BIG DAY OUT

Sunday, February 5, 2012
McCallum Park

We all know the struggles that organisers had in getting the 20th anniversary if the Big Day Out off the ground as every step was well documented, but few knew what to expect when walking into the festival’s new home ground on the Victoria Park foreshore. Gone was the main two stage arena and gone were the crowds. Instead we had a much smaller festival set in an ideal riverside locale, with a decent selection of quality acts alongside gimmicky inclusions like Tony Hawk and a giant waterslide.
Low on polish but high on anything-goes exuberance, Californian lo-fi surf-pop duo Best Coast exuded wall-punching energy, ugly-yet-endearing noise, and raging nostalgia for stale bong water and sunburn. The music itself was relentlessly blanched in fuzz, an intentionally scuzzy sound that, despite frontwoman Bethany Cosentino’s annoying vocals, did less to limit these songs than grant them a claustrophobically dense beauty.
Jaunty, scruffy, carefree and accomplished, British indie rockers The Vaccines used their 45-minute set to make the case for some long-forgotten virtues: fast songs, staccato chords, songs about trysts in squalid apartments. You know, the good stuff. Showcasing a heartily uplifting brew of scruffy street style and stammering pop-punk tunes, Sydneysiders Bluejuice drew one of the biggest crowds in the first half of the day, with supremely popular tunes  Act Yr Age and Broken Leg resulting in some of the biggest sing-alongs of the festival.
Despite garnering some less than favourable reviews from their sets at the Sydney and Melbourne BDOs, shock-friendly Los Angeles hip hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All’s bratty anarchy did not disappoint. Rowdy chants of “Wolf! Gang!”, “Fuck The Po-lice!” and “Kill People! Burn Shit! Fuck School!” punctuated their thrilling set, while frontman Tyler The Creator impressed with a bulked-up rendition of his solo hit Yonkers before launching himself into the audience, carried upon the shoulders of the hundreds of punters crammed against the barriers. Swagnificent.
As Odd Future left the Boiler Stage, naïve youngsters weren’t quite sure how to react to the one and only Q-BIK smashing out some bangin’ drum’n’bass. There was some head-thrashing, ‘bend-and-snapping’ and even some stunned mullet reactions.There was a mass exodus and influx when Sam La More and Groove Terminator hit the decks as Tonite Only and began their party bangin’ set with annoyingly overplayed smash hit We Run The Nite. Fans of anthemic popsters The Jezabels had to contend with the turbo electro house mayhem that penetrated out of the Boiler Stage.
Smashing through tracks from Divergent Spectrum, San Francisco based DJ and producer Bassnectar pumped out an annihilating set of raw, big bass beats which resulted in the creation of a mental boy pit in the centre of jam-packed bass head crowd. Immature and inconsiderate, the ‘pit circle’ was fun for about six people; everyone else got stabbed in the boobs by young limbs. A remix of Martin Solveig’s Hello was a strange addition to his predominantly ruthless set but not as strange as when some dickhead let off a fire extingrisher which saw everyone vacate the dancefloor nearing the end of his set. Mix maestro Girl Talk never fails to impress with his live show. With probably the biggest crowd out of any of the acts on the line-up for the day, large, blown up colourful pillows and balls, toilet paper and confetti shot through the air as party animals bopped in the sand pit and on stage. Gillis is a grand entertainer and he did just that – catering for all attention spans.
True drum’n’bass fans were on the frontline for our very own ShockOne’s set. Accompanied by the charismatic MC Shureshock, glowsticks and hands were in the air for the entire of their set – they absolutely owned it. Popular track Polygon went off but when Crucify Me hit the speakers, shit got real.
After the DJ set which Dan Stephens of Nero played at Parklife last year, expectations were high for the duo to deliver a mind-bending, brand new live show. Perched up on their mini rocket-sized decks, Stephens and Ray appeared in sunglasses and pumped through their largely Welcome Reality based set. Although Alana Watson on vocals appeared in the flesh, their live show was a little disappointing and resembled a try hard Daft Punk show. Still, the UK duo were worshipped as they ran through Innocence, Guilt, My Eyes and the popular Promises.
Battles also impressed all onlookers with their now-three-piece show. Sure they may have been down a singer, but they still sampled his voice before doing the same with Gary Numan on My Machines, except in this case Numan’s head was projected onto a giant screen behind them. Creepy, but not as creepy as some of the dancing going on during the show.
Folksters Boy & Bear sounded so fantastic live it scarcely mattered that their Mumford & Sons-meets-Fleet Foxes vibe offered little in the way of innovation or originality. While it was not unexpected that the vocal harmonies were fantastic, what was surprising is how muscular the band sounded. Even the most delicate songs – Golden Jubilee, Feeding Line – seemed to be transformed into something more forceful, almost anthemic, without sacrificing their subtleties. Surprisingly great.
The Local Produce stage saw it’s fair share of great action. Pond were impressive as always as they dove into The Stooges’ TV Eye before taking us on a journey of heavy white boy funk.
Playing at the same time as another ‘90s icon on another stage, Soundgarden played to the smallest crowd as BDO headliner would have ever played to in Perth. Still, this didn’t stop them from delivering a textbook rock show to their devoted fans. After a stagehand vacuumed the stage, the four Seattle veterans emerged and dove into Searching With My Good Eye Closed before the band’s biggest songs like Spoonman and Jesus Christ Pose aired surprisingly early. Despite coming off a near-15 year break and only being a part time band since reforming, the band sounded a cohesive as ever. Matt Cameron remains a machine behind the kit, Kim Thayil barely moved while he bashed out flawless solos, and Ben Shepherd violently bashed his low-slung bass and gave death stares to the crowd. Of course is was Chris Cornell who received most proposals of marriage from gals and guys in the crowd as he strutted around the stage lapping up the attention. Their finale was a tad excessive with a long version of Slaves & Bulldovers giving the band a chance to create walls of feedback while Cornell gave a spoken word reading of Bob Dylan’s version of In My Time Of Dyin’.
The headlining acts may have been without the over the top theatrics we’ve come to expect from the BDO in recent years, but Perth BDO #19 had it’s fair share of lasting moments for the memory bank. Here’s hoping it’s not put to sleep in 2013.

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD, ANNABEL MACLEAN & MATTHEW HOGAN