Thursday 27th January 2011
As the Big Day Out hit Sydney for another year, so too did two of the hottest and most humid days the city has experienced all summer. The sterile concrete expanse of Sydney’s showgrounds provided little reprieve from the scorching sun and many punters took a minimalistic approach to their outfits in order to cope.
The summer festival is an odd place. It’s where you have your person and your bag searched thoroughly. It’s a place where an innocent can of deodorant gets confiscated. At the same time, it’s a place where a crusty old hippie guy can somehow manage to get through the doors with a child’s plastic tricycle.
The Vines kicked off the action on the main stage. It’s weird to think that a band that was once one of the new saviours of rock music was now the opening band instead of being one of the main draws as they were the first time they played the Big Day Out in 2003. Even at 11.30 in the morning, Craig Nicholls shrieked, hollered and trashed the stage.
Brit garage band the Jim Jones Revue were one of the surprise names on the bill this year. They were also one of the highlights. Their bluesy, dirty rock seemed slightly out of place so early in the afternoon but they were a lot of fun. One thinks a darker venue later in the evening would be more suited to their sound.
You would suspect that the closest we’re ever likely to get to the perpetual rumour of AC/DC doing the Big Day Out is Airbourne doing the Big Day Out.
CSS appearing so early seems criminal. Your humble reviewer once thought of them as a bit of a novelty act but they’re actually a damn tight band. Lovefoxx is a really charismatic and funny frontwoman. ‘Music Is My Hot Hot Sex’ just about sums them up.
It was great to see The Greenhornes again. They’ve been relatively inactive while Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler have been involved in The Raconteurs (both) and The Dead Weather (Lawrence). Their set highlighted a lot of tracks from their new album, Four Stars, their first in eight years.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the entire line-up on this second day was The Hummingbirds. The seminal Sydney band had not appeared since 1993. The hooks and great harmonies were greeted warmly by the small but enthusiastic crowd. Hopefully they make some more appearances. It would be a real shame if this was it.
Last time The Stooges appeared at the Big Day Out, they blew every other band off stage. Returning this time with Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson replacing the late Ron Asheton, they managed to blow everyone of stage again. It’s pretty hard to go wrong when your first two tracks are ‘Raw Power’ and ‘Search and Destroy’. The re-addition of Williamson into the fold has also meant that their set now highlights the overlooked and recently re-issued Kill City album that he and Iggy Pop recorded following The Stooges’ demise.
As the sun went down, so too did the rain. It made hearing Sia slightly more bearable.
To mark 20 years since its release, Primal Scream played their landmark album Screamadelica in full. Staying true to the original while also managing to make it an engaging live performance, it showed that the band is in really good form at the moment. The decision to not play the tracks in order was a bit of a masterstroke too, meaning that the whole thing culminated in extended blistering psychedelic versions of ‘Higher Than The Sun’, ‘Loaded’ and ‘Come Together’. The whole album concert is becoming a bit passé now but this is one time where it actually worked (and the Scream has at least two more albums they could present in this form as well).
While Rammstein and Tool headlined the main stage to the masses, Nick Cave’s Grinderman drew things to a close on the outer stages. More dirty rock by older gents. But there’s an attitude and feeling that the likes of them, The Stooges and Primal Scream are able to bring to the stage that many younger bands fail to pull off. You can’t fake this stuff.
Returning home just before midnight, it was still hot and humid. The train was full of tired people with skin as red as lobsters. They’re either brave or silly – it’s hard to describe.
Michael Hartt
