25/01/2003 @ Olympic Park
Big Day Out 2003
so we got there a bit late because the walk from Concord West to wherever was a fair way longer than i remembered. maybe we're getting too old and frail? so we missed Bluebottle Kiss again. i was meaning to catch them at Homebake too.
first band we caught was Rocket Science. i thought they were pretty good. i'd never seen a theremin lead a rock band before. i'd never even seen a theremin before!
then we saw kiwi techno group Pitch Black. i don't know. i was disappointed. is this really the best out of new zealand? i guess they weren't bad, but they took half their show to build up pace. and when they finally got into their full stride, it still wasn't really special. i got a feeling early on in the day they don't bump speakers up to full volume yet.
the tight arses aren't giving out free water again. Tight! and there's one tank near the b-grade stages to refill our bottles for free. double tight! how expensive could it have been to hire out a few more tanks? tight arses extreme!
i'm not a big fan of the sun. it makes things all hot and shit. mostly unnecessarily, i believe. and right about now, it was too hot to stay outdoors. so we scraped the original plan of seeing the Music.
instead, we went back inside and caught the full Pnau show. fantastic, i thought. maybe not at good as their homebake performance, that one was really something special. but this one was really good too. the first highlight of the day.
grabbed some overpriced, poorly constructed and structurally unstable lunch as the Waifs play somewhere in the background.
Decoder Ring, a sydney instrumental rock group i've been meaning to catch for a long time. but once again, it was not to be. well, we did catch some of it, but their place, the Hot House, was, surprise surprise, Damn Hot! as much as i love Decoder Ring, i didn't love them enough to make me wanna hang around. and they were so LOUD! maybe we're getting too old and frail?
right after eating a poorly constructed lunch is not a good time to go dancing. but who could dance to this rubbish anyway? Bexta. it was really just doof doof doof music. non stop banging. the type that would just never work at home listening. why, back in my day, dance music was broken down them built back up, broken down, and built back up. but this, it just kept going! well, lots of kids there also realised this was the peak of the day, this was as hard as it'll get, and they all seem to go berserk for it. but we couldn't. maybe we're getting too old and frail?
so far i haven't mentioned the dj sets we've seen. but now i have to mention Kid Kenobi. he ain't multiaward winning top aussie dj (or whatever) for no reason. just like homebake, and better than last year's big day out. excellent, pounding set.
Resin Dogs did the best intro i had ever witnessed. news images flashing as drums pound a tribal beat, and the whole place following suit, gradually going into an anti war chant. the beginning of their set was too much hip hop for my liking. but soon it went back to what they did best. live dance music. live drums, live bass, live trumpets and all that. up on stage break dancers do their wacky thing. end the set with a battle between drums and bongos. haven't seen something like that done that good since the Bird! (for those who don't know, that was Very High Praise from me.) and damn! they were so loud at times i covered my ears! they were so loud, later i went and brought some earplugs! i've Never done that before! maybe we're getting too old and frail?
wandered around for a bit. Queens of the Stone Age do their thing on the main stage as we hang outside taking a break and eating overpriced food.
back to the hot house. not so hot now. found out i had my times messed up and i had wanted to catch Gonzales. (lucky i'm taping 2ser's coverage of the hot house. too bad something went wrong and i didn't manage to get a recording of Chicks On Speed.)
as dj Sveta plays the tunes, i saw the funkiest girl of the day. :-) she was like a professional dancer or something. so cool.
Chicks On Speed. wacky shit. would've liked to see actually a bit more than one song, but i was getting uncomfortable with being away from the boiler room at such an hour. becuase...
Kraftwerk. whatever dj was before that, i don't know. we were testing out the ear plugs we got and gradually moving forward. big curtains were drawn across the stage. and for possibly the first time the whole day, the music STOPPED in the boiler room. rain effects came through the speakers, for something like five to ten minutes, we were all crammed in, waiting, shouting. strange man with umbrellas and bowler hats move around behind the curtains. then a breaks type beat, curtains open, and four laptops on black pedestals greet us. one by one, the members of kraftwerk (and apparently, some actors to replace the missing members or whatever) in their dark grey uniforms gradually made their way on stage, numbers beam up on the three joined screen projections behind, and i lost my mind. this was, like, so good. this was like, seeing your favourite band, and your heroes, and absolute legends, all at the same time. songs i knew, songs i loved, songs i didn't know, songs i didn't know i loved. the four men stood as still as humanly possible throughout the set. the videos of real robots on screen were even more active than the four men of kraftwerk. they kept their act going and didn't even wave goodbye. but. man. machine machine machine machine machine.... :-D
my mind stayed lost for the rest of the night as kraftwerk was soon followed up with Underworld. i just don't care no more. i was the underaged dickheads my sister complains about at the big day out. i was bumping people, elbowing people, just generally not caring about anything else, shouting along to every lyric to the best of my ability, and just generally being a fucking annoying prick. because here. is. underworld. dark train, king of snake, push upstairs, born slippy nuxx, moaner. what more could i desire. (mmm, pearl's girl? born slippy original? king of snake original? risingson remix? cups? 8 ball? something like a mama? leutin?...) yes, that's right, it's perfect, yet i was still yearning for more. please sir, i want the lazy, sleezy siren of the original (pre-album) version of king of snake. i wanted the insane screeching or rowla, i wanted the drum'n bass stylee of pearl's girl. i wanted the kraftwerk-esque jumbo. it had everything, including the green laser, famously referred to amongst the underworld fan group as the big fuck off green laser. it had oversized balloons drop down on us. it had the giant bubble wrap back drop. but i wanted more. the next time underworld are in town, sign me down for all shows for sure.
overall. an experience unlike another. insane times, fellow dancer. i feel blessed.
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