The Annual Big Day Out Festival has coped quite a lot of crap in it’s history making 20th year for a variety of reasons, some arguments suggest it was the below-par artist list, the broad selection of artists or even the in-house politics that brought the BDO almost to its knees when long time festival creators split after a 30 year partnership disintegrated… and quite publicly!

Though when it comes down to it, when all the artificial smoke has cleared the stage, all anyone cares about is the music and that is exactly what will be focused on in this review, the music.

Firstly, let’s just get mother nature contribution out of the way, I rarely make such a comment but “too hell with the weather!” For days leading up to the event we were repeatedly warned, January 26 will be a wet day, so many planned for just that, wet weather, walking through the staff gates I thought to myself, damn I’m smart for planning ahead as the heavens opened with a vengeance upon the Sydney Olympic venue, everyone was saturated. Though as quick as the rain stopped the clouds that had threatened Sydney’s BDO pulled a switch on everyone and the heat, though more so the humidity, plagued the event with searing 38*c blasting throughout the entire day, it was so humid my camera had a mist spot in it’s LCD screen, I cannot express how uncomfortable it was.

At this point I was glad the weather passed, though my momentary smartarse thoughts of planning brilliance quickly passed as I begun to melt in the heat, made even worse by the 20kg of equipment (mostly for wet weather protection) strapped to my body, yeah… not so smart after all!

…so with the weather comments out of the way, let’s get to the important stuff, the music.

First up was the main stage opening artist Abbe May, I had seen Abbe perform a few times over the past 12 months, on this occasion she was dressed in a particularly delicious tiny black skirt and leather jacket, she woke up the main stage audience from their momentary quietness after being drenched by rain, then it was over to The Green Stage for my favorite Victorian Country hippies, Stonefield, as always they rocked the stage with a confidence and prowess of a hardened touring band.

Then we come to the band I was most excited to see, Frenzal Rhomb, apart from my affection for the Rhomb this was also something of a historic occasion for myself, this was the 400th time I had seen the Sydney punksters live, I shit you not, I first seen Frenzal live 20 years ago, two decades later, 400 shows later, yep, that’s something around 16,000mins of Frenzal Rhomb, not a bad way to spend all that time.

After selfishly indulging in The Rhomb I made my way across to the Blue main stage for Parkway Drive who win the award for the loudest group of the day, always a pleasure to see this band, they have such intensity, yet don’t fill any of the cliché metal styles, truly a unique and highly skilled band at the top of their game. Another early day surprise and winner of the most insane band of the day goes to Cage The Elephant, from the second the amps blasted CTE destroyed the stage, audience and themselves in the name of music, it was a entertaining and brilliant display from this group.

From there I then visited Underlights, Boy and Bear, whom for me were sadly lacking on the day, Amity Affliction and the usual insanity expected from the brilliants of Battles who’s music still leaves my mind swimming in a unique and thought provoking mood, even after so many times seeing Battles, I still adore the simplicity of their artistic form.

Back at the Essential Stage next up were the Vaccines and then over on the main stage, The mighty Living End whom are truly like a fine wine, they just get better with age I never get sick of seeing Chris manipulate that beautiful guitar during each outing, after that was Getaway Plan, My Chemical Romance, urban hipster hipsters Kasabian and then the band BDO organisers underestimated the popularity of, Foster The People, why they were not on the main stage is beyond me, at the green stage, it was IMPOSSIBLE to move, the crowd were packing in by the hundreds, it was difficult to breathe it was so crowded and for good reason, FTP are incredible, their popularity is well deserved, they music is great and for me they were the best band of the BDO tour.

I then quickly scampered over to the main stage to get a few shots of Soundgarden, though I missed much of this due t the insanity at Foster The People. If was good to see Chris on stage again pumping out the Jesus Christ Pose lyrics, as a band they were as tight as I remember from 10 years ago I’m glad I had a chance to see them on stage again. After that was Grinspoon, headed by an always intoxicated Phil, more than happy to make an arse out of himself for the sake of music, which I think largely was cause of Grinspoon not being on the main stage, though instead a last minute inclusion to the event.

The final 3 of the night were Reguratator whom went a little cock-rock for this event and were supporting some awesome Spinal Tap wigs throughout the performance, then to see Max and Igor Cavalara smash the Essential Stage with their brutal riffs and pounding double kick drum actions, as much as I respect Cavalara I must admit they are not the musicians I remember from years back which saddened me, Sepultura and Soulfly were huge parts of my music up-bringing and to see one of the coolest guys in music not really making the same impact I was previously witness too was… heartbreaking.

At this time most people were busy trying to get shots of Kanye West, for the life of me I couldn’t understand why, this is my largest criticism of the BDO, Kanye DID NOT suit the vibe to this tour, the amount of people streaming out of the gates as Kanye begun was surprising and true to these harsh comments, Kanye is an untalented, egotistical hype machine, relying on others to make him look good, I’m sure many will disagree and good for them, though in my opinion, he is a hack and completely unsuitable to be the headlining artist and such an auspicious occasion.

As I wouldn’t be seen dead watching Kanye toot his own horn I finally head down to Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds with the hope they had something special to offer the Sydney crowd, sadly this was also quite disappointing, again hype was greater than the music which again was a sad fact for this event. It really speaks volumes when the earlier bands, like Parkway Drive, Frenzal Rhomb, Living End and especially Foster The People were given such early slots when in all honesty they should have been given headlining slots. The Sydney BDO was almost there as a great event but in all honesty it fell short in all the most important ways, I only hope in 2013 organisers get their act together try to reclaim their reputations as world class promoters, cause the Big Day Out was far from usual standards.


©2012 Shane Fenton.
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