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I'm posting this long after the event, just so it can be attached to the BDO reviews on that event.

Sun 1 Feb – Big Day Out

The Big Day Out was fun, but...OH SO HOT. There was one point during the day when we were pushing our way through a crowd (not my favourite pastime) and we got stuck a few times, and sweat was literally pouring down my legs. It was icky to the max!

Fi, Michelle and I met at my place (Sarah and Phil got a lift to Claremont with Kate and Barry) and drove to North Freo train station. On the way there we dropped in at Anthony's to pick up Bruna, Kele (yay, she's back!!) and Doug. Anthony was still asleep and I think he only rocked up to the BDO about 8:30 pm. Ha.

We got the train from North Freo to Showgrounds and immediately when we got inside I lost track of Bruna and co. But I fully expected that to happen and didn't try to remedy it. I spent the first few hours with Fi and Michelle (probably 5 hours or so??), and we saw the Grates, a bit of Cog (yay!), very tiny bit of the Ting Tings (we couldn't get into the Green Stage venue as it was utterly crowded), then back to the main stage(s) for Sneaky Sound System (where I learned that the chick from Primary, Connie Mitchell, is infact also the chick from Sneaky Sound System).

We were actually there in preparation for Pendulum who put on a cracking show! I was very impressed by the fact that the drumming was done live. That guy must have been pouring buckets of sweat, dude. So essentially the crowd went off to Pendulum in the horribly searing heat.

I am having a mental blank on what we did next... We did spend some time in the Lilypad at one point, where they had apparently run out of pretty much all their drinks... Idiots! Guess they're not used to the Perth BDO selling out. Hehe.

Later on we watched the Living End's set from the limestone steps near the Lilypad. And it was from here that the gals headed off to the Boiler Room for Peewee Ferris and the Prodigy. I wandered off and found Bruna, Doug & Kele quite by chance (on the grassy knoll drinking area). Spent the rest of the night with them for the Arctic Monkeys and Neil Young.

I thought Neil Young was awesome, and watching his set revealed to me quite a few of the songs I knew but didn't realise were his. I did know to expect "Cinammon Girl", but as the band played it I couldn't help thinking of the Type O Negative version - in which Peter Steele sings the backing vocals of Neil Young's version as the main vocals (not sure if Neil Young originally did that too, and was just changing things around for the live rendition).

The fact that Neil Young headlined this year's BDO meant that Roberto was, for once, out and about at the festival - a very rare occurrence nowadays let me assure you. I was surprised at the end of the night to see him walking towards us - with Anthony in tow. Rob has sworn off that sort of festival and I can't say I blame him - it's hardly the Comfy Day Out after all.

Anyway...at the end of the night we all sat on the limestone wall near the Lilypad as I waited for Fi and Michelle to reappear. Kele went off to the train, heading for the after party in Perth. The rest of us were seemingly heading back to Freo.

I'd got a message from Fi about 30 mins into Neil Young's set saying, essentially, "It's fucked in here, meet us on the limestone near the lilypad after". I paraphrase. And when the two of them finally reappeared I saw proof of how fucked it had been (and yet awesome at the same time, says Fi). Their feet were totally caked with dirt and they had inhaled a lot of it too (from the crowd stomping up a storm I guess). Not enough grass, too much dirt makes for dirt-caked lungs. They were coughing up dust later on.

They said that there were heaps of dick heads in the crowd for Prodigy who shoved other people around and took great pleasure in throwing bottles full of still lighted cigarette butts and other things at this particular security guy who happened to be wearing a turban. It seemed they were targetting him just for that.

I could say that sort of behaviour is un-Australian, but the sad thing is it's pretty damn Aussie. Or as Doug Fuzz amended, "Actually it's very WA." So in the end we all agreed that it was "Very Western-Australian" behaviour. Ha.