Musical smorgasbord by the sea
I entered the gates to this year’s Gold Coast
Big Day Out with high hopes - high hopes the rain would stay away
for one. I had my favourites in mind and I was a girl on a mission
to see them all. All was going well to make it inside in time
for British India; however our train and bus
connections were delayed so long that I missed their set. Friends
told me though it was the best set, perhaps of the day.
Things
got better though, starting with Gyroscope.These
guys delivered an electric set. A dappled array of new and old
material with 'Snakeskin' and new single '1981' demonstrating
these Perth lads’ have fashioned themselves to be serious
crowd worthy musicians. Moving on quickly I enjoyed the end stages
of Dizzee Rascal. This black British rap-maestro
and his entourage brought a high-energy pumping, krumping style
of music that I was quite happy to dance to. Flex prompting me
to shake my bootie wildly along with the other 3,000 people I
was sure were crammed in under the Boiler tent.
We trundled about after Dizzee’s closing only
to hear the same rapturous set from Hilltop Hoods
that they are so polished at performing these days. Then it was
time to race back to Bexta at the Boiler room as she wound up
for the long awaited Pnau to take to the stage.
These guys sang tracks from their new self titled offering opening
with 'Wild Strawberries' and then moved into the more sultry sounds
of their first LP Sambanova. Back into their new stuff
and 'No More Violence' had the crowd singing along with them.
Peter Mayes and Nick Littlemore kept the vibe alive with a resounding
rendition (way better than the album can do justice) of 'Come
Together'. This definitely brought the crowd together as well.
Invited special guest Luke Steele (who features on vocals for
some of the album tracks) joined them too. He punched out the
closing performance of 'With you forever'.
It took me a while to recover from the elation of
seeing these guys perform again - it had a been a long time between
sets for me with Pnau - but I raced down to the main stage arena
to catch a glimpse of those lads from Canada the Arcade
Fire. I have to say I heard a few mixed reviews about
this band’s performance on stage, but I really enjoyed their
energy levels and what they bought in a live show. Edwin and Regine
just two of the large band’s members rocked out playing
tracks from their epic album Neon Bible including 'Windowsill'
and of course 'Keep the car running' as well as 'Wake Up' and
'No cars go'. There is no doubt these guys delivered a big sound
to an enamoured crowd.
Back
again to the Boiler room to wait for James Lavelle,
front man of UK super electro experimental-group Unkle. It was
easy to see why the founder of the Mo Wax label has such an eye
for talent these days, as he’s so talented himself. These
guys didn’t fail to impress, whether it was that I was in
the mood for some melodic smooth guitar- based electronica or
that twilight had faded quite literally to evening but I let myself
become transfixed by these guys. 'Lonely Souls' was the opener
to remind us of where they’ve been and then 'Chemistry'
had the big drums behind it to rouse our attention and 'Hold my
Hand' similarly clung to my heart; but it was the hark back to
yesteryear where they launched into 'Rabbit in Headlights' that
clinched the deal for me as the best act of the evening. The tracks
that Lavelle provides vocals for on the album War Stories were
also stand outs including the big summertime anthem 'Burn My Shadow'.
Getting down to the business end of the evening,
my crew and I had a wicked boogie to old faithful Krafty
Kuts who cut the dance floor with some excellent breaks
including quite a bit of Daft Punk peppered in amongst his high
rolling set. But our group split in two as some couldn’t
justify the dancing when all that they had come for really was
to witness Rage Against the Machine in action.
I have to say I waited until the end of Krafty’s
set to trek down to observe the magic for myself. 'Guerrilla Radio'
was pretty insane and 'Know Your Enemy' had the entire crowd singing
along with each verse. 'Testify' was a lot bigger than you could
imagine as well. The political undertones of this music reverberated
throughout the crowd too, Zach De La Rocha inciting a near mass
stampede towards himself with the rousing of the crowd in 'Bomb
Track'. Of course 'Killing in the Name' of elated the 56,000 people
who had gathered to see this band reformed, their dreams no doubt
realised.
I have to say the one big disappointment of the
evening was the fact that this year’s promoters thought
they could pass off Carl Cox as the 'major international
DJ' to close the festival. Hmm... he lives half his year in Australia
these days and I have to say he taunted the crowd with some very
hard house – not my style at all. So we departed the day
a little broken and bruised but satisfied we’d had a big
enough day.
Ruth Bailey
