Big Day Out @ ClaremontShowgrounds, Perth (01/02/09)

Wed 4th Feb, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Of course you were there, but are you in our gallery? Check it out here

Each year the twisting snake of debauchery that is the Big Day Out circus adds to its congregation, morphing into a commercial behemoth that demands attendance for tradition’s sake, regardless of the lineup. BDO Perth 2009 saw the majority of 38000 people not witness one of music’s true legends show how it’s done, instead, cramming themselves in to see either the headline act of years past, or some band they’d never heard of, but whose members are at least within 20 years of their age. You will have read the reviews from the other Big Days Out, or you can, to see what the big, most commercially successful acts got up to, it was pretty much the same across the nation. For the final 2009 Big Day Out review, we chose to visit some out-of-the-way and out-of-the-shade stages. The acts we found, were not necessarily lesser known, if the wider population is taken into account, but ones who might have expected a more decent chunk of the crowd in years past, or if the festival was still populated by music lovers, rather than music consumers.

The excitement of waiting for the first Big Day Out announcements was always whispered in hushed and revered tones…It was all Perth really had for much of the 90s. The chance to see a motley bunch of exciting, current and relevant international and national acts roll through Perth on a hot February Sunday was akin to several birthdays and Xmas’ rolled into one for music lovers.

After spending hours using an Abacus, a sun dial and astronomical map to determine the ecstatic viability and potential satisfaction of sacrificing the last 3 minutes of a main stage band’s closing tune in favour of a mind boggling opening track, by another killer band, on the Portaloo stage over the other side of the arena was an obsession that haunted many.

“Now, I’ve calculated a 3:35 minute window – if we take this route, avoid the licensed areas, squeeze behind this wall and avoid that bottleneck we should only miss the first 45 seconds of Nick Cave’s opening song……assuming they start on time. But we need to factor in the variables of potential toilet breaks, getting a good pozzie and avoiding Goths with black paint melting in their hair…”

Planning for the Big Day Out remains, for many, a carefully prepared mission to ambush the Festival and expunge as much music and culture as physically possible within a 10 hour period. And it’s an educational experience as well; In particular, you must master Advanced Portaloo Psychology – the science of how to make your kidneys work for you. The first Big Day Out stop is a fenced and policed area well away from the stages -fondly known as the beer garden. Here you down your drinks in quick succession so you don’t miss too much, but will still be trashed enough to ignore the sunstroke and hope to understand your mates who have been wearing watermelon hats and dancing to car alarms before the gates even opened. The next day your liver will hate you, as will your skin, but man weren’t THEY awesome live.

This week’s favourite British flavour, The Ting Tings delivered a whirlwind 45 minutes of 2 piece pop foppery. A sizeable crowd formed around the outside of the knot of bouncing – œtrue’ fans, seemingly to see what all the fuss is about. It became apparent as the first note was struck, that these Tings weren’t going to change reality perspectives in a hurry, or permanently, or in a good way. Due to the recognition factor forced by radio over-play, not to mention the high rotation of its matching clip on TV music shows, The current popular single That’s Not My Name elicited from the bobbing throng the biggest – œwhoop’ of what was a rather deflating experience.

The sound of splashing water made Lilyworld an inviting possibility, but much to the disappointment of many, the huge inflatable igloo was more like a sauna inside. In fact, the humidity killed Tomas Ford’s laptop, and as he does, he attempted to begin a sing along to distract the audience. His choice of song may have proven too much for the sound system however, because just as the audience began to join in with the Weee oooh ooheeooh’s of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, a rather distressing column of smoke began to ooze from one of the speakers. Ever the cool cat, Ford squealed like a girl, threw his hands in the air and ran off shouting for the soundguy. Was it all part of the act? We’ll never know.

Damn it was hot. The layers of 30+ simply sweated off, leaving the sun to bite indiscriminately. There were some semi secret air-conditioned areas, but they were still densely populated. The crowd thinned dramatically about the time that TV on the Radio were starting, a shame, because these guys have got some kind of IT going on, and they aren’t about to divulge what IT is, clever chaps. Their 2008 album Dear Science won them global praise and almost made up for the fact David Sitek produced Scarlett Johansson’s cd of Tom Waits covers.

These guys were this year’s version of what Battles were in 08. A slightly skewed sound that’s not as easily digestible or artery hardening as a 6 pack of donuts, they come with a strong and adhesive underground fan base, moderate CD sales, and streetcred for astonishing live performances. They held the right timeslot and stage, as Battles had, and presented an abstract demonstration of sounds in – œtrad song format’. It was all hands on deck, and on the grass, as TV on the Radio threw their essence into their instruments, -and the result was golden.

Kill Teen Angst rocked the Local Produce stage like they had a crowd of more than 20. At least, drummer Dayvid Clark was rocking the drum platform anyway. Could the organizers not afford a chock to give the lad some stability? It’s a shame they were competing with Pendulum and My Morning Jacket and dinner, because they deserved a bigger share of the Big Day Out pie. Unfortunately for all of the Local Produce bands, it was just too hot to remain at the stage for more than a few minutes, and many punters who might have stayed longer had to seek shelter for their crispy-fried skin.

My Morning Jacket were quite plainly on the wrong stage at the wrong time. They were firing on all cylinders. They were simply breathtaking. With an innate prowess, which has been known to explode their southern mysticisms across two-hour shows, given the right circumstances, this set was merely a taste plate of their potential. Highly Suspicious, Wordless Chorus and Gideon were standout songs. No, they were all standout songs. Second best band of the day without a doubt.

Just when you thought Ron Peno en caste had imploded and unloaded their pop seed into the annals of Australian music lore, Died Pretty are back in action having decided they have more to give, more to share and more to infect.

These guys have always rocked, damn the time, damn the place, Peno will do his best Iggy and it’s all good. Did you ever see the video to Stoneage Cinderella? Did you ever think it was completely cool that the singer didn’t give a toss that his miming didn’t synch with the music? The bastard son of Mr J Osterberg is one of Australia’s most criminally under rated acts, who always deserved more than he bore, both offstage and on. Cheers Died Pretty. And a chilled glass of red for Mr Peno, stat!

The sun might have been sinking but the skin was still stinging. With a great deal more shade now available, it was time for a trip over to LillyWorld to assess the scene, and watch Big Day Out perennials The Living End bash through an hour of their best known songs, in between bouts of White Noise, to an appreciative crowd who were really just waiting for the Arctic Monkeys. to deliver what seemed to be one of the thinnest, reediest sets of songs ever performed by an Orange stage headliner. From the Lillyworld vantage, Alex Turner’s indecipherable banter was crackly with static, with the entire band stopping between songs to tune their guitars, little interaction with the crowd, no improvisation, they played like a band that’s only been playing gigs for a couple of years… oh, wait.

None of this seemed to matter much to the crowd, who chanted words as rapidly and indecipherably as Turner, bouncing as high as they could go, thanks to Matt Helders’ impressively rapid fire drums, denting the crowd outside and quickly filling the “D” with punters killing time before Prodigy.

When Neil Young was announced officially as the headliner, entire suburbs were rocked by the reverberations of jaws hitting the floor. – this MUST be a mistake surely…It wasn’t…Good lord…. Surely he’d be better suited cranking Old Black in an enclosed arena with an intimate group of 10000 friends and not outdoors at 90db with 38000 kids mashed on eggs and bikkies. That was it. The rest of the line up, in comparison was rustier than the pickups on a certain legendary black Gibson Les Paul.

When the Monkeys scampered off stage, it was time. The next 90 minutes was to be one of the most mesmerizing performances by a Big Day Out headliner, ever. Looking like he’d just been moshing down the front of the Monkeys, Young strode onstage in a old Tshirt and jeans, strapped on Old Black and shot into Love and Only Love. And that’s what he adorned the crowd with for the remainder of his set. Classics such as Cinnamon Girl, Cortez the Killer and Cowgirl in the Sand saw Young wrestling with his guitar as if he was getting 240v shocks, coaxing the most gnarled, mind bending sounds from his guitar; sounds you wouldn’t believe a guitar could make unless you had seen it for yourself. A mid set acoustic slot saw the golden classics; Needle and the Damage Done, Old Man and Heart of Gold performed they way they’ve been performed a thousand times before. At least a few eyes welled in response to Sunday night’s performance.

To end his set, Young and band encored The Beatles’ A Day in the Life with all the finesse, pomp, grandeur, crazy psychedelic bits and blasting crescendos which finally peaked when he broke all his guitar strings and proceeded to keep on playing it -in every way a guitar is not designed to be played. Hitting his pickups with his strings, shaking the guitar on its stand, making the amps’ reverb create a subsonic rumble not heard since the last good Perth thunderstorm, a perfect way to end a energy sapping day.

So The Prodigy huh? Are they still a top draw or still smoking top draw? Quite perhaps a bit of both, judging by Keith’s hair these days. The Prodigy have the ability to blow a crowd away, especially in clubs. The last time they truly terrified as a live proposition (and that was on a small stage) was at the Perth Oval Big Day Out which might have been the most brutal performance ever. They almost destroyed their glorified step of a stage, as well as pulling down the lighting rig on several thousand people crammed into the space of a basketball court.

In 2009, with a swathe of cutting edge lighting, an ever-so slightly larger stage, and Fat of the Land well behind them, they still pumped their menacing hits voraciously, Diesel Power, Smack my Bitch Up, and most definitely Voodoo People being the favourites, but it all felt a bit like de ja vu -just with different lights.

With that everyone tried to call their friends who had split up to check out Fantomas, Mammal or The Dropkick Murphys and then try and remember where they’d put the car. It will be very interesting to see what the Big Day Out team have up their sleeves for next year’s installment, should they indeed have one. The 2009 event ended in tragedy after 17 year old Gemma Thoms, panicked by the thought of getting caught by the sniffer dogs, downed all her pills in one go and subsequently collapsed. She was rushed to hospital where she later died. A toxicity report is yet to confirm what was in the pills she took, but she believed them to be ecstasy.

Of course you were there, but are you in our gallery? Check it out here