Big Day Out 2010

You could be forgiven for thinking that Big Day Out 2010 was all about peaking too early, denim booty shorts and sideboob.  For what it’s worth, I’ve spent the last few days thinking about how long the Auckland leg of the festival has left – there was a lot of disdain this year at the final line-up, which saw the meathead ratio in the crowd go up a few percent and forced a lot of people to purchase tickets to Auckland’s Laneways festival instead. There was still a huge turnout (although I don’t believe it reached 45,000 as it was reported) but many of the acts that played the festival this year had played here at least once before. Muse, The Mars Volta, Dizzee Rascal and Lily Allen had all been here in the past and a lot of people that I’ve talked to were all “WTF?” about Muse headlining the goddamn thing. Anywayyyyy, let’s go right ahead and stat-geek this thing New Zealand Herald styles. But better, of course.

Most Entertaining Act

Lily Allen strolled on stage smoking a cigarette while her band played Lil’ Wayne’s A Milli. She looked great in a pink dress and heels and that yo-yo weight phase that she was going through has sort of evened out. I honestly don’t even like any of her songs but I fully understand her appeal, and even though she struggled vocally, she gave everyone something to talk about. Half way through her set the band raged into the Crookers remix of Kid Cudi’s Day N’ Nite before segueing into a cover of Womanizer which turned out to be pretty great. The rest of her set was filled up with plenty of sex talk, a quick upskirt and Fuck You, which the crowd gladly participated in.

Highlight Of The Day

Dizzee Rascal hit the main stage at 6pm – a time which saw a lot of people trying to hold it together at the bar and/or waiting in line for food – but within a few songs a huge section of the field had filled up. Dizzee came decked out in a Kobe Bryant singlet (Hi Lakers haters!) to the Tiesto produced Bad Behaviour – a song which already sounded huge on record and live it just sounded enormous. At one point in the show he did a Flex/Sexy Bitch mash-up, which got the crowd super excited and when he played Holiday he even had everyone in the upper stands jumping up and down. His set was filled mostly with new material and his older hits (Fix Up, Look Sharp, Stand Up Tall, Jus A Rascal), and his energy was relentless throughout his hour-long set. Compared to this, everything else felt like a bad episode of Hollyoaks and it could’ve easily been justified had he been in the slot filled by The Mars Volta.

Second Biggest Highlight Of The Day

Gin Wigmore. New Zealand’s favourite export of the moment easily played one of the best sets of the day as the sun went down on the top field. She’s come a long way in such a short time and it was obvious that she was having a genuinely good time playing for the audience. She was more than comfortable with herself onstage and her spontaneity made some of the slower songs from Holy Smoke stand out just as much as her hits Under My Skin and Oh My.

Biggest Let Down Of The Day

Before Ladyhawke took the stage, someone behind me was talking about how she really should’ve had a main stage slot considering she won six New Zealand music awards last year and she’s been on everyone’s lips ever since. What the fuck were Powderfinger even doing here anyway? (Answer: Shihad are busy recording their new album). They played the 5pm slot, which saw them rely on old songs to impress the crowd and it wasn’t even worth talking about. Still, the dude behind me probably should’ve waited until Ladyhawke had started playing until he stated his opinion because she was terrible. I’ve never seen her live before so she was probably just having an off-day but her vocals were rarely on point and she struggled to emulate the slickness that makes much of her album admirable. She giggled a little, but otherwise her presence on stage was almost non-existent. No fun at all, but she does deserve some props for mentioning Haiti and she pulled in a massive crowd too.

Best Time Signatures

Mastodon, obviously. The Atlanta-based band led by Brent Hinds raced through a whole bunch of tracks from Crack The Skye in their too-short 45 minute set. Early on, they had some minor sound problems but they handled it admirably – Hinds yelled across the stage while simultaneously managing to play the guitar solo from Oblivion. It was pretty graceful really and you could tell that these guys had obviously played a whole bunch of festivals before. Even though there wasn’t a huge turnout like I was expecting, they still managed to incite a brutal circle pit that managed to last throughout most of their set because the security had their backs to them. Silly! As for those time signatures – it’s hard to mosh to 7/8 bro!

The Band That Probably Should’ve Played Laneways Instead

It’s a pity that the turnout for them was so small but The Horrors blew Jet (who had played before them) right off the stage from the opening bars of their first song. I guess the hipsters had better things to do and all the Cassette 9-looking hotties that were there probably had no idea what all the noise was about, but I’m sure that whoever did see them was in awe. The band didn’t let up either and many of the songs from their brilliant album Primary Colours sounded even better in a live setting.

The Band That Had A Bigger Crowd Than Expected

Midnight Youth, strangely. These guys have been milking the local tour circuit lately and their album just got certified platinum. Still, they’re in a strange position as they slowly move to the forefront of mainstream New Zealand rock, and they should be careful. Even though they have a loyal fanbase, the backlash over them is huge and it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up more like The Feelers than Shihad. I watched some guy admirably hold both of his middle fingers up to the stage for a good 90 seconds before signally to his friend that he wanted a beer. But that’s just what happens when Midnight Youth follow up a set from a band like Mastodon. Also, I honestly wonder how much Jeremy Redmore gets laid – he’s still got that jewfro type thing going on and he dances pretty shamefully. My guess is that the bassist prolly takes home most of the cuties.

The End.

I don’t give a fuck about Muse and I think I hyped Dead Prez up way too much in my head. The songs they played were immaculate but they spent much of their set talking. They also came out late and finished early. Their political standpoint (complete with an Obama diss) had a lot of the crowd confused and they started to filter out as soon as they heard Hip Hop (which was amazing btw). It was a pity and like the rest of the day it felt like it wasn’t enough. I guess nothing could really top seeing something like this the night before. Next up, Laneways!