I had high hopes for Big Day Out this year for two reasons: the Red Hot Chili Peppers were headlining and it had been seven friggin’ years since my last BDO in 2006. The better part of a decade has gone by since that show, and since I enjoyed the previous one so much, you can imagine how angsty I was to go back. It had also been six years since I last saw Chili Willy play live, so I was geared up to see those Californian rockers tear shit up.
Maybe I had built up BDO to an impossible level of awesomeness in my head or my memory made it seem like the ’06 festival was better than what it actually was, but it just didn’t completely cut it with me. Don’t get me wrong, it was great and the nighttime bands were fantastic, but the daytime acts were just bloody boring! Everyone else seemed to be having a grouse time, so was it just me? It probably was, I can be a negative Nancy when I want to be (sometimes I swear I’m a grumpy old man in a young man’s body!).
I didn’t know a lot of the bands playing; I actually started to believe I’d become out of touch with modern music! Put it this way: the ’06 BDO had mainstream acts like The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, The Living End and Wolfmother playing, and though older and more established bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Killers were headlining, the ’13 lineup consisted of Vampire Weekend, The Bloody Beetroots, 360, and Seth Sentry. It seemed like a lot of the acts were indie bands that you’d only hear on Triple J, no surprise considering BDO was sponsored by them. This year seemed more catered to Triple J listeners more so than anyone else, which kinda screwed me over music wise. What about non-Triple J fans, huh? I’ve actually been getting more into Triple J lately, but I’m still very much a novice to their ways. Perhaps if I had started earlier I would’ve been more impressed with what BDO had to offer, but oh well.
Anyway, enough with my negative crap, let’s get onto the good stuff. The atmosphere, as expected, was awesome. Heaps of upbeat peeps (probably on account of the various pills and booze they consumed though), awesome band tees, police sniffer dogs searching for any scent of pot or eckies, beach balls and condom balloons being tossed around in the air, and hot girls in denim shorts flashing their boobs at the bands (I’m male, okay!). As I said before, I was mainly looking forward to RHCP doing their renditions of ‘Californication’, ‘Under The Bridge’, ‘Can’t Stop’ and everything in between, and they did not disappoint. Once I got right smack in the middle of the gigantic mosh pit, things went friggin’ off the hook! Great music, hot chicks, tripped out pill poppers dancing mental; all great fun.
Though I did get separated from my group a few times and that did set me back somewhat in what acts I wanted to see, it all worked out and partied hard as we could. Despite being lost in the music (and not always in a good way), I didn’t mind actually having to put up with a couple of thousand people or so, so I was rapt I finally went to another BDO. Now Soundwave awaits…
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