see his audience but whoever was in front certainly enjoyed him.

He played a great set of his own tunes which sadly don’t quite cut it against SOAD but still a very good set nonetheless. Certainly notable was his Abba cover, I’m sure you’ll get that on youtube.

“The crowd loved The Living End but I found them to sound like a poor man’s Stiff Little Fingers, who are an extremely poor man’s Clash.”

The Living End are another “know the name, but don’t know their music” band who are big in Australia and not really anywhere else. You could never see them getting a hit song anywhere else but here. The crowd loved them but I found them to sound like a poor man’s Stiff Little Fingers, who are an extremely poor man’s Clash – I can safely say I won’t be bothered about seeing them again.

After a hard day in the sun we decided to take a seat and get some food, though not seeing I did hear some of Cut Copy, whose singer sounds A LOT like Joey Ramone – I’ll have to check them out.

Arctic Monkeys are a band to see only to say you’ve seen them. I only like Fluorescent Adolescent which was a delight to hear – a very well crafted and soulful song. Something about Alex’s voice usually grates on me but tonight I enjoyed them. They’re a band suited for festivals and I found it strangely beautiful watching the sun go down as they played.

Hot Chip were playing the boiler room, a very packed area which I’m sure most of the crowd were there already to see the Keith Flint & Co. We watched one song, luckily the only one I knew, before heading back to see the godfather of punk himself.

“Dropkick Murphys are a band I used to love when I was younger…I certainly enjoyed them but felt embarrassed to have left Neil Young to watch them for 20 minutes.“

Mr Neil Young was a weird headline act, he seems virtually irrelevant to most of the audience but I don’t want to knock him though as he was brilliant. His vocal and guitar skills are better than ever and he drew a considerable crowd. We caught 30 minutes of him before having the leave due to schedule commitments.

Dropkick Murphys are a band I used to love when I was younger, although slightly embarrassed by their faux Irish accents and sometimes dodgy tunes I loved how they incorporated instruments like the bagpipes and banjo into such intense punk rock.

They played a couple of songs I vaguely knew and a heap of others, I certainly enjoyed them but felt embarrassed to have left Neil Young to watch them for 20 minutes.

Seeing The Prodigy was a bit of a no-hoper for us, my girlfriend having been brought up listening to them was extremely excited about seeing them and slightly peeved at our detour through Leprechaun Land. There was definitely no chance seeing them as the Boiler Room was packed and people were even having raves watching the TV screens far, far away from the actual band.

Walking away from the area we saw what seemed like a headliner battle between Neil Young and The Prodigy. Prodigy pulled a crowd that almost doubled Young’s audience, and the noise of the Prodigy crowd and the shear volume overpowered parts of his set. I felt that although Young was an interesting choice as headliner, he really should have been on a smaller stage for The Prodigy to play to the larger crowd.

After that we went to see the last band on our list, Fantomas – featuring the legends Buzz from The Melvins, Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Mike Patton of Faith no More and Tomahawk. I’d never heard them before and was pleasantly surprised upon entering the Converse Stage; they are most certainly my band of the day. Fantomas are experimental avant-garde metal, a genre I have dabbled in and appreciate greatly. They were on top form and were all clearly having a good laugh while playing – something that should be at the centre of all music. They were fun, interesting and enjoyable to watch, I will most certainly be seeing them again.

We left Big Day Out with sunburn, sore feet, clothes soaked in sweat, hearing impairments and massive grins on our faces. The concept of festivals is something I really never enjoyed in the past but after going to one I can see why these idiots love ‘em. Roll on next year!

© Danny Crombie

Links:
Big Day Out official website – www.bigdayout.com