It was a much anticipated BDO this year. For heavens sakes, The Killers were enough of an enticement on their own, especially with the NME quoted “knicker wettingly debonair” Brandon Flowers there to attract half the female population of Auckland to the front 300 rows.
It was sold out this year, which made moving around a little trickier than last year, but that was cool. You just had to plan a bit more and spend less time at Lillyworld if you know what I mean. As the event approached I decided this was the strongest lineup I had seen and it was a must see….as evidenced on the much maligned Trade Me.
So, we arrived early enough to beat the queues, and it was off to a flyer and straight to the Boileroom to be warmed up by my future wife Ruth and her band Minuit.
It was sold out this year, which made moving around a little trickier than last year, but that was cool. You just had to plan a bit more and spend less time at Lillyworld if you know what I mean. As the event approached I decided this was the strongest lineup I had seen and it was a must see….as evidenced on the much maligned Trade Me.
So, we arrived early enough to beat the queues, and it was off to a flyer and straight to the Boileroom to be warmed up by my future wife Ruth and her band Minuit.
They were slow to get into their stride, no doubt due to the fact that most Minuit gigs start at 1am, rather than midday. Having said that, in the tent that is the Boileroom it is perpetually 1am in the morning. Anyway, Ruth and the boys eventually climbed into it and finished off with a brilliantly uplifiting version of I Hate Guns, which threatened to lift the roof off the tent and let the nasty daylight shine in on all the vampires.
So, it was off into the bright bright sun and the main stage where I caught the end of Eskimo Joe, who seemed solid enough but a little overwhelmed by the still filling stadium. They did however underline the sound problems that the Blue Stage was to experience throughout the day. Not for the first time I lamented the lack of a decent stadium in Auckland, and wondered just how it was that U2 pulled off such a perfect sound in this place.
Next on the big stages was the hard out metal of Trivium. I positioned myself in the moshpit with the Emo’s (that’s Emotional Rock for the uninitiated…basically the new Goths) who were clamouring already for pole position at My Chemical Romance. After reconnecting with my Westie upbringing I thrashed out til the lead guitarist embarrassingly unplugged himself. The metal equivalent of wearing a nice green cardie on MTV!
From there it was off for a breather at Lillyworld with Rat and Kiwipanther before heading off to the smaller stage to check out one of Flying Nun’s finest, Dave Kilgour. And a very nice set he played as well, to a respectably aged fanbase, the first real chill out moment of the day. I caught 5 mins of Hot Chip in the Boileroom, then dashed downstairs to see what all the fuss was about with the Emo’s (Real life Halloween Emo Attached!).
And by now was it a hot fuss down there (sorry Killers fans!). Tears were streaming….yes, real tears…. On the faces of numerous MCR fans who had missed out on getting up front. Now that was just silly. The band themselves were pretty good- I’d love to see a full set with a good sound setup, there was enough of a Pink Floyd-meets-Queen-meets Green Day feel about it to make me hang around, and dammit, I may even have to buy The Black Parade now. Gerard Way made a solid if whiney frontman but carried the band well.
So, it was off into the bright bright sun and the main stage where I caught the end of Eskimo Joe, who seemed solid enough but a little overwhelmed by the still filling stadium. They did however underline the sound problems that the Blue Stage was to experience throughout the day. Not for the first time I lamented the lack of a decent stadium in Auckland, and wondered just how it was that U2 pulled off such a perfect sound in this place.
Next on the big stages was the hard out metal of Trivium. I positioned myself in the moshpit with the Emo’s (that’s Emotional Rock for the uninitiated…basically the new Goths) who were clamouring already for pole position at My Chemical Romance. After reconnecting with my Westie upbringing I thrashed out til the lead guitarist embarrassingly unplugged himself. The metal equivalent of wearing a nice green cardie on MTV!
From there it was off for a breather at Lillyworld with Rat and Kiwipanther before heading off to the smaller stage to check out one of Flying Nun’s finest, Dave Kilgour. And a very nice set he played as well, to a respectably aged fanbase, the first real chill out moment of the day. I caught 5 mins of Hot Chip in the Boileroom, then dashed downstairs to see what all the fuss was about with the Emo’s (Real life Halloween Emo Attached!).
And by now was it a hot fuss down there (sorry Killers fans!). Tears were streaming….yes, real tears…. On the faces of numerous MCR fans who had missed out on getting up front. Now that was just silly. The band themselves were pretty good- I’d love to see a full set with a good sound setup, there was enough of a Pink Floyd-meets-Queen-meets Green Day feel about it to make me hang around, and dammit, I may even have to buy The Black Parade now. Gerard Way made a solid if whiney frontman but carried the band well.
So enough about the warm ups….now it was time for the real bands…..Kasabian, Killers, Muse, Tool all one after the other over 5 glorious and exhausting hours. Kasabian were the highlight of the day, sneering arrogant rock and roll attitude (“I’m the King, be my Queen, bitch”) backed up by a truly spanking and innovative Chemical Brothers meets Beatles backbeat. The first truly must see gig of the day (ably set up by electronica of The Presets I must add, who must have loved playing to a rock crowd!). The future of British rock is in great hands with these guys. Needed a cooldown after that, a couple more quiets at Lillyworld, a feed, and dessert was Peaches (mmmm Peaches, yum!) in the tent for 10 mins before hightailing down to get in position for the main acts for the night.
The Killers, well outside of U2 they were my most anticipated act of the year. How cool was it to see both within 2 months? Well……from all accounts they WERE good, but sadly I got trapped in one of the sound holes at this dreadful venue, and was unable to hear any vocals or guitars. But from all accounts it was an outstanding set if you could hear it…and yes ladies, Brandon is a very energetic dynamic frontsman, and it was fantastic to see him extolling the virtues of Bearduary!
So, I was feeling pretty hacked off at this point but that was soon blown away by the gobsmacking talent of Matt Bellamy and Muse. You don’t stay disappointed long at the BDO, unless you are a Scribe fan (yes folks, if you do hip hop then DO NOT stand in front of thousands of Killers fans and lose your voice…ouch!) Anyway, back to Muse. Talk about outstanding, the only thing missing from their space rock virtuoso set was Halley’s Comet- this was the second absolute drop dead must see moment, although I’m not sure that my colleague
Rat (pic attached) saw much of the band from his cramped viewpoint. Life is hard sometimes. Muse are Radiohead on speed, truly a must see- come back soon!!!!So that leaves two more acts, and they couldn’t be more removed from each other. First up was Tool, who stole the night away in a fearsome manner. Tool are like a religion, if you are into them that’s great, it’s like going to church. If you aren’t into them then Dimmer was for you, and I was bummed to miss Dimmer, but international takes precedence over local sometimes…Tool bludgeoned, crafted and artfully delivered their way into Big Day Out history with an outstanding display that completely satisfied the worshippers at the altar. Wow.
So off we went to round the night out with the folk-rock of the Violent Femmes, who had a bloke called Don McGlashan in their horns section. Nice, mellow and laid back way to wind down after 13 hours of charging around. Sing after me….”I love American Music….” On that note we went home and slept. Eventually.
So in summary, BDO 07 lived up to all expectation with the exception of the sound problems. Will I go next year? Not sure, lets wait and see if the lineup measures up and if they improve the venue. But this year was the best one of the 4 BDO’s I’ve seen, no argument.
4 comments:
Ah... a good day, my highlight being caught in the rapids of Muse, truely breathtaking, and reminded me of Iggy Pop last year when I walked way thinking "how the hell do you beat that".
As for the views, all 360 degrees were perfect for a rat.
Sounds like a blast. Have to admit being totally out of touch with the UK music scene and haven't heard anything that reaches deep into my chest, dragging me to the centre of the dance floor/kitchen/motorway to get my groove on over here. Nice to keep up to date with godzone antics. thanks buddy.
Reading the many blogs and media readers feedback only confirmed my thoughts, Muse were the act of the day.
People I felt sorry for were those who tried to get into a good position to see Tool but missed out on Muses spectacular avalanche of a performance. Hearing aint no good without seeing.
A week and a bit after the show and I'm reflecting. In my opinion the highlight of the show was the Violent Femmes.
During a break, the songlist was being yelled out by the crowd with the predictible " Blister in the Sun", "Add It Up" and "Gone Daddy Gone".
Being at the front of the stage I yelled out " American Music !!!!!!", and lo and behold two songs later the Femmes only #1 hit was played.
If anyone has seen the video with the crowd, it was exactly like that, the timing and lyrics with the singalong perfect.
No-one sang when Gano was singing, only when the pause for the backup vocals (ie us) did the crowd participate.
It was THE enlightened moment for me, and a wee sense of pride and brother/sisterhood occured. I think the crowd "touched".
It was the perfect way to finish.
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