Two weeks ago (Friday, February 4th) the lads & I made our annual trek to the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds for the Big Day Out 2005 event.
Running through the day chronologically, the gates opened at 11am & we were briefly padded-down by event security staff. Those of us in our small group who looked less than 40-years old needed to provide ID to get the alcohol bracelets. Getting ourselves familiar with this year's stage arrangements and performing our normal BDO traditions, we heard a bit of Frenzal Rhomb on the main stage before heading to one of the smaller stages to see The Mess Hall. These 2 guys were pretty good, although the drummer looked remarkably similar to the character Nabeshin from the wacky Japanese animé Excel Saga.
Moving back to the main stages, we caught a glimpse of The Donnas and then retreated back to the green stage to watch a very entertaining set by the Dallas Crane. After this, The Music performed on one of the main stages, but I was a bit disappointed by their set. The lead singer (who I had previously thought was a girl) just didn't seem to have it in him, despite his dancing efforts that would rival Peter Garrett.
Another BDO tradition that seems to get better each year is when we loiter around the Lilypad stage in the afternoon. With Nude Karaoke in 2003 and Nude Aerobics in 2004, this year's Lilypad featured a Nude Rodeo. Normally I ask myself why anyone would get naked in front of hundreds of people and do something stupid like ride a giant barrel-on-a-spring (note: the answer is always "alcohol"), but this year's question was answered for me. They were getting naked for the tsunami victims. Such a worthy cause, I think the crowd appreciated their charity (and nakedness...).
While people were getting naked at the Lilypad, we could hear the Testeagles play from the Local Produce stage which was not too far away. After the nudity ceased, we headed back to the main oval where we heard the end of Grinspoon's set, then we took a seat in the grandstands because it turned out we had plenty of time to kill... The next two hours of our schedule were completely empty, this void created by the presence of Slipknot and System Of A Down on the main stages. This gave us ample time to rest our legs, get some food and avoid the thugs.
The previously common Big Day Out cliché of the generous pothead has been superseded this year by the odd phenomenon of having many more women than men in the men's toilets. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something a little disturbing about it when this happens...
Between experiencing this occurence and grabbing a bite to eat, I caught a small bit of The Streets on the green stage before heading back to the main area to get a good spot for the Powderfinger set. It was a really enjoyable performance by the Finger, thankfully playing a few old-school ('classic') songs but mainly sticking to their Vulture Street stuff.
After the Powderfinger set we shuffled left to catch the Beastie Boys on the other main stage. The boys put on a very entertaining show, even I think to the people in the crowd who weren't too familiar with their music like the guys I went with. They mixed plenty of their best-known songs (such as Sabotage, Intergalactic & Body Movin') with songs from their latest album. Their set was divided by plenty of funny moments either through use of some weird videos playing on the big-screen or them just talking to the crowd. It's quite a pity we missed the Beyonce & Bette Midler sets to see the Beatsey Boys (as they call themselves), it was definitely worth it.
Although our plan was to check out the Chemical Brothers set after the Beasties had finished, it would appear as though a lot of the other 30,000-odd attendees had the same idea as well. Police were blocking the entrances to the Boiler Room so we caught the last bit of the Regurgitator set instead.
Overall, this year's BDO turned out pretty damn reasonable, especially if I consider what my original thoughts were when I first seen the band line-up. Next year I'll have to be more prepared and try and organise a press-pass so I can take my fancy camera onto the showgrounds. This year I did still take my baby Pentax and took a big bunch of shots with that - I'm still deciding whether there's enough good stuff there to post up in the Pants galleries.
And although you don't even know who I am, I hope you had a happy birthday today Zephy... :)
: OK, I Admit It...
Well the first problem was solved about 2 weeks ago when the lens arrived. Weighing in at just under half a kilogram, this new lens (right, the Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM for you techies) almost signals the end of my foolish consumerism.