Big Day Out. Nick’s Review

by Einstein Music Journal on Mon, 2009/01/19 - 3:24am Post to Twitter

Big Day Out

Featuring: Neil Young, Arctic Monkeys, TV On The Radio, Prodigy, Lupe Fiasco, Bang! Bang! Eche!, Pendulum, Mint Chicks, Brand New Math, Ting Tings and Black Kids

Friday, January 16, 2009

Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

My first Big Day Out, yep, for the past fourteen years I had stayed away; but thanks to Bang! Bang! Eche! giving me a free pass, I couldn’t refuse this time. Impressions of the festival were immediately soured when security confiscated two V-cans from me, despite my argument that the cans were unopened and the exact same product was available for purchase inside ($4 per can), I was not allowed them past the gate. Has corporate sponsorship gone mad? I’m sure Frucor Beverages would love to know that The Big Day Out was stopping people from consuming their product.

Anyway, it was early and our only option was Bionic Pixie, who even with a band has about 10% crowd presence and her lack of creative rhymes was embarrassing. Off to the New Zealand stage to watch what ended up being one of the best sets of the day (that’s not just my opinion). Bang! Bang! Eche! were greeted by a very loyal and curious crowd, perhaps steered away from the boiler room in the early stages of the event. Dropping a number of new songs into their set including what the band said “is a punk song” made for a enjoyable start to the day, and was probably the best time slot to play on the New Zealand stage. It was also good to see new member Josh, who brought a tonne of energy to their performance.

After a stroll through the boiler room, I headed to the main stadium for the first time where Cobra Khan were finishing of before Black Kids. It was all pretty noisy and the crowd was still reasonably small, but Black Kids were the first international band to really kick things off. Declaring ‘party time’, the Black Kids kicked into gear. Waltzing through their radio friendly hits ‘Hurricane Jane’ and ‘Listen To Your Body Tonight’ in similar fashion to the recorded versions, they were fun but lacked the sort of appeal a quality international act should provide. Brand New Math crossed over on the New Zealand stage so I went to see the end of their set. Catching the last fifteen minutes of their set proved worth while; the band flourished in the festival setting and looked more comfortable on the big stage than expected.

Time for The Ting Tings. For some reason the group of people around me after Brand New Math seemed to hassle my enthusiasm for them. No problem, it was their loss because The Ting Tings were far better than many people imagined. Katie White’s stage presence put Bionic Pixie to shame (not surprising really) as she worked the audience into a frenzy. Both White and Jules De Martino proved to be more than capable musicians, both playing guitar through loop pedals, drumming, playing keys and singing. Ending with ‘Shut Up and Let Me Go’ and ‘That’s Not My Name’ they bought the house down and left the very packed paddock full of fans satisfied.

The biggest surprise of the day was Pendulum. While I didn’t get up close, I witnessed their extremely tight set from the stand. From my observations Pendulum drew the biggest crowd of the day (Arctic Monkeys and Prodigy may have claim to dispute this), with metal and break-core fans joining in unison to wave their hands in the air and mosh for a solid hour. The live component to their on-stage trickery was completely perplexing, sounding just like a solid studio take. It was clear the band work extremely hard to perfect the ultimate live experience and I doubt a single Pendulum fan left Big Day Out disappointed. TV On The Radio fans, however, may be a bit bitter, with Pendulum going slightly overtime and encroaching on TVOTR’s set.

TV On The Radio’s set had little cohesion, the sound was atrocious and the band seemed slightly unfocused on stage. It was a real slap across the face to bands playing on the Orange Stage that the sound was of such poor quality, even up close the vocals of Tunde Adebimpe faded in and out and the guitars drowned in a quiet death of distortion. For those who were happy just to hear anything from the band, despite the quality, they played songs from both Return To Cookie Mountain as well as Dear Science including ‘Wolf Like Me’, ‘DLZ’ and ‘Dancing Choose’.

Lupe Fiasco was my number one must see at this year’s BDO and he blew my mind. I don’t think anybody was expecting to see him backed by a five-piece live band, but their energy and charisma was unmatched by anyone else. Posing like a Roman god, Lupe spoke to the crowd with a friendly respect, before launching into songs from his record The Cool. ‘Go-Go Gaget Flow’ was followed by ‘Paris, Tokyo’ before ‘Superstar’ showed Lupe Fiasco as a true genius of modern hip-hop. His boiler room performance was rounded off by a spellbinding gospel rendition of ‘Daydream’, with his drummer taking up vocal duties in place of Jill Scott. Starting of as a slow gospel-like chant, the song built into a party anthem. The crowd went crazy for Lupe and his performance is truly memorable beyond BDO ‘09.

Dinner time, a twenty minute line-up for pizza then a trip back to the boiler room. Unfortunately Simian Mobile Disco’s first song pushed me away more than drew me in and after getting close enough to see two guys standing around a box of switches and knobs, I left, fearing a bout of tinnitus. The Mint Chicks made up for Simian Mobile Disco’s disappointing start; the Kiwi band always hits the mark and even their songs from their upcoming album Screens which I blankly dislike sounded great in the new Mint Chicks live arrangement. The downside to many of the new songs is that lead singer Kody Nielson is somewhat restricted on stage, but he worked well to counter balance his immobility and took his opportunities on their older songs to jump around the stage. They also had the most interesting stage costumes of the day, Kody dressed in a tiger suit while his brother Ruben wore a shark balaclava.

On our way back to the main arena we stopped by the New Zealand stage for a brief toilet stop (back stage passes come in handy). At this point it really hit me, why does the BDO really bother with the local produce stage, I mean clearly they don’t pay attention to it and it seems like it’s there so the promoter can put on a smiley face and pretend to be supporting local music. This is clearly a load of rubbish, because the noise from the boiler room was so loud that it overpowered the local stage. Would it not be more beneficial to scrap the stage altogether and focus on putting quality New Zealand music on the essential stage? Or would this just work even more against emerging young local bands with CRS management already running the event. Maybe the local stage should run until 2pm and then the boiler room should start later. Either way, local music deserves far more support then it is currently given, but as already mentioned this event clearly has a firm focus towards making money at all costs and by having less stage time it may upset some corporate sponsors.

The Arctic Monkeys had the unfortunate experience of playing on the Orange Stage; the same stage that TV On The Radio played on. Once again the sound was relatively pathetic compared to the previous act (The Living End) who were on the Blue Stage. To enjoy the Arctic Monkeys you had only one option and that was to get up close; one hundred metres back and you were listening over top of people talking. Despite this, the Arctic Monkeys played a very fulfilling set, mixing new songs in with the old to nicely balance out their set. ‘Mardy Bum’, ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ were all crowd favorites, the only disappointment was that their farewell track was a slowish new song that fans couldn’t figure out how to party to just yet.

What’s this? An exodus of people away from the main stage? I could hardly believe my eyes. Surely people wanted to stick around to see one of the greatest musicians of our time? Obviously not, because Neil Young played to one of the smallest main stage crowds of the entire day. Boy, did all those kids miss out on something special! Neil Young put on the greatest performance I have seen in my entire life, I mean that! His hour-and-a-half-long set was filled with classic hits from albums like Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Opening with grungier material, Young surprised the crowd with his intensity and energy, pulling out ‘My My Hey Hey’ and ‘Powderfinger’ before breaking into a jam with his backing band that set a precedent for the rest of his set. ‘Cinnamon Girl’ showed Young at his rocking best before the tone ground to a halt and the acoustic show began.

The run of ‘Needle and the Damage Done’, ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Old Man’ from Harvest took a special place in my memory as he played harmonica and was accompanied by a banjo player during my all-time Young favourite ‘Old Man’. The rock show then returned with Young and co rocking their way through a number of classics before blasting into ‘Rocking In The Free World’ which had an infectious affect on everyone’s dancing shoes. For a good eight or so minutes the entire crowd, of all ages, jumped up and down in a somewhat pseudo celebration of freedom that was somehow heart warming being sung to a crowd of New Zealanders who have the luxury of living in one the freest countries in the world. As we were walking off for one last blast of noise from The Prodigy, Young returned to the stage to play a cover of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’. The already psychedelic song was turned even more so by the ambitious Young, who had the crowd singing along verse by verse until he ended in a shoegazey haze of distorted guitar and crashing cymbals. Neil Young was amazing, other words could describe his performance but I don’t want to overdo it.

I never really wanted to see The Prodigy, I’m not a fan and probably never will be. But if Neil Young was epic, The Prodigy was beyond that; the crowd was so huge that the dripping tent seemed like it it should have been ripped down. To be honest, I hated it; to me The Prodigy are the Rage Against the Machine of the rave scene and the crowd acted a bit that way. Sweaty, shirtless jocks pushing past me with little respect for my space, I realise it was their last chance of the night to pick up a skanky girl to take home, and believe me there were plenty (the most outrageous of the day was a girl in tiny jean shorts with the zip undone); but I’d had enough.

Going home after the show I was pretty negative, but when I look back on the day now most of the memories are positive ones. I’d still like an answer to my V cans and think there is a number of things that really need addressing with the festival. But in the end it’s about the music and for the most part it was satisfying.

More Big Day Out photos