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

Mayhem Festival rolled into Toronto for the only Canadian date of a tour which brought some of the biggest names in metal into the grounds of Downsview Park. I had a feeling that this was going to be a wild one, as there’s nothing quite like a good ol’ metal concert to get people out of their shells and raising hell. I left my camera and notepad at home so that I had nothing preventing me from being at the heart of the action. I had hopes for plenty of mad mosh pits and Mayhem did not disappoint. The crowd at Mayhem was the biggest and best I’ve seen in Canada. The average age was also a lot higher than that which I’ve seen at recent festivals in Canada, with the majority of the crowd being adults. The weather in Toronto was also perfect festival weather – none of that humid sticky stuff that’s been all-too present of late.

Airbourne were awesome. They were the first band I saw as I arrived inside the festival grounds, and the best band of the day. They play old-school heavy rock, with some badass riffs and beats and shout-a-long lyrics. The band draws obvious comparisons to AC/DC. They sound very similar to their Aussie compatriots and they also have two brothers in their line-up, with Joel O’Keeffe fronting the band on lead guitar and vocals and his brother Ryan on drums.

There’s nothing new about anything Airbourne do but it can still be seen as fresh, especially in this decade where so many bands are sound-a-like copies of each other who label themselves as fancy sub-genres of music. Airbourne just play hard rock. Think Marshall stacks and Gibson guitars – classic. I got handed a couple of fabric cup holders by an Airbourne merch-monkey which were adorned with the words; “Genuine fish-pumpin’, sweat-soaked, rock ‘n roll!” I couldn’t put it better than that. I used my keys to rip part of the cup holders to fashion them into a pair of fingerless gloves (what’s my age again?), and I wore them with pride as I raised my fists in the Mayhem crowd.

Up next were 36 Crazy Fists, who played on the other smaller stage. I stayed for a couple of songs but didn’t like what I heard, so I used the time to go get pizza which seemed like a good plan as it meant could watch the rest of the bands till the night was over without being hungry. So after another long wait in a line and a few slices of veggie pizza later, I was back in the crowd for Underoath.

“This wasn’t the kind of kumbayah-by-the-campfire-meets-electric-guitars kind of Christian rock that I have previously encountered.“

Underoath are a rock band who, to quote the singer Spencer Chamberlain; “Stand up here in the name of god.” Christian rock? Oh dear. ‘Christian’ and ‘rock’ are words that to me have always spelt an aural disaster. This band from Florida falls from the screamo tree, which is something else that I usually avoid at all costs. But wait… Underoath were actually not so bad. I almost feel inclined to slap myself as I write that. They engaged the crowd with an attention-grabbing performance which was perhaps fuelled by the energy drink company who sponsor Mayhem. To abuse a pun, I’d say they gave a spirited display – especially the chubby long-haired fellow on keyboards, who jumped, head-banged and squirmed as if he was getting exorcised.

This wasn’t the kind of kumbayah-by-the-campfire-meets-electric-guitars kind of Christian rock that I have previously encountered. For the most part I found it impossible to understand what the heaven Chamberlain was singing about, with whatever message he may have been trying to deliver getting lost in his screaming. However, the performance of the band kept my attention almost undivided, except for glancing sideways near the end to catch the tricks of some stunt bikers who were pulling off gravity-defying high-jinks. I wouldn’t go out and buy their music, but they deserve credit for their maxed-out performance.

By this point Mastodon had opened on the huge main stage at the other end of the festival grounds. I missed them and also somewhat deliberately avoided most of DragonForce’s set. DragonForce are ‘that Guitar Hero band’ who have achieved fame through their stupidly long and complicated song “Through The Fire And Flame.” I saw the last fifteen minutes or so of DragonForce’s set and found it dull. DragonForce have too much over-complicated technical guitar wank for my liking. I just don’t find it interesting at all to listen to for longer than a couple of minutes.

I’d had much more fun back over at the two smaller stages where I’d seen Machine Head’s entire set moments earlier. Machine Head put on a great show with a mix of their earliest material like “Old” from Burn My Eyes, to new such as “Halo” from Blackening.

“The crowd went primal as Disturbed inspired chaos in the ranks. This was the pinnacle of Mayhem in Toronto and the best crowd I’ve experienced in Canada.“

By the time Disturbed took to the main stage the other stages were shutdown and most of the merchandise tents were packed up. This created plenty of space for one huge crowd which likely numbered at least 10,000 people – which is poetic given that 10000 Fists is one of Disturbed’s best tracks. Disturbed were mental. The crowd went primal as Disturbed inspired chaos in the ranks. Everyone jumped around and raised their devil horns, while pits began opening up everywhere. This was the pinnacle of Mayhem in Toronto and the best crowd I’ve experienced in Canada in the two years that I’ve been around here. Their set ended with their best known songs “Stricken” and “Down With The Sickness”, which gave a perfect climax to their set. Insane!

The sun had set before Slipknot cane on to bring the night to the end. I’ll admit now that I’ve never been a fan of this band. In fact, back in 1999 when they became known to the world I was only just starting high school in Scotland and I was very much anti-Knot. I thought it was ugly and dumb music and I wasn’t alone in hating it either. So fast-forward almost 10 years, and here I was in the crowd jumping around like a madman to the same band I used to despise. How the hell did that happen?

I’m still far from being converted to a fan of Slipknot, but I respect them a lot more now after seeing them live. Mick 7 is one of the best metal guitarists in the world, and Joey Jordison is one incredible drummer. Slipknot’s set ended with an encore in which Jordison did his well-known stunt of drumming whilst his drum kit is raised in the air and spun around. Slipknot put everything into their performance, as shown by their DJ Sid Wilson who has been playing every Mayhem date with broken heels after he injured himself at the start of the tour.

It was this level of showmanship and theatre that had me immersed for the duration of Slipknot’s set. I got caught up in the frenzied atmosphere in the crowd and found myself in the middle of a couple of mosh pits. Everyone squirmed around like the maggots they are labelled as by the band. Slipknot played a mix of old and new stuff; “Physchosocial” from their forthcoming album All Hope Is Gone was my favourite of them all. This song has a killer guitar solo, fully showcasing the talents of Mick 7, and this seems like something new for Slipknot – a more mature sound. It’s the kind of sound that might perhaps find Slipknot a whole new breed of maggots.

© Brian Banks

Airbourne cup-holders turned into mosher gloves - genius!

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