Big Day Out
January 21, 2007
Gold Coast Parklands

Bands I saw:
Vegas Kings, That One Guy, Butterfly Effect, I Heart Hiroshima, Trivium, Scribe, My Chemical Romance, Sleepy Jackson, Peaches, Kasabian, Killers, Jet, Muse, Tool, Crystal Method

Posse:
Don, Claire, Georgia, Jackie

Randoms:
George, The Colonel, Nabil, Tabs, Airdy, Andy, Lucy, Kate, Penny, Nikki

Camera used:
My Nokia 6280 camera phone, hence the shittiness of the quality.

As with most festivals, all of the bands I really wanted to see happened to be playing at the same time, especially at the end of the night. My original plan had me running from stage to stage to catch parts of as many bands as possible, but like all things, especially with about 60000 people to navigate, that backfired.

A giant mess up which included missing a bus, a taxi never arriving, someone losing their phone, a flat tire, Jackie peeing in the bushes of some retiree's front yard and lost tickets meant that we didn't arrive until after 12. Missing the Sick Puppies, who Jenna described as "awesome."

Don and I ended up walking around, catching a few songs of the Vegas Kings, Butterfly Effect (from a distance) and That One Guy, who appears to be a techno playin', home made bass wielding Les Claypool. Which of course, I loved. Then it was off to go see one of my new favourite bands, I Heart Hiroshima.

They played a much better set than Alfred's, playing London in Love, which they missed last time. As always, I fell in love with the drummer, her panda suit and her hilarious antics, only to fall out of love with her when I saw her up close. Keep an eye out for this band, they have a lot of raw energy and remind me way too much of the Subways. I bumped into Penny and her posse here, but had to leave early to go catch Trivium.

<Video: Neutron Pop Song>

While waiting for Trivium I bumped into Nabil and Co, who I quickly abandoned to join the fray that was the circle pit.

Trivium came out hard and fast, playing a lot off of their new album. But they sealed their own fate as a band that sounds like Metallica by playing a cover of Master of Puppets. It was so good I could've sworn James Hetfield and Co were up there playing it instead. I rejoined the pit for the last song, Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr, which for me, was probably one of my highlights of the day.

I somehow managed to find Don and Nabil, who I joined for some Sushi and Little Birdy on the hill.

I must say, it was some of the cheapest, yet best sushi I ever have tasted. I then departed to go try and enter the D section and emo it up for My Chemical Romance. After squeezing through the entrance (which was to become almost impossible to enter a few hours later) I saw the last few songs of Scribe. I spent a lot of time cringing, but I did enjoy when he was trying to spread a message of love and the organisers pulled him off stage for going too late. Much to the "MCR" chanting emo's chagrin.

Biggest disappointment of the day. I don't know if it was the heat, the festival atmosphere, or the youth of the crowd, but they had lost all of the energy that made me fall in love with them the first few times I saw them. No running, no jumping, no screaming; in fact, it's like they no longer have the drive to leave it all out on stage. They only really played stuff of the Black Parade, with about 3 songs from Sweet Cheers. And nothing from You Brought Me Your Bullets. That and the audio was horrendous. There were no vocals on the PA, and hardly any guitar. Only bass and drums.

Notice each shot sees me going closer to the stage rather rapidly. The crowd were surging a lot, and quite possibly the most reckless/ruthless of the day, but I managed to squeeze straight through. They are just little 16 year olds after all.

I then fled the craziness of the D, and chilled watching the Sleepy Jackson performing my favourite song, I Understand What You Want But I just Don't Agree. The tented atmosphere of the Green Stage also helped me escape the heat and chill for a while.

I moseyed on over to catch Spank Rock, but instead was greeted by a Australian bikini clad woman playing beats on a laptop. So I went to watch Peaches, who managed to take off most of her clothes within three songs. And then simulated ejaculation into the crowd using a water bottle. Of course, I loved it. But back to Spank Rock I went, who at this point were 10 minutes late, and still had not set up.

"Fuck that" I said to myself, and went off to see Kasabian. Definitely my pick for underrated act of the Big Day Out (like Kings of Leon last year).

<Video: Empire>

They rocked. Hard. And uttered my quote of the day:

"Yeah, we know its fucking hot. There's not much we can do about it. Go do some more drugs."

Unfortunately I had to leave about 2 songs out from the end, as I knew the battle to enter the D for the end of the night would be tough. And I was right. I spent the next hour or so standing in line waiting to enter. And when they finally did let us in there was such a crush that I got wedged between 2 people in the gate, and could not be dislodged for a minute or so. As a result of the waiting, I got to see parts of the Killer's set between people's heads and the walls of the entrance.

That picture was taken during their last song, when I managed to get in.

Jet were next. Nabs and I sat down, we were tired. They sure used a lot of bass. In fact, from my vantage of the floor between people's legs, that's about all I heard. Nabs and I eventually stood up, and bullied our way past the crowds (and bumped into Lucy) for prime spots for the next act, led by a man I would have sex with repeatedly, Muse.

Someone behind me asked me to knock that girl off the guys shoulders. Now that's a bitchy thing to do (standing on shoulders) but taking her out is even bitchier..

There was a point about 10 seconds before they started where I said to Nabs "If they play Knights of Cydonia, I can die happily." Needless to say, a quick slide up the neck of Matt's guitar led into this:

<Video: Knights of Cydonia>

Band of the day. By far. And I want his guitars. They have built in effects, including a touch pad (the little blue square at the bottom of his guitar in the above picture).

I then summoned the last of my energies to fight into the middle of Tool. Who rocked fairly sedately, yet hard.

More importantly, they had lasers, and more bass effects and skill than you can poke a pole at. They are truly a talented bunch. And are the only band I've ever seen walk out on stage and thank the crowd for about 10 minutes. Bowing and waving and looking like they won an Oscar. It was humbling. They still appreciate our support.

I slowly edged out, trying to track down my posse. But ended up watching a bit of the Crystal Method.

At that point I was so tired and there were so many people there that I didn't even bother trying to dance my way in. I couldn't hear much apart from bass anyway, god bless my concert ears. So I grabbed a bottle of water, and bumped into Don, who was doing the same thing as me. We rounded up the girls, and marched our way out. Getting lost in bushes, side streets and Nerang, almost driving out to Beaudesert trying to find the train station.

All in all, a tiring but great day.
And I managed to resist the urge to buy t-shirts. Apart from the water I bought, I didn't spend a dime.

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