What with court battles with eBay and controversy over flags, it’s good to finally get to the Big Day Out and remember it’s actually all about the music. And that seemed to be the mood of most as Tool t-shirts alone outnumbered the Aussie flags.

Adopted locals Mach Pelican set the day off to a super-charged start on the Green Stage, their Ramones via Tokyo schtick the perfect way to get the juices pumping. Scissor kicks, cries of ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ – it’s all there as it should be and great, if unoriginal, fun.

More original fun was found in the shape of That 1 Guy and his ‘magic pipe’ on the Hot House Stage. Banging his pipe and a drum to make all sort of weird ‘n’ wonderful sounds while he told weird ‘n’ wonderful tales; he’s like an eclectic combination of Rolf Harris, Dr Seuss and Primus’ Les Claypool. And he brought the sun out.

Back indoors, all is dark as the black-clad masses await Trivium on the Converse Essential Stage. Poor Dan Kelly on the adjacent Green Stage gets virtually rail-roaded off-stage by the chants for Matt Heafy and co. And they didn’t disappoint, blasting through a taut, powerful set mostly drawn from last year’s The Crusade. They could probably now live without the Master Of Puppets cover, or maybe it’s their way of staking their claim to the vacant thrash throne. But while the band didn’t disappoint, the sound did. Incredibly, despite Trivium being arguably the heaviest band of the day, in my position near the back of the tent I could hear the drums and guitars being checked on the other stage.

No such problems for Lily Allen, who had the bigger Boiler Room in the palm of her hand. Chain-smoking, swearing, skipping round the stage to the horn-drenched summery vibes of her album, it was the perfect festival soundtrack. The biggest cheers were reserved for radio hits ‘LDN’ and ‘Smile’, but Allen proved she’s got the chops to be more than a one-summer wonder.

While Eskimo Joe greeted a vast field of fans, their WA contemporaries Snowman hit the Local Produce stage to a sparsely-populated tent. A shame really, as their intriguing concoction of Sonic Youth noise, acid-fried blues and the primal screams of Andy Citawarman rose to some pretty compelling peaks.

Also hitting the high spots are The Killers, who know their way around a big crowd in a field. They mixed up the hits with the tracks from Sam’s Town to keep the crowd with them. And even on only two albums, it’s a pretty impressive role call, albeit a set somewhat lacking in drama and surprise.

More of a surprise is The Streets’ Mike Skinner dressed like a Pom on Bondi in some ridiculous geezer shorts. And he claimed to have only had four hours’ sleep since he left Sydney, which possibly explains why he let his MC do all the hard work early on. But, with such crowd pleasers as ‘Let’s Push Things Forward’ and ‘Fit But You Know It’, even Skinner managed to up his energy levels to match his superb band and bring the set to a rousing finish.

Muse hit the ground running from the off. Like The Killers, their new material was designed to be played in big open spaces. They had a futuristic stage set, barrage of light effects and big screen camera work that made the band look like they’re astronauts on a space mission. The new material would’ve been ridiculously overblown if it wasn’t for the crunching guitars of Matt Bellamy bringing it back to earth. But it was still an otherworldly triumph, although it was a shame they couldn’t have played later, and really upped the light show.

Then it was off to the main event – Tool. With an audience stretching back forever, there was an almost unbearable sense of expectation. Tool met it head-on with an opening salvo of ‘Stinkfist’ and ‘Swamp Song’ as their hypnotic light show kicked in. Again, though, the sound wasn’t loud enough, as Maynard’s vocals struggled to rise above the guitar and bass. And while the material from 10,000 Days is fine, it suffered from the over-elaboration that has become Tool’s trademark and now their curse to these ears. While the combination of sight and sound was still mostly incredible, some of their visceral edge had been blunted by unnecessary complexity. Fortunately an incandescent ‘Pushit’ rescued the set from disappointment.

Big Day Out 2007 proved to be another good one, although hopefully next year the stages at Flemmington will be much more widely dispersed to allow everyone, on stage and off, the opportunity to enjoy their day in the sun.