Big Day Out 2005

It's not that I haven't had anything to write, it's just that I've been really lazy. So I thought it was about time I blogged about the Big Day Out I went to last Friday. Bron, Ziggy and I caught the train to Wayville at around 10am and lined up for half an hour to get inside, during which time we noted all the people (read: freaky people) who had dressed not for comfort but indeed to make a statement. The statement I got from them was that there are way too many closet Slipknot fans.

Anyway we got in just on 11am, when Frenzal Rhomb hit the stage. Their music is a little heavy for me but Bron likes them and being that 2 of the guys now host a radio program I listen to I had a little bit of interest there. After their set we went and got lunch. We were hoping to get back in time to see The Donnas but thought we'd get our merchandise early, before they sold out of anything above the Tiny size. Boy, was that fun... We were in the merchandise line for an hour, and ended up with shirts that were too small for us anyway.

We missed The Donnas, and missed the start of Eskimo Joe but managed to catch the rest of their set. We then moved across to the Orange stage to see Spiderbait. They were undoubtably The Best Act Of The Day. Fantastic set, excellent interaction with the crowd, in one word they were awesome! When they were done we walked around for a bit and contemplated our next move. With so many stages around the place the clashes were about to begin, with several bands we wanted to see on at the same time as others.

We decided to go and see Little Birdy for a while. Thankfully, they sang most of my favourite songs within the first 20 or so minutes so we then left to go and see the last half of the John Butler Trio set. Again, just like at Wave Aid, they didn't disappoint. Grinspoon was on straight after them and I was pleasantly surprised. The lead singer is a bit of a show pony, and it actually made their performance more fun to watch. After about half an hour we went to see the Hilltop Hoods, who were very popular so we didn't really get to see anything. They were on one of the smaller stages so we were waaay up the back, but they sounded good anyway :)

Before we knew it it was time for dinner which can only mean one thing - more lines! But this time there was no rush, because Slipknot were on and we had no interest in seeing them. After dinner it was time for The Streets, who were the only disappointing band of the day. They were on a small stage, the crowd was insane, and then to top it all off they slaughtered their own songs. Oh well, they can't all be winners.

By this stage our legs were aching so we decided to sit the rest of the night out in the grandstands. A bad move, in hindsight, as we seemed to get surrounded by people off their face. From up there we watched Powderfinger and the Beastie Boys (they were good but they took this weird musical interlude halfway through which cleared the crowd). We went down to watch Regurgitator, then were hoping to catch the Chemical Brothers but the hall they were in was chockers, so we started walking home, attempting to hail taxis in the meantime. We eventually succeeded.

So I think that's enough music festivals for me for a while, I'm all musicked out (I know musicked isn't a word but I'm the one writing here :D).

The rest of the weekend was spent watching LOTS of tv shows Ivan had taped for me during the week and we also watched the move Saw which I thought was gruesomely good (I'm not sure why I love stories about crazy killers so much but I do).