Hard News: Notes for a Big Day Out
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Just got in after some solid after partying.
Impressions?
LCD soundsystem sounded like a Depeche Mode for our times.
Rage against the machine rocked.
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Just got in after some solid after partying.
Respect!
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We went over to Billy Bragg, who was a bit lacking.
Were you there right at the beginning of his set? Cos he said that he'd left his backing music at the hotel and he wasn't sure how it was going to work. It did come across as being more sparse than it should have, but I enjoyed him.
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Yes, even if I did wish she'd played more of a pop show, it was remarkable art.
You might be interested in this New Yorker profile by Alex Ross - it's long (consider where it was published) but fascinating.
Though she now spends much of her time in New York, she keeps coming back to Iceland, where she lives for several months of the year. The relative simplicity of the place is reassuring to her. Once, she translated a local news headline for my benefit: “TIRE TRACKS IN FOOTBALL FIELD.” A look of pleasure crossed her face as she studied photographic evidence of the catastrophe. “This is so Iceland,” she said.
heh...
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Glyn,
What a great day! Missed the early stuff so day started for me with nostalgia at Billy Bragg (the line about his backing tapes was a JOKE about other bands' over reliance on them!). He was perfect for 4 o'clock intensity in the sun, with his story and joke telling. An all round entertainer and his guitar sounded great. Now he's 50 he should run for the UK Parliament - he'd surely be their answer to Peter Garrett, but better!
Tom Morello's solo set was actually quite good for a rabble-rousing US-style thing (the Yankee Billy Bragg anyone?). Arcade Fire were OK but sound no good where we were so so checked out Unkle (body and ear splitting bass down the front - lasted three songs!) Battles was interesting and Shihad absolutley rocked the house again. Jon Toogood is f'ing brilliant but uses the f'ing f word all thru the set song breaks (tiresome). Bjork was entertaining though the volume of her band was too low even at the lower west stand near her stage. Briiliant visuals and her voice is incredible - would have been ideal for the St James or Town Hall.
LCD Soundsystem was amazing. Brilliant sound mix; proper band; complex rhythms mashing to a crescendo each song. Without doubt my fave act of the day by a country mile. They promised to come back too so I'm now hanging for that. I'm not a Rage fan so headed for the Clean and was very impressed, and Supergroove wrapped up the night beautifully.
God I love the BDO. Cheers all. PS Wilco coming soon!
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Billy Bragg (the line about his backing tapes was a JOKE about other bands' over reliance on them!)
Heh, I'm a live Bragg virgin, so I didn't know what to expect (or not expect). I was standing nearer the back, so I suspect the joke was taken at face value by most surrounding me (i.e. non fans = no lolz).
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So the cops didn't come on stage and arrest Bjork for the assault on photographer rap? She so should get busted - zero tolerance for violence, I say.
I saw Billy Bragg at the SFBH warm-up gig on Wednesday. He was excellent - was making jokes about opening for RATM at the BDO. Also, one could watch the show while enjoying a cold pint of Macs Pilsner in a real glass.
(For those that might at this point suggest I'm an old git for not going to festivals, I'm going to Kiwiburn on the 1st Feb and Luminate 08 after that.
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Righto, I have written about my Big Day Out experience, which is quite different to yours, kind of like yours, and has a lot in common with yours.
But what I'm maybe even more excited about [camera nerdery starts here] are the photos I took. I brought along my new Canon G9, which is more powerful than many of the lower-end SLRs that were being turned away at the door, because the G9 is a compact digital and didn't match the SLR mugshot the bag-checkers were using to to weed out the undesirable cameras. Ha!
Anyway, the G9 has a digital zoom that let me get some decent photos far from the stage, including a spooky one of Kate Nash where she appears to be staring right at me, and this awesome one of Mr Scott of the Phoenix foundation doing the shouty "It's a lie!" bit from Nest Egg.
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*grumble*
Why does the first BDO worth going to for ages have to be scheduled while I'm out of the country. Arcade Fire! LCD Soundsystem! Spoon! I'm living in Canada and its impossible to get tickets to an Arcade Fire gig. Gah. Ah well, I shall comfort myself with the ludicrous number of other gigs on in Toronto - great place for live music.
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I love reading your summation of things, Robyn - so much I agree with. Every year, I think maybe I should buy a ticket to the BDO just to experience it. I used to love Sweetwaters, how different can it be? (apart from the fact that BDO isn't a weekend affair in the middle of nowhere so you have to spend an entire three days crammed in a tent, not washing..........) and I know, intellectually, that it is very different to BDO. I never know who most of the bands are, and if I do, they're too loud for me. ( And after all, that's what BDO was, a rockfest, n'est-ce pas?) Or I don't get them. But still. I would like to go just once. Maybe next year, I will.
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I was pissed off when we got there at 4.45 to see Battles and then found that they'd been moved to 6pm opposite the Arcade Fire, but oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god the Arcade Fire were amazing, so emotional and spiritual and just like, wow. Wow wow wow.
And we watched Bjork and then went home. Hurray for being old enough to realise that you don't have to stick around all day if you're not that interested in any other bands.
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I never know who most of the bands are, and if I do, they're too loud for me.
The first BDO had two stages and it was all rock. Now there are seven stages and a greater variety of music. You can stick to the smaller stages, totally avoid the main stadium and have a much quieter, nicer BDO, and, like Jo said, even leave early.
Some, uh, older BDO-goers do it with the air-conditioned comfort of a hospitality room, but that's cheating.
It can be a bit of an ordeal at times, but there's always something good there.
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And we watched Bjork and then went home. Hurray for being old enough to realise that you don't have to stick around all day if you're not that interested in any other bands.
Fair enogh, but that meant you missed possibly the best band at the whole show ...
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Some, uh, older BDO-goers do it with the air-conditioned comfort of a hospitality room, but that's cheating.
And I believe you when you say that you'd turn down one of those invites on principle ...
As a BDO-goer of 14 years' standing, I have no shame in saying it's nice to have a table, a bar and a clean toilet to pop back to occasionally.
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And I believe you when you say that you'd turn down one of those invites on principle ...
Well, I'm yet to be invited to a hospitality room, but I'm more than happy to be ethically challenged by such an invite next year!
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Fair enogh, but that meant you missed possibly the best band at the whole show ...
No, didn't you hear me when I said that I did most definitely see the Arcade Fire?
*sticks her tongue out petulantly*Some, uh, older BDO-goers do it with the air-conditioned comfort of a hospitality room, but that's cheating.
In 2006 and 2007, a lovely friend got me into the Immortals' Lounge, so last year after someone forced me to go see Eskimo Joe at some ungodly early hour, we spent three hours sitting in arm chairs doing the crosswords before Lily Allen. This year, I wasn't sure if I could handle going back with all the plebs, but luckily the timetable meant it was deal-able. And besides, I would have done a lot more and paid a lot more to see the Arcade Fire. Insert more fan-girl squealing here.
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Without re-hashing all the other good points made, the best act was surely Tommy 'Tan Tan' and Cool Wise Men.
We popped out of LCD Soundsystem to check out Rage, got Bulls on Parade ticked off so headed back to the Lilypad where these cats were playing - Cool Wise Men are a reggae/funk/calypso set of 20-something Japanese guys and Tommy 'Tan Tan' is one of the original Jamaican trumpeters .
Only heard the last three songs of their set but it was magic - having come from a brief taste of Rage's, well, rage, the 4piece horn section and hammond calypso sounds was quite the contrast. There was only about 2 dozen people dancing there with maybe the same lying around on the grass but it was enough - and Mr Tan Tan, who must be in his 60s at least, still managed to gesture the lovely young ladies backstage at the end of it... -
Apart from the young whippersnapper on the Stuff blog going on about Kool Keith "Whoever he is..."
The Herald went one better, with their award to some guy called "DJ Octagon" praising his fake beard.
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