So yesterday was the Melbourne Big Day Out. Rachel and I had gotten tickets for it ages ago, and were quite looking forward to seeing Butterfly Effect and Tool. Of course our luck being the way it is, Butterfly Effect was on very early, whereas Tool, being the headline act, were on last.
After a quick trip to the supermarket for snackies and unopened bottled water, we rocked up to Princess Park around 11.45Am and after a slow drive around, we were lucky enough to score a car park less than a 10 minute walk away from the entrance. Though there was a largeish queue we managed to make our way in reasonably quickly (why is it that the scalpers outside these events always seem to be British, not to mention the guys selling fake t-shirts on the way out also seem to be?), going through the “with bags” queue was quite painless. Something strikes me as odd though, the BDO guide tells you to take unopened (still sealed) bottlesd of water, yet the first thing they do when you get there is break the seals. We were also slightly disappointed with the lack of sniffer dogs, as beagles are always cute.
 Once in, I was convinced by my beloved to go into D-Block for the Butterfly Effect. For those that do not know, D-Block is the fenced in section closest to the stage for the die hard fans who want to mosh and be close to the stage. For my own part, these days i am more than content to stand back and watch from a distance without feeling the crushing bounce of the screaming hordes as they do their best impression of people being idiots to music. But Rachy was correct when she told me if we stuck to the back of D-Block, we would be getting the best of the atmosphere, whilst not getting pounded byt he crowd, so we got in in time to hear most of the Spazzys set, and then straight after, the Butterfly Effect. I have only recently gotten into Butterfly Effect, but they totally rock. Their albums are incredibly good, and live they pack even more of a punch, with the lead guitarist (whos name i do not know) and the vocalist (Clint) having excellent stage presence.
After Butterfly Effect, we lingered a bit to hear some Evermore before heading to the Boiler Room to catch Lily Allen. Bumped into Matt there, who was really the only person i knew that i bumped into at the whole event (rare for me at this sort of thing). Lily was pumped and full of energy, and her set was quite good. It seems i know more Lily Allen songs than i thought i did. One thing i found quite annoying though, she has the talent, she has the songs, and the crowd was already with her, so going for the cheap pop, taking pot shots at politicians, or swaering uselessly is really unnecessary. Cheap pop is for people without the means to get real pop, well thats my opinion anyway.
 After Lily we went for a bit of a wander round the grounds to check out the Princess Park venue, as neither myself or Rachy had ever been to a Big Day Out there. All told, aside from the lack of places to sit, it was quite good. Definitely better than we expected it to be. After loitering for a little bit at My Chemical Romance, we decided a bit of a rest was in order so we found a patch of ground out of the way and had a little lie down in the sun for a half hour or so. During this break, we witnessed the end part of an altercation between one of the punters and BDO security. Kudos to the security people for diffusing what appeared to be a very volatile situation without resorting to physical violence, and also without ejecting the offender. I was quite impressed with this.
 After the short break, toilets were needed, and here comes my first real criticism of the event. We wandered across to the closest toilet blocks according to our map, and were assaulted by a horrendous smell. Possibly something had burst, or maybe they were just badly kept. Now in the scheme of things, at a festival, manky toilets arent really a major issue, but this block was right next to a food serving area, so any punter out to get some food would be smelling the lovely eu de human crap whilst eating. Bad form there in my opinion. Deciding this toilet block was too disgusting, we made our way to the toilets on the far end of the site. This was in much better condition, and after returning natures call, we decided the next band we wanted to see was The Streets.
I was a fan of the Streets first album, and was kind of looking forward to hearing any new stuff they might have. Unfortunately they suck. Cant really put it any other way, Skinner sings off key, they tried to put in (possibly for humours sake) some covers of other artists at the BDO’s stuff, and were just ridiculously poor. Waste of time, and my ears are still mad at me for exposing them to that awful sound. I think Mumble from Happy Feet sounds better than those guys did.
 Utterly disappointed with the Streets, we I wandered across to one more set of festival shops, where we saw all the usual stuff, but also found a pair of sunglasses that suited Rachy. A bit more wandering around to soak up the atmosphere and just generally feel the vibe (which was all round quite good) and a few comments to Rachy from strangers about how cool she looked in her pajama pants, we setteld down on the grass once more to listen to Jet. Jet werent really bad, but then, they werent overly good, and didnt really ignite the crowd.
Muse were next, and while i cant name many of their songs, I quite enjoyed them, and they are another band who I seem to know more of their music than i thought i did. They were quite tight on stage and the vocals were very nice, enabling us to flow with the music.
Finally, the band Rachy was really waiting for, and i was also looking forward to quite a bit. Tool. The crowd really swelled for this one, and expectations were high. From where we were standing, the sound wasnt as impressive as we wanted it to be so we slowly made our way forwards. Though the band remained silhouettes against a bright background, they rocked on hard and the crowd really appreciated it. Well everyone in the crowd except for the one guy a little to our left who it seemed had collapsed on the spot. The police were there to make sure he was alive, and called for the st johns ambulance to pick him up. He managed with assistance to walk to the ambulance stretcher (which got applause from those around him) and all this occured without interrupting the bands performance.
All told it was a pretty good Big Day Out, my scores for it are as follows.
Venue 7.5/10
Atomsphere 8.5/10
Performances 7/10 (dragged down by the streets)
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