Big Day Out 2012

So, who remembered to put on sunscreen? Oh, that's right, NOBODY. And who got sunburnt to hell? Oh yeah, EVERYBODY. Well, actually, it wasn't so much that Big Day Out punters forgot to use sunscreen, it was more the fact that we were told it was going to piss down all day. Indeed, as Abbe May's powerful set of guitar-led indie-rock closed, the heavens opened and it seemed that BDO 2012 was going to be a mud-bath of Glastonburic proportions. But then something amazing happened (in the context of what has been the most rainy Sydney summer ever). As Best Coast brought their angsty-yet-perky, reverby indie to the table, the sun came out. As if on cue. For most of the afternoon, it remained H to the O to the motherflipping T. Like, seriously boiling. Lobster skin was order of the day, especially because there seems to be some kind of unwritten rule that the majority of the crowd must remain shirtless throughout. It makes sense though, I mean, how else would we be able to see their Southern Cross tattoos?

What's that? Oh yeah, the music.... Well, the aforementioned Best Coast were an early highlight, as were Sydney punkers, Chicks Who Love Guns. Triple J Unearthed winners Underlights displayed a sound that is clearly influenced by late 90s English indie. It was a shame that they suffered terrible sound (the bass was too prominent, everything else sounded like a muddy mess) because there were signs of promise there.

Boy & Bear brought a sense of serenity to the madness with their lovely set, which peaked when they covered Crowded House. Elsewhere, Battles and OFWGKTA were excellent and The Vaccines proved why they have received so much hype of late. Kimbra has been omnipresent this summer and she put in the strongest performance that we have seen from her so far. Vocally MASSIVE and exuding confidence in abundance, this woman is an absolute megastar in the making.

At the same time that My Chemical Romance were looking bored and old, Mariachi El Bronx doffed their sombreros to a huge crowd elsewhere in the concrete jungle of a site. Later, Kasabian did what Kasabian do while the day's highlight was going on in front of a criminally small crowd at one of the smaller stages. Kitty Daisy & Lewis (above) are simply wonderful. We have said enough words about how much we love them before, but, suffice to say, anyone at BDO who didn't pop along to see at least a couple of songs from this delightful trio of London siblings deserves to have their entire record collection smashed into tiny pieces. Whatever else you were doing, shame on you for not joining the couple of hundred people who were dancing like crazy to their amazing set (during which legendary Jamaican trumpet player Eddie Tan Tan Thornton made a typically impish appearance).

After this, we cut a dash to see the back-end of Foster The People's set and discovered where everybody was during Kitty Daisy & Lewis. Holy smoke, they were playing to a gargantuan crowd. Yeah, yeah, Pumped Up Kicks has been played to death but its appearance and subsequent mass sing-along was the feel-good moment of the festival in the early evening sunshine. Back in the arena were Soundgarden but, let's be honest, who really cares? After all, it's not 1994 any more. That said, Black Hole Sun did make us chuckle, as it brought back memories of how we used to sing it as Back Hole Mum as teenagers.

And then it was time for the main event. Kanye West announced his appearance by being hoisted way into the air on a cherry picker as puffs of smoke billowed below him (you can just about make him out in the blurry iPhone photo below) and the strains of Dark Fantasy kicked in. It was quite the spectacle and was greeted with an audible sense of awe from the massed throngs. This was followed by a fantastic version of Power. As starts go, this was as strong as anything we've seen, but his self-indulgence soon got kinda tiresome and his set list offered some seriously dull moments.

Post Kanye, Noel Gallagher & His Angry Birds (or whatever they're called) certainly knew how to keep the crowd happy, with a spattering of Oasis songs, including the underrated Talk Tonight in amongst his new stuff.

And, after Gallagher had done his thing, it was time for the shirtless masses to go home and apply some aloe vera to their bright red skin. All in all, it was a fairly unremarkable Big Day Out. Still, considering some of the headlines previous years have made, that's no bad thing.

Review by a sunburnt Bobby Townsend.

Getting To Know... Chicks Who Love Guns

Sydney's Chicks Who Love Guns play at The Gaelic this Friday. Vocalist Cass (front left in the above picture) tells us what to expect:

I would describe Chicks Who Love Guns' sound as something that spawned from boredom, then evolved into something a little more thought out. It's got a real brash element to it which is probably the boredom thing coming into play again. We play fast songs, loud songs and generally it's something that we feel is sonically entertaining - at least to people who are in the same boat as us and are sick of generic indie pop blegh.

We take inspiration from all over the place. Xavier (Drums) is as much into watching Dave Grohl or Jimmy Chamberlin play drums as he is into listening to The Budos Band. Jack (Guitar) listens to all sorts of shit too, he makes electronic music on the side in the vein of Flying Lotus or Gaslamp Killer. Mitch (Bass) listens to a lot of 31G bands like The Locust and Some Girls, Mody (Guitar) loves him some Rowland S Howard and Liars but has a pretty keen ear for good local music and always seems to be the one playing us some random band from Brisbane or Melbourne or something. I guess that leaves me, these days I listen to loads of hip hop. A group like OFWGKTA appeals to me heaps (well, all of us really) because they have a real punk ethic to them and seeing footage of them live is more like seeing one of our shows than your standard hip hop gig.

Sydney is pretty good. Some of the music that comes out of here is truly awesome but a lot is rubbish. I'm a grumpy bastard though and really can't stand any music that is too quirky or cutesy and there seems to be a neverending flow of that. There are some great bands here though - Zeahorse, La Mancha Negra, Psychonanny and The Babyshakers, Myth & Tropics, Mother and Son (Wollongong) - bands that have more balls and substance for me. I'm sure it's like that everywhere though, there will always be a counter-culture. Whether we are or they are is something I'm not sure of.

I am currently listening to Earl Sweatshirt, Pulled Apart by Horses, Rolo Tomassi

It might surprise people to learn that the G from The G,L + S tattoo Xavier got tattooed in his lip for our video clip has already worn away. Ahaha now he just has L+S.

Our show at The Gaelic will hopefully be one of the best we've done. We haven't played in about two months because we've had a couple of members overseas, so I'm hoping we get a good crowd down. It will be a supremely fun night I think, tell a friend. BYO ruckus. We just may be doing a cover of this:

Check out Chicks Who Love Guns on their Myspace Page. They are are supported by Redcoats and The Rubens at Last Night at The Gaelic on Friday. Tickets are a bargain ten bones on the door.