Big Day Out @ McCallum Park,Perth (05/02/12)

Tue 7th Feb, 2012 in Gig Reviews

This year’s controversy filled and fuelled Big Day Out finally hit Perth on Sunday. With no Kanye West in the West purportedly influencing lower than usual ticket sales, Mc Callum Park on the South Perth foreshore welcomed several thousand to one of the more unusual line-ups the BDO has offered in its history.

The ‘downsizing’ of the venue by its own decree became a blessing and a curse through the course of the day. Where once a half-day trek across a showground along with tens of thousands of people was required to access various stages, the McCallum Park venue had all major stages within a mere hop, skip and jump.

The Hot (Local) Produce stage benefitted well from the site layout. Placed close to the main entry, there was no way to get to the larger stages than to walk past them and it certainly showed with all bands featured receiving healthy crowds. In particular, current radio darlings San Cisco and swagger-maestros Pond did the local scene proud playing tasty sets to large approving masses.

Three hops down past a bulbous green tent spewing forth doof beats all day (the kind that spills out of cars in Northbridge any given weekend) the slightly more ample Green Stage sat. Kimbra’s mid-afternoon set proved to be most popular, attracting possibly the largest Green crowd of the day – even with the occasional strains of Drapht tearing up the Boiler Tent only mere metres away colliding with her far less rowdy pop style.
With little to no shade available at the venue the Boiler Tent became a refuge for most until the sting of the sun was gone. Much-hyped OFWGTA did absolutely nothing for their reputation and delivered a less than endearing set. With beats hiding somewhere under the stage and the rapping being rendered inaudible and sloppy (with exceptions) to the occasional misogynistic holler. Yonkers couldn’t even save the set. Strangely enough a huge enthusiastic crowd didn’t seem to notice, or bother.

A late afternoon slot by Battles in the tent was received well by a smaller than expected crowd. Now a three piece since they were last in Perth for the 2008 Big Day Out, the band relied more heavily on loops, sequences and video synchs of guest vocalists from their Glossdrop album. There were some technical problems getting Atlas up and away but if there is one act that can skirt around these issues, with skill whilst still playing, its Battles. John Stanier will soon need to secure some of his hardware from the lighting rig should that crash cymbal get any higher.

Norwegian act Royksopp were the most visually engaging act of the day. Occasionally assisted by a bizarrely attired guitarist, bassist and vocalist that definitely strayed well into the field of (sometime collaborators) The Knife, the electronic act blasted its way through a set including The Girl and the Robot, What else is there? and This must be it.
The main Big Day Out arena suffered throughout the day. Now without its usual 2 stage set up and the D barrier a thing of the past, the area barely gathered any momentum. With something called a skate stage stuck in a small corner next to the main, the efforts to keep a consistent vibe running at the end of the site was a trying one, even with excellent performances by Mariachi el Bronx, Cage the Elephant and Regurgitator on the Skate stage trumping their cohorts on the Main throughout the afternoon.

As evening fell the BDO turned green. Glo-stick green to be precise. Perhaps it was a result of the downsized venue or the Boiler Tent being parked in the middle of the site or just some over-entrepreneurial salesmen. Every area seemed to be festooned with luminous green apparel and items that for a moment led this reviewer to believe that some strange mutation with a rave party, had transpired whilst waiting for a hotdog.
Girl Talk is always going to deliver the goods at a festival, whether one likes his style or not. In Perth he delivered (and no I don’t like his style). But kudos for attracting a massive, mashed crowd that were clearly getting off on the massively mashed music.

It has been 15 years since Soundgarden last headlined the BDO. A new generation of fans has now been born and with a few of the older generation still in tow, the Seattle grunge gods tried valiantly to make their mark on the day. This is where the reality of the downsized day hit home. The ability to be only a few metres away from the crowd barrier and have room to move was perplexing. There were some diehard fans hanging onto every word and guitar riff, relishing the proximity to the band but with only a few thousand in the arena there was a general lack of atmosphere that not even a hit laden and expertly delivered Soundgarden set could save.

They were loud. They were heavy. Chris Cornell’s voice is still hitting it and Matt Camerons drumming skills saved a few mixes of songs from a drop D sludgefest. An astonishing set list including Spoon Man, Jesus Christ Pose, Blow Up the Upside, Ty Cobb, Black Hole Sun, Rusty Cage and Burden in my hand reminded us of the wealth of treasures in the Soundgarden catalogue. A disproportionate crowd attendance indicated that something was amiss.

While walking to the exit past the Green Stage, Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds played a smoking set to a small loyal crowd. You might remember Noel from being in one of the world’s biggest groups, a few years back. Now he’s playing to several hundred diehard fans on a side stage at a downsized Big Day Out.

Sunday’s event could be considered a very left-of-field experiment by the BDO organisers. It was evident that a majority of people enjoyed the day thoroughly, however for some of the long time BDO fans, this instalment would have fallen way short of the expectations that the annual Festival has created over its 20 year history.