Big Day Out - Perth, 5th February 2012
Words: Todd Lockley
On a sunny Perth Sunday afternoon, with the river and the city its perfect backdrop, Big Day Out 2012 version 20 made its way to Mcallum Park, drawing what seemed like a younger, fresh-faced-to-music-festivals crowd, but the promise of Chris Cornell and the boys made the mix a little less bright - gotta love all black metal purists.
As the lunchtime hour arrived, BDO stalwarts and punk rock legends, Frenzal Rhomb, took to the main stage and unleashed their awesome brand of Aussie punk. Lead man Jay Whalley was in fine form, smashing through the tried and true classics Mum Changed The Locks, Never Had So Much Fun and Punch In The Face, with a decent spattering of their fine new album, Smoko At The Dog Food Factory, with Knuckleheads and When My Baby Smiles At Me I Go To Rehab keeping the youngens sweaty.
Interesting choice for the mainly electronic Boiler Room stage, Bluejuice brought their silly yet oh-so-fun brand of dance-punk to the masses, picking off the crowd faves Act Yr Age, Vitriol and a rousing rendition of Broken Legs. Local Drum and Bass superstars Ekko and Sidetrack soon stepped behind the decks and turned the boiler room into the dirty, sweaty gurn land we all know and love, smashing out all the freshest club bangers to a crowd that didn’t know whether to mosh or do the running man.
New Zealand’s pretty, pint sized Kimbra had the closest thing to diva happening over on the smaller Converse Green Stage. Unfortunately, the stage settings this year were terrible; sounds clashed from stage to stage and there was little shade at best, but Kimbra battled through the Boiler Room’s soundbleed, the sun and heat to send out Settle Down and an upbeat rendition of Cameo Love for the pre pubescent fans at stage front. Back in the Boiler Room, Perth hip hop export Drapht, also had the youngens in a frenzy, spitting out Jimmy Recard then his death, RIP JR before Adelaide’s Trialz joined him onstage for an epic collaboration of The Dan, The Paul.
Q-Bik and the main man Seeka MC had the crowd in the palms of their hands, producing the most epic set of the day from the more dance driven acts. But kids? It's dance music! Ah, fuck it! Keep moshing!
On the main stage, The Living End brought something special to day, with a hit driven set that included a back to back to back barrage of Roll On, Who's Gonna Save Us and Prisoner Of Society. It wasn’t long before one of those ultra cool BDO moments happened, with Chris Cheney being joined by The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran for a 20 year anniversary rendition of Nirvana's Breed, before White Noise and West End Riot brought the End to Living - get it?
Interesting choice for the mainly electronic Boiler Room stage, Bluejuice brought their silly yet oh-so-fun brand of dance-punk to the masses, picking off the crowd faves Act Yr Age, Vitriol and a rousing rendition of Broken Legs. Local Drum and Bass superstars Ekko and Sidetrack soon stepped behind the decks and turned the boiler room into the dirty, sweaty gurn land we all know and love, smashing out all the freshest club bangers to a crowd that didn’t know whether to mosh or do the running man.
New Zealand’s pretty, pint sized Kimbra had the closest thing to diva happening over on the smaller Converse Green Stage. Unfortunately, the stage settings this year were terrible; sounds clashed from stage to stage and there was little shade at best, but Kimbra battled through the Boiler Room’s soundbleed, the sun and heat to send out Settle Down and an upbeat rendition of Cameo Love for the pre pubescent fans at stage front. Back in the Boiler Room, Perth hip hop export Drapht, also had the youngens in a frenzy, spitting out Jimmy Recard then his death, RIP JR before Adelaide’s Trialz joined him onstage for an epic collaboration of The Dan, The Paul.
Q-Bik and the main man Seeka MC had the crowd in the palms of their hands, producing the most epic set of the day from the more dance driven acts. But kids? It's dance music! Ah, fuck it! Keep moshing!
On the main stage, The Living End brought something special to day, with a hit driven set that included a back to back to back barrage of Roll On, Who's Gonna Save Us and Prisoner Of Society. It wasn’t long before one of those ultra cool BDO moments happened, with Chris Cheney being joined by The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran for a 20 year anniversary rendition of Nirvana's Breed, before White Noise and West End Riot brought the End to Living - get it?
The boys from Regurgitator stepped onto the tiny skate stage and despite the stage’s sound issues (the sound was trashy if you weren’t within the first 20 metres), blasted through Everyday Formula, I Will Lick Your Asshole and Polyester Girl off the all important Unit album, before kicking us around with wild long metal wigs to the Kung Foo Sing. They held it all together through the terrible sound and ended with (!) Song Formerly Known As. It wasn’t all bad; depending your vantage point you could listen to the Gurge and see skateboard legend Tony Hawk bust out Judo and Method airs on the mass skate ramp backing onto our beautiful city skyline.
Back in the boiler room, feral looking badman Bassnectar had a huge circle pit happening for his bass drowning dubstep, blasting in Blokhe4d's The Way Life Used To Be and a massive Metallica riff up before some fuckwit let off a fire extinguisher and cleared most of the crowd. Dumb arse!
Outside the Boiler Room's massive tent, the new kings of indie, Foster The People, were putting on the set of the day; a huge light show, perfect vocals and for a debut album band. And what a catalogue of hits they have. They breezed through Call It What You Want and Warrant, before Helena Beat brought out the feel good vibes as the sun faded away. Soon the song everyone wanted to hear rounded out the set as Pumped Up Kicks signalled the end with the band being joined by members of Cage The Elephant and Architecture In Helsinki. Beauty!
My Chemical Romance had all in attendance waving their hands in unison, while English rockers Kasabian wasted no time getting down to business, asking Where Did All The Love Go? just three songs into their set, before, in what seemed like no time, signalling the end of their Australian Big Day Out experience with Fire.
Back in the boiler room, feral looking badman Bassnectar had a huge circle pit happening for his bass drowning dubstep, blasting in Blokhe4d's The Way Life Used To Be and a massive Metallica riff up before some fuckwit let off a fire extinguisher and cleared most of the crowd. Dumb arse!
Outside the Boiler Room's massive tent, the new kings of indie, Foster The People, were putting on the set of the day; a huge light show, perfect vocals and for a debut album band. And what a catalogue of hits they have. They breezed through Call It What You Want and Warrant, before Helena Beat brought out the feel good vibes as the sun faded away. Soon the song everyone wanted to hear rounded out the set as Pumped Up Kicks signalled the end with the band being joined by members of Cage The Elephant and Architecture In Helsinki. Beauty!
My Chemical Romance had all in attendance waving their hands in unison, while English rockers Kasabian wasted no time getting down to business, asking Where Did All The Love Go? just three songs into their set, before, in what seemed like no time, signalling the end of their Australian Big Day Out experience with Fire.
And then it was time for headline act Soundgarden to show all of Perth why Kanye West eats a whole lotta dick. Kanye fucking who?!? This is Soundgarden!
These rock n roll legends were here back in 1997 but the chemistry and vibe wasn’t there. This time it was, and it was fantastic! With a quick "Hey Perth", Cornell launched into the classics Blow Up The Outside World, Black Hole Sun and Spoon Man as well as My Wave and oh my fucking god album track Ty Cobb. Proving just why Big Day Out didn’t need Kanye, Soundgarden blew up the (Big Day) Out-side world and brought an epic end to main stage proceedings.
In the boiler room, London duo Nero launched straight into Fisher and Pryce intro to Dubsteps Welcome Reality opener Doomsday before running through all the synth driven pop that have made them household names. Innocence, Promises and the ever epic feel good Me And You were sounded out and brought a close to what could be the final edition of Big Day Out in Perth. It was a success in the eyes of the punters who took the gamble and headed along.
A lot has changed in the 15 years between Soundgarden’s Big Day Out performances and perhaps not necessarily for the better. But regardless, here’s hoping it’ll happen again next year.
These rock n roll legends were here back in 1997 but the chemistry and vibe wasn’t there. This time it was, and it was fantastic! With a quick "Hey Perth", Cornell launched into the classics Blow Up The Outside World, Black Hole Sun and Spoon Man as well as My Wave and oh my fucking god album track Ty Cobb. Proving just why Big Day Out didn’t need Kanye, Soundgarden blew up the (Big Day) Out-side world and brought an epic end to main stage proceedings.
In the boiler room, London duo Nero launched straight into Fisher and Pryce intro to Dubsteps Welcome Reality opener Doomsday before running through all the synth driven pop that have made them household names. Innocence, Promises and the ever epic feel good Me And You were sounded out and brought a close to what could be the final edition of Big Day Out in Perth. It was a success in the eyes of the punters who took the gamble and headed along.
A lot has changed in the 15 years between Soundgarden’s Big Day Out performances and perhaps not necessarily for the better. But regardless, here’s hoping it’ll happen again next year.