Their were a few bands on the 2005 Big Day Out lineup that I wanted to check out but, in general I hadn’t really anticipated some of the class acts that I was about to take witness to. It was The Donnas who started the day off for me and I have to say it was unfortunate that I missed Frenzal Rhomb because I would have liked to kickstarted the day’s events with some inspiring tunes.
The Donnas’ punk rock sound was very washed, repetitive and uninspiring. It couldn’t even be drowned out amongst the many people that stood before their performance confused as to whether they should be moshing away to the solemness of their music or if they should be heading out towards another stage in search of something a bit more big day out-ish. While these American girls failed to blow me away like I was hoping, they did manage a couple of okay songs with Hook it up and Take It Off, but all in all, their set was a rather a waste of the main stage considering Dallas Crane were preparing to enter a much smaller stage shortly after with a much greater performance.
One of the most memorable acts of the day was the performance of Australia’s own rock band Dallas Crane. Many people got to this stage early in order to get a front position and while waiting for the Dallas boys you were able to catch the last of the set by Sydney’s Wolfmother. These guys were very cool indeed with the lead singer’s hair style and sideburns definitely taking on an appearance of a wolf. With vocals similar to that found in Led Zeppelin these guys had many of the qualities that make for a solid rock group that has the ability to stay around for many years to come. The last song they did had a very memorable keyboard solo that was hard-hitting while at the same time feeling mallow and surreal, flying you off into a world of rock that you would not want to let go of. Many of their songs had breakdowns you could almost die for and the crowd was moving every part of their bodies to rock out to the old-school sounds of Wolfmother and this was definitely a sign of an audience pleasing set.
After the impressive performance of Wolfmother it was finally time to bring out Dallas Crane. The increasingly recognisable kick drum which displays the band’s name in black and white was set up and the crowd began chanting “Dallas, Dallas, Dallas” with some girls chanting, “Dave, Dave, Dave.” Satisfying the crowds hunger, the boys emerged welcomed by a massive support of cheer and applause. “Iodine, iodine, rub a little more in my soul.” For a band that is yet to have a lot of commercial success they sure had a lot of people in the crowd singing along to their lyrics which was great to witness. The crowd interaction was at its peak when they performed, Numb All Over, which just might be a song to describe the lead singer, Dave, “one part Jekyll and one part Hyde…”
With every single member of the band contributing to the vocals it shows how versatile Dallas Crane is and this versatility is well respected and appreciated by their listeners. The second last song was the ever powerful rock tune of Dirty Hearts which is a strong indicator of how much Dallas Crane must be influenced by their predecessors, AC/DC. A dosage of AC/DC’s High Voltage was performed during the breakdown of Wrong Party and the perfect sync of the two songs for that brief moment just shows the likeness of AC/DC’s sound with that of Dallas’s. Any band that has similarities to the legendary AC/DC definitely has the thumbs up in my books.
The promotional display of a few of the motorcross Crusty Demons was the next thing to view on my agenda. World motorcross pleaser, Nate Adams was the highlight as he strutted his ability to fly on a bike in the air - incredibly well performing supermen, tsunamis and double clicks that had your heart beating faster with every second of viewing absorption. These guys are crazy and with very little runway were able to get huge air and pull of the death defying tricks which saw a massive crowd surrounding their display and cheering on all the performers efforts. They had three different sets and at the end of each one the crowd were chanting for more. The taste of what’s to come with the Crusty’s upcoming tour and having the background music of live bands playing was extremely enthralling and exhilarating, definitely forming amongst the many highlights of the day.
The music and performance of Dallas Crane were definitely are hard act for anyone to follow, and the likes of The Music and Little Birdy just didn’t do it for me. I also checked out the international act Le Tigre whose main drawcard was the fact that they were really bassy. They had computerised drums supporting them which always make you feel like you’re not watching a real band when there’s no live drummer. Le Tigre’s music was quite boppy so everyone was either jumping or moving their hips and the vocals were quite solid sounding. Although the band’s strengths were nothing memorable they still held a set that was fairly decent and entertaining.
It was then time to head over to the main stages and seal a spot for Slipknot. While killing time for Slipknot you were forced to sit through Grinspoon’s set. Once a band you used to go out of your way to watch, Grinspoon have become rather disappointing. They performed most of their new tracks off of Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills and this meant that their set was mostly compiled of slow and rather dull songs. Their set would have felt like almost a complete waste of time if it wasn’t for them performing their past greats Black Friday and Just Ace which always feel so energetic and make you yearn for Grinspoon to go back to their roots and keep producing the same styled music where their true fans amounted from.
Unfortunately, it was still daylight when Slipknot were to take the stage. Sound travels better at night but even the light was not going to be a deterrent in Slipknot having a mind blowing set. The crowd roared as drummer Joey Jordison was the first to take the stage and then the rest of the band followed. Opening with the song, Sic the crowd started heavily moshing for the first time of the day. Lead singer, Corey Taylor between songs always displayed the best interests of his fans when he kept saying, “If someone gets hurt, I want them to get out safe. You understand me?” The songs, Pulse Of The Maggots and Wait And Bleed were standouts for me and Duality was set up to be sentimental favourite when Corey said, “I want you to sing it from the fucking heart.” During the song Spit It Out, Corey told the crowd to bob down and when he tells them he wants them to “get the fuck up,” I can only imagine what this would have looked like from on stage but the whole crowd got down on the ground and jumped to their feet in sync on command. It was really cool to be among this interaction between Slipknot and the audience. They ended their set with Surfacing and, in conclusion promised the crowd that it would not take another five years for them once again to return. Here’s to hoping this is true!
System of a Down were next on the agenda and had a lot to live up to after Slipknot’s more than memorable performance. Unfortunately I don’t think they lived up to the hype. SOAD opened with Aerials and continued with many songs of their Toxicity album. Unsurprisingly the brilliant vocals of Serj Tankian in Chop Suey was immensely a crowd pleaser along with songs Mr Jack and Toxicity. An interesting and worthwhile combination was when Joey from Slipknot took over the drums for the SOAD songs War and Suggestions and the difference in the drumming just proved why Joey is highly regarded as one of the worlds best drummers. The Donnas also joined the stage for Sugar but it was no where near as impressive as the impact Joey had. SOAD’s set was pleasing and held a few new songs of what to expect from the band probably later this year which definitely sounded like something to checkout.
Finally it was time for the last band I wanted to checkout for the night. America’s Hatebreed have been in existence for over ten years and have never been to Australia to perform, however like Slipknot they promised to be back real soon and that is definitely a good thing. These guys were above every performance I had seen on that day and they were definitely worth waiting for. They’re extremely heavy hardcore set was viewed on a small stage but the crowd was full and overflowing. There was a crazy circle pit that had formed at the front and everyone was getting battered and bruised but couldn’t really care, nonetheless because the music was simply going off. There were hard hitting breakdowns in every song and the vocals ran through you vibrating and lingering onto every vein heading towards your heart and every artery pumping blood towards the brain. Their sound was heavy and intoxicating and if you were in the vicinity of their performance their was no possibility that you could not have been moving and absorbing the adrenalin that their performance gave to each listener. Hatebreed were breathtaking and definitely wrapped up what had appeared to be a rather average Big Day Out and turned it into a sorry if you missed it event considering the likes of Dallas Crane, Slipknot and SOAD.
