Big Day Out Melbourne 2010
By: Stephanie Le
Posted: January 28, 2010 – Melbourne, Australia
Australia is definitely not an old country and with that comes a lack of many traditions, but attending The Big Day out is undeniably a right of passage for Australian teenagers.
Having worked behind the scenes at other Australian festivals, it's easy to see that over the years the organisers of The Big Day Out have a tightly run ship on their hands. There wasn't a huge wait to get in, the bands were on time with smooth transitions and there were no major incidents to speak of. In general the crowd were well behaved and seeing as the Melbourne Big Day Out fell on Australia Day, there were the usual suspects with their bogan flag capes on and every item of Australiana clothing possible. (Another thing I noticed and maybe I've turned into an old prude but I saw way too many girls' crotches compared to the last time I went. Oh and one girl was wearing 5 inch heels, really? To a festival? Crazyness!)
As mentioned in my preview, I have a general disdain towards the quality of Australian bands, but not surprisingly, I was wrong and proven wrong. I'm glad some of my friends insisted on going in early because one of my favourite acts of the day were up first. Bluejuice are a five-piece rock band from Sydney that won me over with their energetic show. , though they were dressed in Kill Bill suits and the men certainly didn't have the body of Uma Thurman to pull it off. Let's just say you could see their... everything. They were also joined on stage by a giant inflatable lizard, jokingly they said that it was used "as a distraction" but they certainly didn't need one. Even though I hardly knew any of their songs, they held my attention, which is not an easy feat. They ended their set with "Broken Leg", a great crowd pleaser that's is still stuck in my head a day later.
Afterwards I went into the pit for Karnivool, an alternative/prog rock band from Australia. The sound was pretty average and just as I was about to get sucked into the circle pit I made my escape out of there. One we'd left the pit and moved back, the sound was clear and didn't sound like the muffled mess like it was up close. I didn't get to catch Australian singer/songwriter Lisa Mitchell, but in one of her songs "Coin Laundry" there's a line that goes "do you have a dollar for me?" which caused some problems at the Sydney Big Day Out when people threw dollar coins at her. At the Melbourne show she apparently asked the crowd "could you please not throw dollars at me, it hurts."
Hometown heroes made good, The Temper Trap, who I haven't seen play live since 2006, played on one of the smaller stages, which was a surprise as they could have easily brought enough people to fill one of the main stages. Their catchy songs were a hit with all and of course they sang their crowd pleaser "Sweet Disposition"; one of the highlights of my day.
Girl Talk was high on my list of people to see; I can't help but to be sucked in to his party mash-ups. Feed The Animals has proved a solid soundtrack since it came out, always a good record to put on at four in the morning when the party is lulling. I went to go watch him in the Boiler Room, which was in a massive marquee—ironically the coolest place in the whole festival. He came out on stage surrounded by about 50 people. I don't know if this is because it'd be pretty boring watching one guy mixing songs together for an hour, but the people on stage were going nuts. Some song choices were questionable, such as "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga and "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha. (Anyone who uses a dollar sign in their name is most likely an idiot.) Despite that, it was pretty damn fun dancing along to all the party tunes—even if I wasn't blown away with the stage/light show.
There's much to be said about the audacity of people who try and perform Aussie hip hop or "Skip Hop"; it usually sounds disjointed, harsh and extremely wannabe. Case in point: The Hilltop Hoods, Australia's horrible attempt at commercial hip hop. I'm Australian and even I have to put on accent to match the harshness of their's. Sample after sample is used to up their street cred and get the generic music listener something to find some familiar connection with. Funnily enough they played right before Dizzee Rascal, who without doubt could have given them lessons on what they were doing wrong. Dizzee Rascal brought the fun and the perplexing chatter in between songs; I need a Dizzee to English dictionary. With a mix of old and unfortunately new he had the crowd wrapped around his little finger. For someone that just performs with a DJ and a hype man, he really does have a great stage presence.
The mere mention of the Big Day Out among friends brought up conflicting opinions on the line up. Some people think that the festival has become way too commercial with the organisers going for known crowd pleasers even if these bands are non-credible hacks who haven't only not released an album recently, but weren't that great to begin with (I'm looking at you Magic Dirt and Jet). I understand that the organisers have to make money but I have to agree: they seem to be going with quantity over quality with some of the decisions they made regarding the artists they chose.
Overall I enjoyed my day; I discovered some new artists I appreciate, spent time with some long lost friends, saw some artists I've appreciated for a while, discovered that I'd much prefer boutique festivals and I have a gnarly sunburn to show for it.
Video: "Flex" by Dizzee Rascal
