Perth Music

It was that time of the year again when the music lovers of Perth gathered in their thousands to attend the penultimate music festival of the summer. This year saw a slightly older crowd rocking out at the Claremont Showgrounds as one of the headlining acts had not played a Big Day Out festival since 1996 and had been broken up for 7 years (Rage Against The Machine) and the other headlining act had not played a Big Day Out festival since 1994 (Bjork). With the temperature set to be in the high 30’s, the day was set to be a scorcher but even early in the day the crowd walking through the entrance were filled with anticipation.

Perth’s own The Dirty Secrets were first on the Green Stage and, although the crowd was still building up, they had a great position to introduce themselves to new fans. Situated right in front of the main entrance, The Dirty Secrets brand of indie rock was a nice surprise for people as they walked in collecting their maps and programs. Even if they had never heard of The Dirty Secrets before plenty of music lovers wandered up to the stage to check them out and plenty of them would have been won over by the local boys.

Next up on the Green Stage were Melbourne based band, British India who created a stir in 2007 with their debut release Guillotine. The boys had a frenetic energy on stage, running around non-stop apart from making a comment that became all too common throughout the day: “Fuck it’s hot in Perth!!”. The crowd agreed with the comment but it didn’t stop them rocking for the forty five minutes British India were on stage, especially when Triple J favourite ‘Tie Up My Hands‘ was played.

Playing at the same time but on one of the main stages were radio darlings of the moment Operator Please. A very different crowd were situated in front of the Blue Stage with a much younger demographic obviously targeted to the much younger Operator Please. A lot of jumping around and hand claps were heard throughout the main stage area and all the touring that the band have done recently has definitely raised their confidence in their abilities to play to a large crowd. A smart and successful cover that was part of the Operator Please set was Devo’s ‘Whip It‘ but the biggest crowd pleaser was the ARIA Award winning ‘Just A Song About Ping Pong‘.

The first political band of the day were on next on the Orange Stage - Anti-Flag. A somewhat older punk band, Anti-Flag have built up a fan base since forming in 1993 and had a polar opposite crowd than Operator Please. Fans enjoyed the set that covered songs from all their albums but with the temperature rising the punk rockers did look quite uncomfortable while playing on stage.

With album number three only a month away from being released, Perth boys Gyroscope were up next on the Green Stage. With a home court advantage, the Gyro boys seemed as comfortable as if they were playing to a bunch of close mates. Older songs from their early EP’s were played as confidently as the brand new songs from the upcoming album Breed Obsession. After asking the crowd who was born in the same year as them, new single ‘1981‘ was played to a sweating mass of moshers. The song is a great pop/rock track but the use of the drum machine at the start of it was a bit questionable.

One of the real highlights and surprise packets of the day were up next on the Converse Essential Stage. The band was British hardcore/trance rockers Enter Shikari and the crowd that turned up to see them were in for a treat. As they ran out on stage all four members of the band looked as if they had the energy of 20 men, doing cartwheels, climbing speakers and doing something that could have been described as dancing. Playing a plethora of songs from their debut album Take To The Skies, the Enter Shikari set included sing-a-longs, hand claps, sweat dripping from every pore of every person, a huge circle pit around the sound and lighting desk and even a human pyramid that almost made it to five stories. The songs that had the most excitement from the crowd were Return To Energiser, No Sssweat, Johnny Sniper and Sorry You’re Not A Winner.

After a bit of a rest and a bite to eat I got to see the end of Regurgitator’s set on the Blue Stage. With the whole band dressed in white from head to toe it looked like they were ready for a wedding and it seemed even more likely when a few girls in wedding dresses joined them on stage to dance to the final few songs. All their hit singles were played to the happy crowd as they have for four previous Big Day Out festivals. A slightly updated but equally as impressive ‘Song Formally Known As‘ was the final song from their set and the dancing in the mosh pit was a sight to be seen.

Adelaide’s hip hop heroes Hilltop Hoods were up next on the Orange Stage and the crowd swelled to see the ARIA darlings of 2006. As their latest album was The Hard Road Restrung and featured the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, they were also joined on stage by a small string section as well as fellow Adelaide band Lowrider. Clown Prince, Stopping All Stations, The Nosebleed Section and The Hard Road were all highlights.

Returning for their fourth Big Day Out, Grinspoon were up next on the Blue Stage. Playing all their hit singles and songs from their newest album Alibis and Other Lies, the Grinners rocked out like they always do but there seemed to be something missing from them on the day or maybe there just wasn’t anything special. Grinspoon have played so many festivals in the past 10 years that I think we all take them for granted and even with crowd favourite Champion being the final song of the set, it still didn’t have the same punch it has in the past.

For many, Arcade Fire were a huge highlight of the day but for me they seemed to be forcing their music upon the crowd. With ten members on stage at once it was difficult to know what to look at and with multiple instruments being played by each member it was even harder to know what to listen to. They did show glimpses of excitement as members climbed 20-25 meters up the staging while still drumming but a big disappointment was the comment that “Perth has the best crowd but the worst place” in their Big Day Out tour.

Silverchair were up next on the Blue Stage and they were certainly a different band from the one many of the fans remembered. Not only did Paul Mac join them on keyboards, but there was a separate piano keyboard player, a three person brass section (with one member getting hit in the face mid set with a water bottle), backing singers and Daniel Johns newly bleached hair. This helped with the newer songs from Young Modern but the songs that got the biggest reception were still the older, rockier songs including Israel’s Son, The Greatest View and Freak.

It was time for Iceland’s own Bjork to show Perth what she had in store for them but even with a huge crowd in front of her, an even bigger, rowdier crowd started to gather in front of the stage that Rage Against The Machine were to play on in an hours time. Stage theatrics, a kind of marching band, a laser show, canons shooting shredded paper into the crowd were all part of the show that would have delighted any Bjork fan but with so many RATM fans getting impatient it would have been difficult to say she was well received. Hyperballad was a crowd favourite and in her sweet, soft voice Bjork thanked Perth for allowing her to play the Big Day Out.

As Zach De La Rocha, Tom Merello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk walked on stage the collective cheer from the crowd was deafening. It was if every member of the audience had been waiting the entire 7 years that Rage Against The Machine were broken up for this very moment. As they broke into Testify a chorus of ‘Now Testify, now testify, it’s right outside your door’ rang out but about half way through the song the sound went out and it was only the crowd singing that could be heard. After a short time De La Rocha announce ‘Let’s try that again shall we’ and the band jumped into Bulls On Parade as the mosh pit exploded into a mass of excitement. Guerrilla Radio, Sleep Now In The Fire, Calm Like A Bomb, Bullet In The Head and Killing In The Name were crowd favourites as Morello played his guitar in the way that only he can. It was a set that would have fulfilled every RATM fan’s dream and as the temperature finally started to drop there wasn’t a disappointed face to be seen.

Photos from The Big Day Out can be found here at PerthNorg (Thanks to Noodlez).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Gig Reviews, Big Day Out, Music Festivals, Gyroscope. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.