After organizing with a friend (thanks Paul!!) to get a lift to the Big Day Out, we were dropped off and soon inside. I lost my water bottle to the security guard, who told me that opened bottles of water were not allowed in; and I'd frozen it the night before so it would be cold all day. Without any further ado, we headed over to see Skulker on the blue stage.

They were pretty good, had a solid chunky sound. The only problem with these girl bands is that there seems to be a new one every year, always towards the start of the show, almost as if it's thrown in to give a fair chance to all girl bands. I snapped off these couple of pictures of the mixer stand and the Ganesha Hindu God artwork. As an interesting note, my first home page (over 10 years ago now!!) had a picture of Ganesha on it, and one of the albums I did with the band The Wooden Gods was titled Ganesha; but I digress. Most of us headed towards the closest bar to grab some drink tokens and indulge in the first drink of the day. I was hanging out for a nice cold water too!! Interestingly, the water was not stored on ice like the alcohol was, and I suspect my drink holder cooled it down more than when it was given to me.

The others were sat somewhere near the front of the alcohol restricted area, and Dan and I finished our drinks and tried to get back into the large area in front of the stages, only to find out that they had now been completely cut off by the security. Whilst we were doing that, I grabbed a couple of pictures of Sleepy Jackson.

The security at this years show was tight. Several guards wandered up and down and there were a lot parading around the grounds; they also acted as part time "punter waterers", spraying hoses on the crowd to keep them cool. I grabbed some pics of The Darkness who played on the Blue stage, as we tried to get in from both sides, but both sides were blocked and no-one was going anywhere. We didn't really get to see them from the midst of the crowds, and just keeping up with each other was hard enough. Several times I looked into the front stage area and saw few people there, and more people on the outside of the security barrier, which was where we were when I took these.

I think it was around this time we split up, Dan peristed in trying to get into the main arena, and I wanted to go and see some different things, such as the rides and merchandise tents, and just the general atmosphere around the area. The next day Dan told me they were allowing in 4 people every minute - even when people left the main area, he also made a comment on the tightness of the security, I wonder whether these guys have been all around the country with the bands, or whether they are local security officers.

I wandered over to the Caterpillar Essentials Stage to see a band called Blood Duster. They weren't really my scene; covering themselves in fake blood and singing in that deep heavy metal type of vocal, after I took these shots, some girl was pleased that I gave her my spot to get some good photos from, so I guess they've got some sort of fan base here. Interesting, but I won't be pursuing any of their music:

Still somewhat on the tasteless side, I returned back to the Lilypad Stage, where they were holding Nude Aerobics, with Heide the sausage. A bunch of 18 year old (???) girls got up eagerly, but were kicked off stage when they didn't take their tops off; I wonder if there was some part of the word "nude" they didn't understand?

WARNING!! Censored nudity on these pictures

Heading back to the two main stages, I managed to grab a few pictures of the Datsuns, albeit from a fair distance, which was increasingly becoming the way of the day. As you can see from the pictures, the Claremont Showgrounds were becoming capacity full, and this was still fairly early in the afternoon!!

Once again I tried to get in close to see some of the Black Eyed Peas, but the security guards were spraying water on everyone to keep them cool, and I had to retreat for fear my camera would get soaked, and render it inoperable. The poor lighting conditions (harsh sun all around, subject in dark area) meant that picture taking was also limited, plus several taller punters managed to get in front of me, so photos were at arms length, straight up.

I cruised over to the Boiler room which, despite it's name, was refreshingly cool, and saw the end of Pnau. Interesting lighting effects in the Boiler Room, it's always fun to take a few shots and see how they turn out. Some are better than others.

Next up was Pee Wee Ferris who dazzled us with his dance beats. More interesting light efffects here, as only the Boiler Room can provide.

Since it was so close, I took a few minutes out to have a look at Trey, who consisted of an (American??) male and female, but from what I understood in the short time I was there, they were named after the female singer, Tracy.

I also wandered out to see a band on the Local Produce stage to see Local Pricks. The emphasis this year seems to have been on hard metal bands, which don't really do it for me; but they played pretty well, and I guess "supporting act at Big Day Out" would be great on any bands intro pages ...

I got back to the Boliler Room in time to see Sonic Animation, some blurry pictures follow. But also some good ones if you're into those interesting light pictures; a few of these were 1 second delays at the end of a straight up arm again ... do you know how hard it is to put your hand up and keep it steady for a second? Results are varied. I like the way they've gaffas up their keys so that the names now read "YE HA" and "Bland" rather than "YAMAHA" and "Roland" .. heh.

I trundled back to the Lilypad Stage, which had little to few occupants, and spotted a bar next to it that was virtually empty. So after grabbing a picture of the back view of the show (The Dandy Warhols are playing, but you can't see them), and Mocktoberfest at the Lilypad, I then went off to enjoy a nice cool bourbon and coke in the shade. Also took photos of the "official" photographers of the show - they were using the same digital camera as me!! (and it takes two of them!!)

It must have been about this time I discovered an SMS from Pj & Kylie (I didn't hear it!) saying that they were watching Jet on the Green Stage. They were one of the bands I wanted to see, so I finished the drink and started heading that way, but bumped into the two of them as they were coming the other way. It seems I missed Jet. I told them about the secluded bar next to the Lilypad so we went back there to fill up waterbottles and they grabbed some alcoholic refreshments; all this was happening while Muse were playing, as we drank and then circumnavigated the large arena.

Our destination was the rest of the crew, who had secured a good viewing spot inside the drinking arena (onya Maree!!), but we were still minus Dan and Tanya, so this is us without them!

As the sun set over the west, the Hoodoo Gurus played on the Blue Stage. It was good to hear some of their old hits. Paul went to get a drink about this time, and offered to grab me one. I was after a bourbon and coke, but he said one of the other bars had sold out, so he'd do his best. When he returned I got a plastic cup, however Paul said the bar attendant that had served him had been more than generous with the bourbon, and it seemed a pretty good mix to me. Only got one good shot of the Strokes due to the distance involved. (tacked onto the end of this series - on the Orange Stage)

Metallica, one of the big drawcards for this years showcase, were up next on the Blue Stage. They had a two hour set, and played some classic songs, Maree quipped that they "were worth the price of the ticket alone", and that seemed to be a sentiment echoed throughout the crowd.

To avoid the crowd we left before the last song; saying our goodbyes. Phil, Kylie and I headed in the direction of the Green Stage to see The Flaming Lips, then retired to the pub just at the back of the stage to redeem their last drink vouchers before the bars closed at 11PM. They took off to catch the train, and I wandered the grounds searching for Tanya and Dan, whom I was supposed to split a cab fare with. I wandered out around 10.45 to where we had planned to meet and waited for a while around there, but finally gave up close to midnight and caught a train back to Perth. After wandering over to Northbridge to grab a bite to eat, I tried to flag down a Taxi; a task that took almost half an hour in the vacated streets of a Sunday night/Monday morning. When I got back to their place, they had just arrived on foot after catching the last train from Perth. We sat down and talked about what we had seen and done; it appears that they were in mostly the same locations as ourselves, but we had just missed one another.

Another Big Day Out had finished, althought this layout was better than last years, there were still major flaws in the organization of this event. In general there were more people than last year, and more peaple than the year before that (I missed that one, so going on heresay), but they still limit the grounds to the same area. If they moved the two larger stages anti-clockwise on the oval 90° they could open up a whole new area of the Claremeont Showgrounds that aren't used in this show. Other complaints I heard were about the security guards and the security in general. I guess this is one of those "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" areas - they need to have low tolerant security to deal with trouble makers, and any large scale concert will have lots of young drinkers who will make trouble. But then my personal experience taught me that they were gruff on me too; and violence incites violence. I don't know if I could offer a solution to this, however with all the media attention on nightclub bouncers at the moment, you might have thought they'd have taken it a bit easy.

All in all, apart from a few minor incidents, it was a good day. Don't know if I'll come to the 2005 BDO, mainly due to the crowd sizes it seems to be attracting.

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