For those who don’t know, the Big Day Out is an annual music festival touring Australia and New Zealand. It orginated in Sydney in 1992, and has since grown to include Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.

I’ve been regularly attending the Gold Coast BDO for more years than I care to remember (the Gold Coast being the closest BDO to Brisbane.) This year was no exception.

On first impressions, the line-up was fairly unremarkable, with the notable exception of the recently reformed Rage Against The Machine. On the back of that news, Gold Coast tickets sold out in record time (by 10am on the day they went on sale.) Tickets in Sydney have been regularly selling out within an hour in recent years, but even with Tool headlining last year, Gold Coast tickets were available for days after their release.

Usually, once the schedule comes out, I have it printed out and I begin planning out my day - who I want to see when. This year, I didn’t really look too hard at it - I figured it’s usually a top day anyways, and because there was noone I desperately had to see, I’ll catch up with my festival-going buddies and maybe see some acts I otherwise wouldn’t have. And I’m glad as hell I did.

Enter Shikari set the scene early - a British harcore four-piece when the singer yelled “Don’t you people fkn crowd-surf!? Pull yer socks up Australia!” I had never heard of these guys before, but I went out the next day and bought their Take to the Skies album. They seem to be striving for a new sound, mixing metal with keyboards and sequencers. At times, the album feels a little awkward, mashing together these seemingly incompatible styles, and it certainly doesn’t quite capture their live presence. Can’t wait for the next album though - they seem to have matured as a band from the time the album came out to the time I saw them.

Battles was another highlight. When I first heard their Mirrored album, I was equal parts intrigued and confused. But the more I listened to it, the more it tunneled into my consciousness. These guys use talent and technology to create textured soundscapes, the likes of which you’ve never heard. Their live show was an experimental tour de force, which lifted me for the better part of an hour, and left me physically and mentally exhausted.

The Big Day Out is always filled with solid Aussie acts and this year was no exception, which the likes of Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, Karnivool, Gyroscope, Grinspoon and Blue King Brown.

The biggest disappointment for me was the Arcade Fire. Neon Bible was one of my albums of 2007, but live, they didn’t cut it on the day. Silverchair were likewise unimpressive. And the Hilltop Hoods - well, those guys have done the same show for more than two years, the same set, the same crowd interaction, the same “freestyle”…

If you’ve never been to a Big Day Out, do yourself a favour and go! Just wait until I’ve got my ticket first

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