Well I had a good time but I always come away feeling the same way. Maybe I couldn't do a better job at organising, but every year I see the same things happening. What good did that new barrier invention do? Maybe I am just ignorent, but it would be good for someone to explain it to me.

Maybe I'm just bitter, or maybe I'm getting too old... but sitting in the bar area watching Deftones, there are these fuckwits throwing fruit in to the moshpit, watching it splatter over people in the moshpit and then they'll crack up laughing. Then they did it again.... then they sat along the rail so people couldn't see. I went away and came back two hours later, to find them STILL throwing fruit in to the moshpit. They were still amused by their immaturity. Anyway.... during Queens Of The Stonage, someone chucked something at them and everyone started laughing at them.

And then how annoying was it trying to listen to Queens Of The Stonage for the first time.. you'd just start to get in to the beat and then all of a sudden the PA would turn off and you could only hear them off in the distance from their guitar amps 1km away. Then it would come back on again, and off.... then on... then off. I felt so sorry for them. How does that make NZ look?

So when they played after foo fighters, I enjoyed their set a lot better. However, it would have been good if the overall sound wasn't peaking. The second set QOTSA played was a lot more intimate and the sound didn't fuck up every minute! You also didn't have the whole moshpit problem you have in the main arena. I would have liked to have seen Dave Grohl play drums though... damn it.

In the end.. it was an alright day. I went to see foo fighters and I saw them. I sang a long, got kicked in the head in the moshpit and loved every second of it.

I guess I haven't talked about organisational problems at all in this post but I guess it's not really relevant. I just get annoyed when I pay $100 and anything that goes wrong fucks me off. I just think bdo has gotten way too commercial and they try to make money every way they can (as does everyone), and there are too many lines, too much over priced food. Arghhh fuck it, who cares.

I still had a good time! :/

i had heaps of fun.
highlights were kraftwerk and janes addiction (unfortunately they were on at the same time so i could only see half of each). met trixie *waves*. spent some time with the murderdolls till i realized they were complete wankers who really "appreciate" their groupies (even if they are minors!). ew ew ew ew. their bassist had really great hair though, anyone agree?

i think i need sleep.

Well, my enduring memory of BDO won't be of the sore feet I have right now, or of any of the music I saw. I think the image of a pale scrawny white guy with ginger hair and lambchops, wearing only silver lame ankle boots and some sort of bright yellow furry animal attached to his penis, thrusting away for all he's got atop the speaker stack on the essential stage is going to be with me for some time. I may need counselling - it even overwhelms the image of the topless woman doing somersaults on stage less than ten feet from me. I refer, of course, to Machine Gun Fellatio who were my BDO T-shirt band for 2003 - I allow myself to buy one T shirt to commemorate the most striking band of the day. I really do not know why I have not spent more time listening to them.

I was late out of bed, so didn't get to meet my Portuguese traveller I met on another site who was looking for a friendly face, nor did I get to Pluto - I think this is the third time now that I have arrived at an event fully intending to see them but failing to do so. The Music was just going on as I got there - I was interested to see what these people did, given their presumptuous name. I wouldn't say they're in any way genre defining, but I think I'd like to hear their album now. Next up, I caught the end of the Greg Churchill set as I wandered around - he, ironically enough, had a screen on which the words "This is music" were flashing - I was pleased for the reassurance, as sometimes with that senseless pounding beat that comes with house music, one really cannot be sure. I didn't stay long for the Chicks on Speed gig, they were re-doing songs from the night before and I needed food.

Back up at the Essential stage, I caught about half of Sparta's set - it just didn't leave much of an impression on me, I'm afraid. Had to go see the D4, but there was something fucked about the sound - the guys were doing their thing magnificently, Dion came crowd surfing, but the sound was muted. Even standing about ten people in from the stage, they sounded like they were a mile away, not engaging at all. Watched the Deftones for a bit from the stands and then it was time for Machine Gun Fellatio - who were superb, providing a real mixture, although pretty much focussed on being smutty in a gleeful way - they came across as being a cross between a cabaret act, a rock band and a university capping review!

A lot has been said about Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" album by the critics, so I had high expectations when they came on, which were met, and it was nice to see what is almost an alt.country band at the BDO (two covers of Woodie Guthrie!), although they closed with a rock song and did some rock soundscaping effects at the end of a couple of their songs. This is another CD I'll be exploring at leisure, because there was a depth to the lyrics.

I gave Evermore a miss, but by the time I'd battled my way down to the big stage, QOTSA were aborting their set, I think I heard one song. I was lucky - in the gap left, I found a bunch of Palmy people to natter with, then PJ Harvey came on. Last time, she wore an elegant gown: tonight it was the lowcut sequinned top and hotpants look - I think it went with the choice of music she played, which was from the more strident end of her spectrum, although she did a wonderful performance of her "share the love" song. Saw bits of Janes Addiction, Foo Fighters, Kraftwerk - left their gig wondering about their song "we are robots": if the audience dances to the Kraftwerk beat, is that beat programming the dancers? Also wondered why they need four guys with laptops - technology has probably made 3/4 of the band redundant.

Last, and almost best, was the Datsuns - my one full on excursion into the moshpit. I now know why people say their live performance is not well captured on the CD - although I had trouble concentrating on the music at times as I got caught up in the energy of those around me. I made a fatal mistake after the Datsuns - I went and sat down. I heard QOTSA start up their set, but I found sitting down to be infinitely more pleasurable than standing up, then when I did stand, my feet took me to the exit.

I'm not sure if BDO is too commercial as such - its just that they try to pack so much into such a small space (both physically and temporally). With so many people there, and 7 stages, of course there's going to be hundreds of people on the move at any one time, plus the special group oif people who really don't seem conscious of anything - where they're going, the fact that there are x0,000 people around them or the fact that they've blocked off a thoroughfare. Twice now, I've vowed I'm not going, but at the end of the day, it provides a whole bunch of acts we are never otherwise going to experience. I do, however, know I will not be at BDO 2004, but that's because they don't do either a BDO Hanoi or BDO Havana.

well, my short little rant is going to look so insignificant next to the long long posts by everyone else, but oh well. big day out was great. highlights for me were the living end (they were awesome), PJ Harvey and Foo fighters. i only got to see about 1 song of the datsuns by the time i got out of the main arena, so that was a bit of a bummer.
and i saw a couple of people wandering around with cusp '03 shirts...were they any of you - since i know a lot of you were there.
but yea....definately a very enjoyable day :)

I was right up in the moshpit during QOTSA, so I could still hear the gig through the foldback. It's a pity they had technical difficulties, but I'm still gobsmacked about what a fantastic idea it is to alternate bands over two stages.

I was a bit worried that BDO would be a lame imitation of the festivals I've seen in the UK, but I think it was on a par with Reading festival. It was better organised in some ways, but then Reading's a three-dayer so probably it takes a bit more planning. BDO was way better organised than V2000 (UK Virgin-sponsored rock festival). All in all I was really stoked.

And the Datsuns are sooooo rocknroll it's unbelievable. Chicks on Speed were great. Foo Fighters were OK. I've gone off Dave Grohl now. Josh Homme is totally cool.

I thought the Big Day Out was awesome!!!! It was the first on i had ever been to and i think it'll be the best one. But i cant really say that cos i dont know which bands ill lake next year.

I fully agree that the sound thing in the QOTSA concert and the foo fighters concert so makes NZ look like crap but hopefully the guys will over look that and come back again.

The Highlight of the day was definitly The Datsuns concert at the end of the night! It had me amped for ages. and even now when i hear them on the radio i cant stop smiling!! So if you havent heard the Datsuns (were have you been?) go out and listen to there CD and im so sure you'll love them! Also listen to the D4!!!

BDO rocked and i so cant wait for next year!!!!

Yeah we had fun. Highlights were Pluto and their disorganized carnage (way to smash the guitars with none to spare..how very rock n roll), Sparta who I had never heard before but who didn't make me want to vomit, Pacifier who never fail to amaze me, QOTSA from what we heard, especially the dude in the beanie...PJ who was perfect from front row and the Foos. Mmm Dave Grohl..........

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Hehehe. When Dave Grohl burped... funny stuff.