I went to the Big Day Out on Saturday and had a great old time. I hadn’t been for a number of years, but since a few of my pals were going i thought i’d get back into it. It hasn’t changed much, still lots of great music, sweaty drunk boys and girls and lots of sun.
I took my little camera with me and took some snaps. My buddy Keong brought along his kickass new Canon 300D and took some shots too. I had to try hard to contain my jealousy when comparing my ageing little Canon to his super-duper Digital SLR. You can see a selection of both our shots in my Big Day Out 2004 Gallery.
But how was the music i hear you ask? Here’s a few thoughts about some of the bands i saw…

Sleepy Jackson – Great, wasn’t really familiar with them, except for that song that goes ‘Na-na nah nah naaah na na, Nah nah nah nah’ (i’m serious, those are the lyrics for the chorus). The band were really having fun, and their guitarist had all the rock moves down.
The Darkness – Everything you’ve heard is true, these guys bring all the glam rock theatrics to the party. Very entertaining.
Peaches – Awesome as usual, though it was exactly the same set i’d seen earlier in the week.
The Mars Volta – Hands down best performance of the day. The lead singer was wild, jumping around like a maniac, flinging his mic stand and at one time hurling part of the drum kit and bashing it with his mic in time with the music.
The Datsuns – More new wave rock, i’m sure they’re good, but i got a little bored. Perhaps they would’ve suited a smaller stage.
The Strokes – I so wanted to hate these guys, they strike me as way too cool for school, pretentious fake slackers. But i couldn’t fault them after seeing them live. Their music is just so damn catchy and melodic. Their singer has one of the best rock voices around.
Magic Dirt – Great Aus Rock. Adalita is a babe. For the encore 2 guys from Jet came on for a huge guitar finale.
The Flaming Lips – So good, i’d been looking forward to their show all day. It was a great happy vibe to end on. They had lots of balloons, people dancing around in animal outfits and a big video screen.
All in all a top day out.