Big Day Out 2011

Along with 52,000 other people and 100+ bands, I braved the 40 degree heat and headed to Melbourne annual Big Day Out.

First up; the Vines. Their set featured mostly old songs, spare Gimme Love a brand new track from their up coming album Future Primitive; to be released in April of this year. And despite the mercury already rising to 30+ the crowd danced and sung along to hit single Get Free.

We didn’t have to walk too far (the stages were right next together in fact) to catch our next pick; Little Red. I was surprised at the extent to which the crowd sung along, but it was nothing compared to when they played their hit single and number 2 song of Triple J’s hottest 100; Rock It.

This time it was quite a journey to see Children Collide, though we didn't actually see them, instead took up place under the shade of a tree and listened. I’ve already seen them live, so it didn’t bother me not to see them play, it’s all about the music isn’t it? And they were wonderful.

At this stage we had a break in our program to have our lunch and catch a little bit of shade. But soon after we caught Gyroscope. It was 3:00pm, one of the hottest parts of the day, but that didn’t dampen our sprits, though we were quite sweaty. The crowd (where I was at least) were mostly fans, so it was a great atmosphere to be around, and even I joined in when they played their hits. But unfortunately when they plated Breed Obsession, we were out of the mosh pit because it was far too hot.

We had a short break, in which we spent in the misting dome and then got to the blue stage early to see Birds Of Tokyo. Though I would have preferred to see them before they released their 2nd album, but they were still great live, and when they played their old stuff and Plans, the whole crowd sung in chorus.

We had yet another break while we waited to finally see my favourite band eve, Wolfmother. Coming up to the date, I was worried that the new line-up wouldn’t be as good as seeing the original one live (not that can say that I ever did, this was my first time seeing them) but I definitely wasn’t disappointed. At one point, I was quite close to tears, but I soon forgot and was moshing along with the rest of the Wolfies. They played all their wonderful songs from their old album with a few singles from their new one and I sung every single word. They even played a favourite of mine; Vagabond, and there was only one thing disappointing, was that they didn’t play Minds Eye, oh that and I didn’t get to touch Andrew Stockdale’s hand when he jumped off stage.

After the excitement of Wofmother, we dawdled along to catch the second half of Rammstein’s set. It was the biggest crowd that I had seen the day, and it even had pyrotechnics and a foam cannon for the song Pussy, to keep us entertained. Du Hast was quite the song, with an Australian crowd singing in German.

And now almost two weeks later, I still bear the mark of the sun, and will always remember my first Big Day Out.