With Rage Against the Machine headlining this year’s Big Day Out it was always going to be hard turning the event into a festival, as opposed to a Rage gig with a lot of support bands. But while plenty of the 40,000 crammed into Claremont Showgrounds on Sunday were there for the socialist rap-rock powerhouse, there was plenty to keep the others happy.

Melbourne’s British India graced the Green Stage early in the day. Looking even younger than they already are, the youthful four delivered a tight and dynamic set, managing to draw a decent crowd partly due to a few of their songs landing in Triple J’s latest Hottest 100. Throwing all the energy they could into their live show with songs like Run the Red Light, vocalist Declan Melia even had to pause for some help from the ol’ asthma puffer.

After a whirlwind rise to the top of UK pop, Kate Nash arrived on the Essential Stage more as a one hit wonder than a festival favourite. With debut LP Made of Bricks starting to shift units on this side of the globe, the set still relied on two standout tracks to keep the punters happy. The first came about five songs in, when Nash introduced Billy Bragg to duet on the leftist rocker’s track A New England. The second, about 10 minutes later, came when London’s hottest redhead raced into the opening lines of hit single Foundations. Hearing a couple of thousand Australians trying to pronounce quasi-word ‘bovvered’ is truly priceless.

Operator Please are quickly ascending the ranks as one of the hottest live bands to see. Tighter than Daniel Johns’ leg garter, and punchier than… well… a punch, they flawlessly executed the speed and precision captured in their recordings. Staged in front of two massive, inflatable black hands with green fingernails, they indeed had the crowd dancing in their hands.

Scarred with dreadful accents from the land that birthed their political frustration, Anti-Flag were very pleased to be here in Australia and were equally as pleased with Mr Howard’s recent loss of electoral seat. Despite drawing inspiration from the aggressive emotions born from the current political climate, the band’s true motivation shone through as they demanded everyone in the crowd respect each other, regardless of gender, race, sexuality or physique. All they want is a community of people who unite in the name of equality and passionately pursue it. Meanwhile, they also create music! – the vessel for their politics, and good music too. Not particularly original, their sound is reminiscent of ‘90s punk. But everyone loved that when it was around, and it’s still great fun now, producing the ever-famous circle mosh, bassist Chris #2 even throwing his bass to a backup musician so he could climb into the audience and be a part of this sweaty and apparently respectful community.

Gyroscope scored a spot on the entire Big Day Out run and here in Perth, they got to perform to their old home crowd, without which they never would have ended up where they are. And so they let loose a fantastic set filled with old tracks from Gyroscope’s younger years, tracks which long time supporters and new fans alike soaked up. Announcing that their new album is to be released next month, they ended with the powerful Snakeskin, which would have been more powerful if only the wind weren’t blowing the sound away from the audience.

Something With Numbers had the ever boomy tin shed that was the Essential Stage and had to do something good with it. Success? Yes and no. The band was hot, energetic, and captivating, transmitting a vibe of thankfulness to the crowd. But sadly, vocalist Jake Grigg ’s voice just wasn’t up to scratch. Some moments he sounded fantastic, other moments he just couldn’t stay on the notes that he needed to, producing a clashing and uncomfortable aural experience. But for the moments he was on, they were good.

At the Boiler Room – a room by name only, due to its outdoor setting – the biggest crowd of the early afternoon packed the grassy banks for UK hip-hop star Dizzee Rascal. Taking the best bits of mainstream American rap and ridding himself of the worst (apart from those wretched dollar signs on his hat), Dizzee and his onstage counterparts brought the party with curtain-raiser Jus’ a Rascal before hitting it with Arctic Monkeys collaboration Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend. There was plenty more to come, as the across-the-pond rapper tore through the likes of Fix Up, Look Sharp and Siren in his trademark London colloquialisms. The crowd was a bizarre mix of Boiler Room regulars, boozed-up rock pigs and fans there for the festival’s only real hip-hop act but despite that, nobody wasn’t feeling it as he raised the tempo and intensity with the Shy FX-produced drum & bass track Da Feelin’.

Battles are really something different. Watching them live is more like watching an artist skillfully crafting an elegant piece of art right before your eyes, in real time. With what seems to be an onstage home recording studio, they layered loop over loop of guitar tracks, piano tracks, keys, vocoders and more, with metronomic live drumming to hold it all together. Fascinating, and mesmerising the crowd just looked on and listened to the otherworldly orchestration. Perhaps what is most impressive about Battles is that although their sound is very electronic, they could create the standard of complexity found in their recordings in the live setting, proving that they could weave such amazing sounds together in real time, without relying on post production, Tonto being a perfect example: crunching guitars, extraterrestrial vocal synths, glossy keyboard sounds and even the curiously oriental plucking in the middle of the song produced perfectly live.

Back on the main stage, Regurgitator vomited up a collection of well processed tracks to the afternoon crowd. They’ve gotten to that level now where even those who aren’t familiar with the band will be well-acquainted with plenty of their songs. Their choice of wardrobe for this event was far from their usual casual attire: all white pants, white shirts and thick white rimmed glasses. You’d think they were an electro pop group. Though, sometimes that isn’t too far off the mark, if only you added a bucket load of grunge, punk and rap to the mix.

Grinspoon are Grinspoon. They always will be that, and nothing more. An average set of average songs performed by average musicians. Points go to them for consistency, though. If you’ve seen them once, you’ve seen the same thing that everyone else has, even if they add or subtract songs.

Fortunately, Arcade Fire are not Grinspoon. And extra points go to them for their diversity. 10 musicians create orchestral havoc that somehow sounds better than anything else at a Big Day Out. Leaping from instrument to instrument, they ended up using electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, violins, violas, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, french horns, euphoniums, pianos, piano accordions, xylophones, piano xylophones, a pipe organ, megaphones, and any percussion they could get, including hitting extra cymbals, banging extra drums, even banging motorbike helmets and the stage scaffolding with drumsticks. After blowing the crowd away with euphoric opener Wake Up, Keep the Car Running and No Cars Go, frontman Win Butler broke the sad news that that this may well be their last festival show ever. But, as they say, leave the best to last… right? Known as the indie-pop city of Australia, Butler explained that Perth was the best crowd of the Big Day Out tour, but definitely not the best city, the crowd wondering if they should be insulted or not. Apparently Perth’s coffee is world class too, but Koalas are a let down.

Silverchair showed up for what vocalist Daniel Johns later announced as the last Silverchair concert for 2008, but it proved to be an impressive end, Johns’ voice remaining full, lively and emotive the whole set through. Although they have played better, a RATM prepared audience and the afternoon sun in their eyes made for tough circumstances. Opening with Emotion Sickness, they delivered a high energy set featuring a lot of their older material such as Israel’s Son, which went down better than their new material. Putting effort into an extravagant show, Paul Mac joined them on piano along side yet another piano, three female backing singers and a brass section. Somehow, as Silverchair have evolved over the years, they seem to have become more like the Daniel Johns solo project, and his ridiculous red thick-framed sunglasses only add weight to such an observation. Chart topper Straight Lines gave the whole band a chance to rest as the crowd took over the chorus for them. Well, half the crowd, as the Rage fans booed the band, even hurling full water bottles at them, one missing the suspected target of Johns and hitting the girl playing euphonium in the brass section. Come on Perth, don’t be such a bunch of self-indulgent music elitists.

While the scale of Silverchair and Arcade Fire’s performances may have impressed at any other Big Day Out, the clear winner in that regard was Bjork. Flanked by a blissful array of colourful flags and banners and a 10-piece all-girl brass band, the Icelandic songstress entered the stage dressed and made up like the genetic product of some sort of mythical being, an alien queen and the lady that comes to clean the office on weekends (toilet brushes come in a vast range of colours, it appears). After opening with Earth Intruders, the leadoff single from last year’s Volta, Bjork moved through a bracket of slower-paced, brooding tracks focusing on 1997’s Homogenic ( Unravel, All is Full of Love, Hunter ) as the last of the sun dripped away. But with twilight came the full force of Bjork’s audio-visual spectacular. Shooting web across the stage like Spiderman, the electronic and experimental elements of her set took control, giving sights and sounds that left the Orange Stage crowd captivated. And as night fell, those elements went above and beyond anything ever seen at a Big Day Out before – the mind-bending reactable appearing on the side-of-stage video screen, a phantom pair of hands playing the alien equivalent of chess to manipulate analogue synthesisers and create warped electronic beats for Hyperballad and Pluto. With the Rage fans growing restless, the second headliner ran overtime, dedicating set closer Declare Independence to the Australian Aborigines. “Start your own currency”, she sang, “make your own stamp”, as the reactable worked overtime and lasers shot out in all directions, knocking the socks off even the hardest of the headline act’s fans (though they would never admit it).

With Arcade Fire bringing a plethora of instruments and ten musicians, Silverchair introducing 11 musicians and Bjork bringing more than anyone else, Rage Against The Machine ’s stage seemed empty with just a drum kit and bass and guitar amps. No glitter cannons, no orchestra, no backing musicians, no projection screens, no lasers. Just a simple stage prepared for four men, like it was when they first started out in dingy clubs and pubs. At first it seemed like a let down, an anticlimax. But that was before they appeared. When Rage took their spot, it became clear why the wait was worthwhile. They didn’t need any flashy lights or technical time wasting. It was just the four of them, and their angry funk rock. Bursting into Testify, it didn’t take long before vocalist Zack De La Rocha and audience alike were screaming the words at the top of their lungs, before a tragic power-cut after the first verse. With all electric instruments dead, Brad Wilk kept to his drumming, De La Rocha encouraging the audience to sing what he couldn’t. Managing to hold out for what seemed like an eternity of silence, power eventually returned and the audience’s fear of losing their beloved band to technical difficulties was culled, De La Rocha announcing, “Let’s try that again, shall we?”

The rest of the set was exactly what the people wanted. Aggressive and full of energy, the voice of the crowd made it seem as though this night, Rage Against The Machine didn’t have four members in the band, they had thousands of vocalists and thousands of voices, finally finding a way to outnumber the members in the three bands prior to them. Bulls On Parade and Sleep Now in the Fire turned up in the set, though for whatever reasons the songs were actually played slightly slower than their recorded relatives, De La Rocha’s rapping lagging onto the back of the beat in that funky way that no white rappers can seem to get, although in this case appeared a little sloppy. Perhaps not the tightest they could have been, their set was still explosive and powerful. Marching off stage for their obvious mock exit, the crowd began to chant for their return, “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” until they did return with Freedom. Following was Killing in the Name as their closing song, the final chorus of which De La Rocha didn’t bother to sing, clearly knowing his voice would be drowned out by the crowd. Instead, he just gave the crowd the finger and thousands raised theirs back to him in return. Not disrespectfully, of course; he emanated pride throughout the set with a smile that made him seem like he was doing what he always loved. It’s a wonder that he ever quit the band in the first place, but perhaps it needed to happen for them to reunite and seem so comfortable together again.

Brad Stevens & Michael Inglis