Big Day Out 2008
What an awful festival. Bjork’s absence was felt muchly in our household.
But these three bands all kicked ass. Point form notes. What they played.
Spoon
- the most consistent band on earth (both live and on record)
- horn section = very cool
- Britt Daniel losing it with security = priceless (he called one guy an asshole AND a dipshit)
- followed the worst band on Earth, Enter Shikari
Setlist
The Beast And Dragon, Adored / Small Stakes / Stay Don’t Go* / The Underdog* / The Ghost of You Lingers / Don’t You Evah / I Summon You / My Mathematical Mind / You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb* / Jonathon Fisk* / The Way We Get By
* featured a horn section
Arcade Fire
- the best live band on Earth, even in a festival setting
- not nearly as special as the first Enmore show
- Regine all over the place tonight
- Will jumped off stage and ran into the crowd. Like WAY into it.
- ended with an accapella coda to Rebellion (Lies)…beautiful
- Win sang a couple lines of Bjork’s Declare Independence after Tunnels
- Was it just me or did they have more time when they finished?
- I want to be in this band
Setlist
Wake Up / Keep The Car Running / No Cars Go / Haiti / Laika / Intervention / Ocean Of Noise / Tunnels / The Well and the Lighthouse / (Antichrist Television Blues) / Power Out / Rebellion (Lies)
LCD Soundsystem
- James Murphy is fucking rad. RAD.
- All My Friends somehow managed to be better live
- Seriously
- Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
- No Someone Great was the only let down
- Although Losing My Edge and Get Innocuous would have been cool
- Kick ass live band
- Arcade Fire members helped out on a couple songs
Setlist
Us v. Them / Daft Punk Is Playing At My House / Time To Get Away / North American Scum / All My Friends / Tribulations / Movement / Yeah / New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
Here’s the last 90 seconds of All My Friends. Awesomeness.
My photos from Big Day Out 2008 here.
Loser of the Day Award goes to the guy with the following written in black marker on the back of his shirt:
I’ve Been
Reincarnated
As
Heath Ledger
Someone doesn’t grasp the concept of reincarnation.
I was going to rant and rave about the D-Barrier Entrance fiasco and the awful people in attendance. But I won’t. I will just never attend Big Day Out again. Unless Radiohead play….but even then….I don’t know.
January 26th, 2008 15:26
Ouch. I haven’t been to a BDO since the year Kraftwerk played – can’t say I’ve ever really missed it.
Still, it’s useful in that it brings a few decent bands out every year, and they tend to all do sideshows. I’m just leave the festival itself for the 15 year olds. Everyone’s happy that way.
January 27th, 2008 04:06
Sad to hear you didn’t like the fest. I found it a great day, even though I was punched in the stomach by a bogan and the immense amount of fluoro twats meant the crowd was soaked in fail and people deserving to become an hero.
If you ever do go again, three points to remember:
1) Stuff the D, stay in the outfield nearest to the stage at which the headliner is NOT playing. I did this and was greeted by nice Arcade Fire fans who respected me and everyone else around them. Nice vibe in crummy place = decent viewing of awesome band.
2) Find bands that you know wont draw the attention of idiots and go to them. The people there will be much brighter and the bands will be playing a much better set for those that bothered to show up. Exhibit A: Battles.
3) Never go for less than four artists. Day guarenteed to ruined by all the fail it draws. Was only interested by three bands in 2007, watched all but one at sideshows.
And there were definitely bigger losers than that Heath dude in attendance. Oh, how there damn well were. And I wonder, how the fuck do they get tickets to this when it’s so hard for us?
January 27th, 2008 10:17
Wow, you know, from the angle of that spoon photo it seems I would have been like, 5 metres forward from you.
Yeah the security guys were complete wankers. And when he did call them that, they just kinda smirked and continued.
Did you notice the horrible bass/keyboard problems they were having? I don’t think Spoon were very happy, the glances Britt was giving to the sound desk technician could have killed.
January 27th, 2008 10:42
Albert: we had 4 artists we were SUPER excited to see…until Bjork pulled out. And when tickets went on sale there was no guarantee of sideshows.
We ended up not getting the refund only because it was our only chance of seeing LCD and Spoon as well as our last chance to see Arcade Fire for who knows how long.
January 27th, 2008 11:30
That was my fear of going to Splendour in the Grass last year. I wanted to see 4 artists incredibly, yet in the end just went to two sideshows. And, just like in your situation, one did pull out (Klaxons).
However, from what I heard that festival was quite decent overall. I think camping detracts losers.
And to add to Matt’s comment, I think Spoon share the same feelings as you about BDO, it seemed noticable after the finale – they just said “bye” and walked off. Would have been interesting to see how they handled Melbourne.
January 27th, 2008 18:00
A large majority of the people there were ridiculously annoying… like the wife-beater wearing 40 year old behind me in Arcade Fire who continued to boo them… ugh people.
Battles was surprisingly the highlight of my day
January 27th, 2008 23:23
Makes me feel less sad about not going.