Big Day Out: The Elfonzo Hours

It has taken a week of deep and meaningful reflection, and even still, Elfonzo is only just comming to terms with his Big Day Out. Such a big day needs to be reflected upon significantly! And now, from the safety and tranquel surrounds of the venician gondola, I have fathomed big day out 06 enough to put it down in text!

Twas the year of the funboy... and now would be as better time as any to reveal to the public what my true identity is. I, Elfonzo Von Popintickel featured in the big day out funboy experience sporting to letter F! In a rare moment of cognitive dissonance, Elfonzo made a non european, non portugese PUBLIC APPEAREANCE... leading the charge of the funboys, closely followed from behind by my general at arms, my 2IC...Mr "U".

Ok... without further banter... my review of the 2006 big day out may begin. As always awaiting the arrival of other more tardy funboys, and keeping the other faction of funboys together was more difficult than i had anticipated, but as everyone pointed out to "F"... this is all apart of bigdayout... and one i grow tiresome of... it puzzles Elfonzo why others cannot just have the same opinion as himself. This unorganisation led to Faker being crossed off my want-to-see list without me actually seeing them.

Anyway, Moving on.

My day started with a brief swaray in the boiler room, getting in the mood with some pumping tunes from aussie boys The Presets... while in their personal lives they may be more "funboy" than I care for, there homosexuality doesnt get in the way of them putting on a fucking impressive show. Dance/Electro/Funky House, all those genres have always been considered International and not really apart of what is Australian. Well The Presets are flying that aussie flag better than many of their counterparts and it was refreshing to see such charisma!

Whilst making my way to the line up for the D barrier I viewed an extremely brief showing of Gerling and while there not my thing, they had a decent vibe and the songs were dancable and catchy, had not a bad nor good thing to say bout them. Lets leave it at melancoly indifference.

Then after some basic site seeing Mudvayne were next on the agenda. While yes I did see Magic Dirt while in the D barrier waiting for Mudvayne, id rather strike the dirt from my memory. I tried to get into the whole "hey there aussie big up yourself aussies" spirit being Australia day and all, but the only string of truth to the dirt is that adelita did not shed anymore clothing than the lack-of she began the set with.

Mudvayne however, finally did arrive and arrived with great force. Started with great intensity and being more a vayne fan than Chris, I was really getting into the whole set alot more, however, the culmination of my whole Mudvayne experience was awaiting the arrival of my all time favourite "Nothing to Gein" or at the least "World So Cold"... neither arrived. Making the overall Mudvayne vibe somewhat lost on me which was a real shame. I left feeling as if the tuckshop lady had given me a free whizfiz but short changed me 3 bucks.

Funboys used the Wolfmother set as a perfect chance to do some stretching and warming up, while my attention was focussed on my quads, I found these guys solid, they didnt do anything wrong by me, Elfonzo is merely yet to see why the hype and Triple J album of the year is warranted.

Now that the boring bits are finished, this is where the day starts to take a turn for the fun! Seeing the aussie hip hop kings Hilltop Hoods from not the most ideal positions but still enough to grab onto their phat beats and dope rhymes (yo g flippin waaaht) it was so refreshing and almost emotionally phat (p-h phat waaaht...O.K lil jon uh) to see these aussie hip hoppers working the mainstage and doing a more than capable job. My not so ideal position meant i couldnt really grasp a great deal of quality sound yet let this take nothing away from these guys. "Nosebleed Section" got the whole ground grooving as did the rest of the solid set.

Then onto my gods... Kings of Leon! Not everyone cup of tea I appreciate but one of my holy grails, after seeing them when they first came out and seeing them now with a new album under their belt and a whole lot more touring. It was so fantastic to see the way they'd learnt to really command a crowd and do it without the help of crowd g-up aussie aussie aussie banter... lead singer Caleb kept the chatter to a minimum and his first words to the crowd were "Thankyou, we're Kings of Leon"... the mosh erupted. Sound quality was brilliant and couldnt help but notice the newly shaven Nathan adapted his drum beats ever so slightly to give them a little bit extra head bopping fuck yeh elements! If your not a fan dont bother, but for those of us who are, this was a band who truely proved why they are deserved of Kings in the band name! Highlights included "The Bucket" "Wasted Time" & "Four Kicks" yet it was when the chorus of "Pistol of Fire" hit that the crowd truely got its asses fucking shaking and grooving big time... Elfonzo did not feel as if his body could shake quite enough to do justice.

A late kings shuffles across to the opposing side of the mainstage d barrier area brought the belated arrival of aussie rock n roll legends The Living End. Opening with first album killer "Second solution" got a we mean rock n roll business from the word go. Chris Cheney said it best when it stated "just because its daytime doesnt mean we cant have a bit of fuckin rock n roll". Song selection was brilliant, possibly breaking in new song "wake up" did stem their momentum slightly but with "whats on your radio" did prove a newwy and a goody. When you think about it, The Living End plus Big Day Out plus Australia Day results in nothing short of an ideal band playing to an ideal crowd. Ceasing the patriotism is the crowd worked a treat for these guys and closely with "Prisoner of Society" & "West End Riot" left everyone well and truely satisfied.

Then... after one has just been blown away by a Kings of Leon, Living End double... Franz Ferdinand remind you why your ticket is easily worth its weight in music! Not putting a foot wrong the whole day, I was a skeptical fan, apprehensive as to whether there songs would relay some live brilliance. Thankfully for my sanity and belief in these guys, I was thoroughly rewarded. No one delivers the word "catchy" is musical form better than these guys. Energetic in every sense of the word, Franz Ferdinand proved exactly why they deserved a spot on the bill higher than the likes of The Living End, Mudvayne, Kings of Leon & Wolfmother.
With their perfect sound quality Elfonzo sadly missed the closing song "burn this city" but by the time "Take Me Out" had dropped, the crowd weren't merely awaiting their one hit before they would take off... FF had commanded a new found respect as a worthy later night time festival semi-headliner.

In keeping in touch with the other Funboys, i reluctantly went on to the other stages to get a good spot for The Mars Volta which inevitably proved pointless because none of this time was spent searching for a good spot, rather pointless banter which non the less is apart of big day out I dont regret. Now as for the eccentric boys known as The Mars Volta I must admit that much like Kings of Leon if there music is your thing, this set was musically intense and so uniquely The Mars Volta that even a non fan could not really fault it. However while there was no faults in their set, an hour and a half filled with improvisation for 60% of the music left me alittle wearing being so late in the night and my attention wavered. However let it be known that the crowd response did not reflect my groans, rather it was one of pure amazement and appreciation for these extremely impressive musicians. It was not the Omar & Cedric show... this was a whole band, holistically and in its entirity putting on one hell of a performance. In Elfonzo's opinion, maybe an hour and a half was a tad too long.

Now in almost rapping up my day, a brief stint of Cog confirmed what I already knew from previous experience. These guys make a whole lot of noise from merely 3 people and in my books they could not put a foot wrong. Song selection and order kept the set moving along quickly and as with any good big day out band, their time slot seemed to fly buy due to the sheer feeling of being completely caught up in the music. The sound was immensely heavy and the vocals perfect as always from Flynn... one of heavy rock's finest vocalists ever! "My Enemy" & "Anarchy Ok" didnt disappoint and unlike Adelita from Magic Dirt, Flynn did not use big day out as a medium for him to preach his personal political views which dampen big day out... rather the music did the talking and Flynn kept his comments to profoundly well recieved gestures of good will and peace to all!

To end out my night... Shihad were there to deliver another great set of heavy rocking tunes. Having also seen them before, nothing really surprised me but this didnt diminish my enjoyment of the set. Jon Toogood seemed to really give the gig his all and has developed a very clever and simple formula to gain crowd involvement and participation. Having seemingly made these guys our own, Shihad embraced the australia day vibe well and really impressed. Being an avid fan already, Shihad did not need to do much to impress me, all I ask is "none of the above" "my minds sedate" & and blistering version of "alive" and i am set. All they needed was to allow Shihad to do an encore and that would of topped them off even more sweetly! Anyway not to worry, it is more so just refreshing to see them back as Shihad, sticking true to their personal and musical truth.

All in all, this big day out for Elfonzo was one that marked the start of the fun boys and start of more and more fun... musically the pulling out of AFI & Mylo did dampen my day alittle but none the less there still was enough quality for me to even miss some of my personal favourites.

Big Day Out 07 here come the Fun Boys... BUT SUPERSIZED!