Other Festivals > Big Day Out - 4DaH8trz

Feel free to file this under jealous sad sack who didn’t get a ticket let alone afford one but I assure you my non attendance at this year’s big day out is most certainly voluntary. To give you the brief background but falling short of my life story, my last Big Day Out was 2008 and honestly I have never felt like I’ve been missing out by not going, I’d rather spend my night serving ungrateful bogans as opposed to not getting paid to attend a festival with them.

My grievance with the Big Day Out is that year by year it has strayed away from its core philosophy of bringing acts to Aussie shores that wouldn’t otherwise come without the drawcard of a big festival pay check. Admittedly even in 2010

Photo from Polaroid of Androids

the Big Day Out has delivered a handful of great acts to our shores however the slot fillers far outweigh the historical gems. If I were to go this year I’d be most excited to see Girl Talk, Groove Armada, Ladyhawke, Passion Pit and The Decemberists whom are all fantastic additions if not all bands I personally enjoy.

Now before I go on, I appreciate that the festival climate now is far different to five years ago and big name acts have far more options for larger festivals to appear at and this competition for signings makes it more difficult for Lees & West but what I don’t accept is how some of the most redundant acts still deserve their place on what still is Australia’s most well known music festival.

Any long time attendee will tell you the ratio of music lovers to bogans has been increasingly tipping in the favour of the bogans, whom spend more time clogging the beer line than watching bands and as a result these bogans on mass sadly are being catered to but this is where an amazing festival has taken a turn for the worst. Ever since the “don’t bring your Aussie flag” call was put out (for all the right reason) the Southern Cross tattoo wearing, holden driving labourers have had their calendars rescheduled to attend this event.

So along with bogans buying enough tickets to warrant two Sydney Big Day Out’s what has resulted? The biggest crime of any festival, the repeated booking of Jet, Hilltop Hoods, Powderfinger, Eskimoe Joe and Grinspoon. As a former fan of the latter, could any four Australian bands be more irrelevant? Between these three they’ve racked up a collective total in excess of 23 Big Day Out tours... that my friends is excusable. Don’t even get me started on Magic Dirt! I would never be irreverent to someone who has lost their life but sadly his passing is the only reason the name Magic Dirt need be uttered for many years now and yet we see them clogging another Big Day Out line up with mediocrity. Finally the Midnight Juggernauts (as told to you by dean) are a total snooze fest but they’re too easy a target so I won’t bother.

Then we move to the international artists and let me say, I am a huge believer in acts making return trips to Australia, I think it is great to see the progression. While I’m not a personal fan of these acts really, I think the return of Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal & it pains me to say it but for the sack of objectivity, Muse are all acts which warrant the invite back as they’ve grown and changed in the time since their last performance and their 2010 appearance will be different and hopefully unique. While Muse as a headliner now rather than 5 years ago when they had some semblance of credibility eeks at me a bit, I must applaud them for holding onto most of their long time fans while enticing the bogans and chavs of the world to listen to their music.

Where the organisers have failed is The Mars Volta, Kasabian, Rise Against and Fear Factory to name a few. I am a huge fan of Fear Factory and The Mars Volta but honestly, they haven’t been relevant for a very very long time now. In 2004 Fear Factory were already a fading force and in the same year, The Mars Volta were a red hot act but in 2010 both are deflated and dull additions that will take any festival they can get to keep some form of pay check coming in. Again with Kasabian and Rise Against, I own an album of each and enjoy the music but I would much rather see someone fresh and new, someone with an actual point to still existing in 2010. Indeed you've got to include someone like the volta so that everyone can be fully "trippin" on their choice "gear". Sign Whiteboydancefloor on the bill, we'll make pointless noise for 45 minutes with a keyboard and vocal effects machine! I'll even grow my hair and start enjoying the close company of men a bit more.

So while I’m definitely hacking on the line up, I’m not doing it from the point of view “oww this doesn’t have everyone of my favourite bands on the list” and I don’t want some blog obsessed Vampire Weekend / Animal Collective line up but what I am trying to say is that we are being fooled by the laziness of organisers bringing back the same old acts regardless of whether they’re still making important musical contributions to our universe. Of course some of these acts will come play Big Day Out, they’ve got nothing better to do and they use it to launch their pointless Australian tours.

Indeed I appreciate festival line ups will never please everyone, rather they are never meant to and even if you only see 3-4 bands, the ticket price certainly represents value for money but if you take a look at line ups from the earlier Big Day Outs, I think you’d be hard pressed not to feel a bit ripped off with some of the line ups others were graced with.

I suppose I should at least be grateful that we haven’t been graced by another Queens of the Stone Age reformation with various Josh Homme blow ins or some At The Drive In reunion.

Next Week I’ll be previewing my thoughts on Laneway Festival 2010 & Playground Weekender 2010, two festivals which still cater to a specific crowd whilst maintaining a level of creativity and diversity in their line up announcements.