Reviewers Rohan Williams, David Miso and Myjanne Jensen take on BDO's first year at its new home.
Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
These are my first impressions of Metricon Stadium as a Big Day Out venue. In terms of amenities, the festival’s new home offers an embarrassment of riches. Cash bars! A whole stadium’s worth of seats, some of them in the shade! And the toilets! Toilets as far as the eye can see! Not porta-potties, but actual, real-life toilets! It’s almost too nice, too comfortable, but that’s very okay with me.
It falls to local duo DZ Deathrays to christen the new venue, and they do it in style, pulling a larger crowd than expected to their 11:15 slot, debuting some new (and sufficiently dirty) tracks and delivering their usual brand of brutality. If this sound system can handle these guys, it can handle anything, so we’re off to a good start.
They’re followed by festival favourites Bluejuice, who seem to have a point to prove. Their insanely OTT set, which sees frontman Jake Stone pulling off a killer Freddie Mercury impersonation (complete with gold unitard and bushy mo) while the group rocks out in front of a giant ‘Bluejuice 4 Gay Marriage’ placard, is one of the most satisfying of the entire day. By the time Stone has stripped down to his g-string, the message is clear — these guys should have been much higher up on the bill.
They certainly prove a tough act to follow for cosmic rockers Portgual. The Man. Hidden under a hoodie and a pair of shades, laidback frontman John Gourley is almost Stone’s polar opposite, but the Alaskan group have an ace in the hole — those tunes. The best Portugal material mainlines the special sauce of the ‘70s while scraping off all the cheese; just pure psych-rock goodness. It takes the crowd a little while to adjust to their frequency, but the band holds up their end of the bargain.
New Zealand pop stars The Naked And Famous prove the power of a bona fide hit when they send droves of punters running to the Blue Stage with tracks like ‘Young Blood’ and ‘Punching In A Dream’, but the rest of their set is fairly unremarkable — it’s a nondescript affair that seems to catch them going through the motions. Or maybe it’s just not my thing?
Tame Impala are my thing, though, and their set is a pretty great example of why that is. There’s a reason Kevin Parker can hold a crowd of kids who have come to see Major Lazer in the palm of his hand — his records might bear the superficial trappings of ‘60s psychedelia, but it’s really dance music. The drops in ‘Elephant’ and triumphant closer ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ are as epic as anything you’ll hear in the Boiler Room. Parker is a man in complete control of his craft right now, even if he does insist on turning the video screen into a Windows Media Player visualiser.
An hour-long Primus set on the main stage was always a risky proposition, and I’d be lying if I said the risk paid off. But, you know, Les Claypool seems happy to indulge himself with tangential noodling, and the crowd seems happy to filter out and watch Grouplove instead, so there are no real losers here, are there?
The Hives, of course, are winners. Your Old Favourite Band still play with as much energy as ever, even if they aren’t exactly prone to Bowie-esque fits of reinvention. You know exactly what you’re going to get with The Hives, but the presence of frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist makes them a must-see. He’s unflappable, even when the extreme heat threatens to, well, flap him — “it’s so fucking hot up here,” he bemoans at one stage, before noting, “it’s a good thing we’re so fucking talented”. Whether he’s handing out cups of water to the crowd (“share it equally amongst yourselves!”), demanding the audience sits down, or claiming his guitarist invented the outback, the perpetually baby-faced Swede is a riot.
Lean, mean Liam Gallagher is another legendary frontman who comes to this year’s Big Day Out in fighting shape — it’s just a shame Beady Eye are so staggeringly boring. That is, until they deign to play an Oasis song (‘Rock’n’Roll Star’ and ‘Morning Glory’ find their way into today’s setlist), at which point Liam gets his swagger back, the band comes alive and the crowd surges forward.
It’s actually a testament to Liam's remarkable restraint that he doesn't just ditch the paint-by-numbers Beady Eye material and play Oasis songs all the time, but it’s also maddening — it’s like you’re bleeding out in front of Clark Kent, and he refuses to change into Superman. It’s like Bruce Banner refusing to turn into The Hulk, or, more accurately, The Hulk refusing to Smash. Does anyone you know really love Beady Eye’s original material? Do you?
Ultimately, it’s Arcade Fire who deliver the most memorable set of the day — walking on-stage to the tune of Blur’s ‘Song 2’ (Win Butler, you cheeky bastard), they get stuck straight into ‘Normal Person’, one of the stand-out cuts from their recent ‘Reflektor’ LP, and they don’t waste a minute of their hour-and-a-half-long set after that.
The sprawling 10-piece band, now loaded with congo players, gives a bigger, fuller, more playful sound to the band’s older tracks, but it’s the moment when Butler sits down at the piano for a relatively stripped-down performance of ‘The Suburbs’ — probably the most beautiful rendition of a song about a post-apocalyptic wasteland that we’ll hear all day — that stands out the most.
By the time Butler impales ‘himself’ (well, his mask from the ‘Reflektor’ video) on his mic stand and an explosion of confetti rains down during ‘Here Comes The Night Time’, there’s not a dry eye or a stationary limb in the house (and if there are, closer ‘Wake Up’ takes care of them).
Not every set was a winner, but I had a hell of a time at this year’s Big Day Out. I’ll be there at Metricon with bells on next year.
Rohan Williams
Arcade Fire. Image: Lachlan DouglasSomebody once said to me the Big Day Out isn't just about the music; it's also about the atmosphere — its vibrant party mix of attendees and smorgasbord of foreign delicacies making it a festival-goer's utopia. These are, of course, in conjunction with the eclectic line-ups it delivers.
This year's edition gave us Primus — the BDO home to their first performances in Australia since their classic line-up reunited in 2013. Bassist and vocalist Les Claypool was the most exhilarating to watch; his autobahn-tuned fingers zipped up and down the fretboard like he was the band's lead guitarist.
It was then time for Melbourne's Pez, who despite having only recently returned from hiatus, cruised through his set with superstar-like swagger. The Aussie hip hopper unloaded his arsenal; his rapid-fire prose blasting against floor stomping grooves. But credit is owed to to his backup singer, too — her sultry pipes morphing every song into an anthem.
Then, as darkness descended upon the BDO, Ghost emerged — the enigmatic Papa Emeritus II and his Nameless Ghouls dressed as if leaders of a devilish cult. The band's almost danceable brand of vintage heavy metal was equally as menacing; the diabolical Emeritus II sounded like he was broadcasting the words of the underworld itself.
The Deftones wrapped up the BDO and they were in scintillating form. They kicked off their set with 'Diamond Eyes' and then roared through alternative metal classics like 'My Own Summer'. It was the most energetic they've played in years, too — frontman Chino Moreno immersing himself in the crowd while the band blazed through and capped off the night with 'Engine No. 9' and ‘7 Words’.
David Miso
The Deftones. Image: Lachlan DouglasAs the replacement act for the hugely popular Blur, the expectations for Beady Eye (basically Oasis without Noel Gallagher) were high.
Unfortunately, they didn’t quite make the cut. The crowd heard songs off their album ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ (2011) and ‘BE’ (2013), but the real highlight of the show was the band’s rendition of Oasis songs ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’ and ‘Morning Glory’.
It was one big family event when Australian hip hop trio Bliss N Eso took to the stage. The ARIA Award winning group had the crowd screaming for more, blasting out smash hit ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ to kick-start the show. The boys mixed in some of their beat-boxing skills as they served up hit after hit, including ‘Family Affair’, ‘Reflections’, along with a guest performance by Australian artist and fellow BDO performer, Bluejuice, for ‘Act Your Age’.
Whether you refer to him as Snoop Dogg, Snoop Lion or Snoop Zilla, one thing is for shizzle — Snoop is still the coolest mofo around. He absolutely killed it at this year’s BDO. Like a party that you don’t want to end, the Snoop machine rolled through a cover of ‘California Love’ as well as his own classics like ‘The Next Episode’, ‘Gin & Juice’, ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’, and ‘Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)’.
It’s hard to describe the experience that is Pearl Jam live, but 'breathtaking', 'spine tingling' and 'sensational' are all words that come to mind. The band played smash hits ‘Even Flow’, ‘Better Man’, ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Daughter’, as well as more recent songs like ‘Got Some’, ‘Down’ and ‘Yellow Moon’. The absolute climax of the show was their final two songs, ‘Alive’ and a tribute to music legend, Neil Young with their cover of his song, ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’.
Myjanne Jensen
