Понедельник 6 Фев 2006, 20:39
Welcome to Australia's premier music festival! This is my very first BDO (crazy I know) as I'm usually overseas for Chinese New Year with my family around this time. This year BDO fell on the 7th day of Chinese New Year (there are 10) so I celebrated in the best way - with bands! Whoop!
First cap off the rank were Wolf & Cub. Hadn't heard much of their stuff but had heard good things so I was pretty expectant. Well, they were different. I liked the way they managed to get beats that usually only come from drum machines (having 2 drummers helps) but yet maintained a very rock sound. Overall, pretty good and I'd like to listen to some of their recorded tracks (even though Hew thought they were better live than recorded).
Next were youth group. I'd heard mixed reviews so I wanted to see them and judge for myself. I'd had a spin of their cd skeleton Jar which was just ok but live they were suprisingly good. The only thing that annoyed me was the "I can't wait for them to play Forever Young" by people who had heard it on the OC - therefore only song they knew. I do have to admit though, it was a very pretty and sweet cover - very OC, with emotions in all the right places ;) The whole set had emotions in all the right places – very nice.
Talking about the OC, I was wearing my 'Tijuana Lady' top which is a reference to the song Tijuana Lady, my favourite track by my favourite artist (which they've never played live anywhere but Tijuana, Mexico - I love that!). My friend came up to me with 'Is that an OC shirt? They went there on holiday…" ARGH! no… But it was ok, Ankur gave me his Rage against the machine badge to counteract the OC crappiness :)
Anyway, after Youth group I caught the last half of Gerling (sans backpacks). They looked much older than I remembered and I didn't recognise any of the songs I heard - they don't really play their old popular tracks do they? But they were a rockin' good time - they basically abused the crowd until they got into it, which is always pretty funny. And then they got out the giant inflatable beach-balls and K.K. Juggy (who had her own burlesque show) from Machine Gun Fellatio joined them on stage and got her boobies out - highlight of their performance. She'd decorated herself with 2 little 'spy disguise' masks (the ones with the black moustaches and black rimmed glasses) and her nipples were their noses. Highly funny. maybe not the highlight, but it definately got the ppl in the crowd pumped :) And I had a good boogie!
The Grates! Hurrah! Patience is such a ball of jumping goodness and I enjoy their rocking girlyness! I really enjoyed their EP The Ouch. The Touch. and had had it on repeat for the last few days. That and I'd had Message stuck in my head all morning. They were oodles of fun and I'd definately go see them again and jump about with them, they've got such catchy, fun tunes.
It was either the subways or Mudvayne so I obviously chose the subways. I'd listened to their album and liked it, but not enough so I could sing along and I think that detracted from their performance. They played solid indie rock but I just couldn't get into it. I think I was hungry as well and that probably didn't help. Ankur did make the call that he now had found his new hot chick from rock and he's right. Their bass player was a tiny, little, sexy powerhouse of rock!
Lunch beat Sleater-Kinney which is a but of a bummer as I was looking forward to them but my stomach had spoken and so we listened from a distance.
I pulled Dan-boy out of the Boiler room for lunch (and secretly Sarah Blasko!) and I won and he stayed and cuddled through the performance. Sarah Blasko was better than I expected. I expected her and a guitar (which I got) but she was also backed with keys, drums, bass and also had some mixing as well which made the performance extra-special. I love it when the performance is different from the album, makes seeing them live worth it - and this was definitely worth it! Her cover of Flame Trees makes me swoon even more live…
M.I.A. is definately my music of the moment and I'm totally digging her. She came on way late (10 minutes?) and finished early (10 minutes) and her DJ and his equipment died 3 times during Sunshowers but she still put on a booty-shaking set and I shook until I could shake no more. She even managed to mix in 'Baby Got Back' and some other tunes which got the crowd shaking. My favourite track for the day 10 Dollar was brilliant and 2 days later I'm still liable to break out into "what can you get for 10 dollar? anything you want" at any moment :)
I then rushed to catch the kings of leon but being late gave me a pretty crappy position outside the D (mosh pit barrier). I heard Molly's chambers and I was satiated. Yes, the Kings are one of my fave bands but my reasoning is they're massive (and therefore will hopefully be back), I was far away and couldn’t see a thing and the sound where I was standing was below par so I decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and left for the go team.
I think the best discription for this band is chaotic. They also have 2 drummers (a new trend?) and used them well. They were highly entertaining and had the whole crowd interaction thing working a treat - best interaction I'd seen in a while. Their singles Ladyflash and Bottle Rocket were amazingly amazing but other songs were just too chaotic and just didn't have that quality. Overall though, brilliant performers.
Weren't too fussed missing with the Living End (seen them too many times) so used their set to get into pole position for Franz Ferdinand. I do like their new stuff though, very much a step away from the punk days and quite 80s brit-rock. I think it's a good direction for the band to go - if somewhat cheesy.
I don't think I was expecting too much from franz ferdinand. I adored their first album but was pertty meh about the follow up. They did put on a solid performance and the mosh was satisfied. On another note, the mosh was the most gentle I'd ever been in - full of tiny people, poor tiny people.
After Franz Ferdinand finished we surged through the crowd of tiny people and managed to score ourselvs front row The Stooges places! YAY! Can I say hands down this was my best performance of the day. I felt like I was part of a rock legend. Iggy Pop has the body of a teenager and the face of an old guy but for an old guy he had the most energy I'd seen all day. He went off! He was all over the stage and in everyones faces and that's the way we like it! I wanna be your dog was pure rock essence, bottled and sold and the crowd lapped up every drop. I almost got the chance to dance with Iggy Pop on stage - I was lifted over the barrier and just as I got to the steps of the stage they said "no more people". noooo!!!… so I jumped the barrier back into the mosh and crossed it to my friends. Iggy Pop? hell yeah!
After Iggy, we made out way through the mosh back to the other stage to see the white stripes. You know what? meh. I love the white stripes and their performance was good but not great and definitely not white stripes standard. Maybe because I don't like the direction the new album went in but I thought the performance they gave in 2003 beat the pants off this one.
During their final song Seven Nation Army we started to move back and just as the finished we turned around to a lights spectacular. Awsome. The night was finished off with 2 many dj's who put on a magnificent set mixing everything from ween to wolfmother. They played so wicked drum and bass and I danced until my exhausted body could move no more and then I did the "head nod". Finishing with the Aussie classic You Shook Me All Night Long, 2 Many DJ's shook me all night long.
This journal entry is epic. Congratulation for reading this far.
The end.