It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you...

Well then...

Since October I've been to Bali for Peachy & Nat's wedding. It was a pretty good trip, and I loved catching up with everyone from Adelaide. It's so funny how you just click back into hold habits and patterns around old friends.

But to be honest, I was completely shattered financially because of the trip plus having to move out in October. Then afterwards I simply didn't work enough hours at Vertex / Telstra and was in a pretty bad state of affairs. Pretty much sold everything portable that I never use - DS, PSP, iPod, Camera. Selling my camera hurts. Also sold my dex and mixer.

However, fate had better plans. Actually, people may say fate, but to be brutally honest, it was all me. I left my crap job at Vertex / Telstra and moved to Auckland, New Zealand to continue my career in games.

I'm working for Gameloft, and until recently was Assistant Producer on an iPhone game, and now I'm Producer on another game and another console. Can't be more specific than that, I'm afraid... NDAs and all that...

Most of my stuff is in storage in Melbourne. Not sure if I'll get it sent over, or if I'll sell it all or what. I do want it here, especially my bed! but maybe when I'm a bit more settled.

Auckland is kind of dull. Admittedly I haven't been out much - been to a strip bar which wasn't that great - I mean, sure, "Yay titties" but if you can only look there's always the internet and it doesn't cost $20 entry and $10 for a beer. I'd have tipped the ladies more if it wasn't so damn expensive!

Apart from that place, drinks are reasonably priced. Food is a little on the expensive side, although comparable to Australia I guess. I've found a couple of nice asian places around my flat, and they're not bad, but I'm yet to find a place that does a Parma for a decent price.

I ended up going to the Big Day Out in Auckland. I wasn't going to go this year, but thought new city, new country, might be fun. It was, but not all that different to any other BDO really.

I found I spent most of the time on the side stages. And I caught quite a few NZ groups - one which were a poor man's White Stripes - a male/female duo playing one instrument each song, but they were quite enjoyable.

When I went to many of my trips to the bar, I discovered a band called Family Cactus, who had about 7 people on stage, and who sounded very "Radiohead", but not nearly as miserable. I really enjoyed them, and will try and track down their albums.

Kora, a NZ funk/soul band, who should have been in the Boiler room, just because they had a better "dance" sound than Mt Eden Dubstep who were on at the same time. Kora had a great sound, that New Zealand funk/soul/dance sound of Supergroove or Fat Freddy’s Drop, and it was appreciated by a massive crowd.

Although to be fair Mt Eden Dubstep were ok... too wobbly for my tastes, but maybe it was the fact that thousands were singing along with their tracks it didn't want to make me put a knitting needle through my ear like most dubstep sets I’ve had to endure. Maybe they’re just better DJs than Melbourne / Adelaide dubstep DJs, but the fact remains they were just DJs and I’d have preferred to see a live act in the boiler room.

Bloody Beetroots were like a poor man's Daft Punk. Sure, they had more equipment on stage and were “live”, and the lightshow wasn't as nearly spectacular, but they were dull as fuck. What is it with Electro acts?

Die Antwoord are a must. Yeah, their music sucks, but fuck me these guys are entertaining on stage. It's like Vanilla Ice had a baby with Dali, and he decided to partner up with the ideal Aryan woman, especially in the fact she should be seen and NOT heard (you’ll understand me when she sings), and they've decided to make hiphop without really understanding what hiphop is.

This year seemed to be the year of the Gimmick - even Sia came out on stage covered in black & white paint, constrained in a box. She's so fucking cute though, and the crowd may have been soaked, we had a ball!

Rammstien win out though – flares, explosions, blood and flame fucking throwers!

Iggy Pop was Iggy Pop – as frantic and crazy on stage as always. Their set is an album set, not the usual best of, so if you're not a huge Stooges fan, you'll probably be pissed he didn't play Lust for Life.

And Tool were Tool. If you’re a fan, you might like it, but I thought they were pretty dull.

I completely missed LCD sound system – they were on the same time as Primal Scream, who were by far the best act of the day.

Doing an album live has its own pitfalls - for example the Pixies were record perfect - you could have been in the studio with them, not on stage with thousands of people. And as I mentioned before about Iggy & the Stooges, for someone who isn’t a fan, you wonder where all the good songs are.

But Scream have decided to do something different, because in the 20 years since Screamadelica their sound has changed to be a lot more blues/rock influenced. Part of this is the different producers they've worked with, part from the introduction of Stone Roses' Mani on Bass. They've taken that on board, and have redone the seminal dance/rock album and educated it with the rock/blues mentality. So it rocks out, led by Mani’s amazing bass playing, but still amazingly uplifting and soulful.

And those who know me know I've seen a lot of acts - and Primal Scream's Screamadelica Live is up in the top 10, for sure.

Melbourne Big Day Out 08

This was the second Big Day Out I've attended in Melbourne; the first was back in 2001.

This time it was a Flemmington Racecourse, and I must admit I prefer the old Showgrounds (and moreover, Adelaide Showgrounds) because there's hardly any shade and no where nice to sit. The stages are miles apart, and you have to walk pretty far between them.

There were a few things different - they had a single entry to the 'D' - basically the area right at the front of the stage, and prevented people entering when it was full. This meant I didn't get anywhere close to the stage at any time. They had drink tickets, but this time they sold them in lots of 10 for $30, and drinks were 1 ticket for water, 2 for beer, and 3 for spirits, which works out really well when you think about it.

But I had a really fun time.


Got there for Muph & Plutonic and they were heaps good... ;)

Midnight Jugernauts were meh, and didn't excite me in the slightest, so I wandered around and heard a local Melbourne group called Mammal, who weren't too bad.

Dizzee Rascal got me bouncing, and performed lots of stuff from English & Mathematics. He closed with Stand Up Tall, which I love.

Hilltop hoods started with a couple of covers - "Just To Get By" and "It's All Good", then dropped into their usual set. They had a singer and the string quartet with them as well, but I was a bit disappointed they didn't do any of the songs they wrote about Adelaide - "City of Light", for example.


Grinspoon annoyed me because they didn't even say hello to the audience - not that I heard anyway, so I grabbed a beer and did a wander. Managed to catch a little of Billy Bragg and I'm such a little commie that I was singing along to it, knowing all the words.

After him I popped over to the Lillypad and caught some of Dexter's Gorilla Step, which is a lot of fun. Dexter DJs whilst drummers drum on logs, and dancers dance around like gorillas, but in hiphop / break dance battle style. It's really cool.


Tom Morello is a funny guy. His banter between songs really humanised him. He did an acoustic cover of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", changing the lyrics to be all about the evil that is George Bush. He then said "Not bad for a guy who's been digitised for Guitar Hero III" and proceeded to tell the crowd how crap he is at the game. He was quite folky, and I'm sure it would have put a lot of typical rage fans off, but I liked it. At the end he told everyone to go download his album, saying "we sold so many of that Rage Against the Machine record that it doesn't matter".


However, most of the day I felt like something was missing, and it wasn't until UNKLE Live came on that I realised what it was - straight up rock! Most of the acts I had seen were hiphop or folk, and when UNKLE came on and proceeded to rock I was really surprised and really happy. They reminded me a lot of Depeche Mode actually, and the lighting in the boiler room was top shit!

Krafty Kuts and Dynamite MC played after, and I gotta hand it to Krafty, he certainly knows how to rock the festival crowd. I wasn't really feeling it though, so wandered to the bar and chatted to some randoms (Melbourne is so friendly and so full of freaks it's awesome!) and then caught 5 minutes of Pegz, who was rocking his home crowd well.


I made my way over to the blue stage in preparation for RATM, so caught most of Bjork. I really enjoyed her set, although lots of people around me whinged like little bitches about her playing right before Rage. The video showed her horn section jumping around, and the freaky instruments she uses. One was this large round touchscreen that you put cups on, and the different cups have different sounds, and the closer they are the different frequencies they make. Really interesting and I want one! (I've since found out it is a ReacTable)

Then Rage Against The Machine came on, and if I was lamenting the lack of rock, they fixed it for me. Playing all their hits, they simply smashed it. Although I got to take issue with one thing - Zac had a rant about the system, as he is want to do. It's all well and good to rant about "the system" comrade, but "the system" is the thing that's got you in front of 50,000 people singing and earning millions instead of doing an honest day's work... But it's only a minor gripe and I love the commie bastards.

Things got a little out of control in the crowd too - there were people up on the roof of the bar tent, people on the scaffolding, people in trees, and security and cops couldn't do much, although I saw one security dude just laying into one of the crashers. Not good.


But all in all it was a pretty good Big Day Out, although I think I might head to Adelaide next year, for the simple fact that there are nice places to sit and see the action, unlike at Flemmington, because my legs and feet are fucking killing me right now!

Big Day Out 2007

Another year, another big day out, and another disappointing Boiler Room line up. Sure, all the acts that played this were top notch, but I don’t know, maybe the all-dance events like Good Vibrations, Field Day and Parklife keep scoring all the crowd pullers, but I wasn’t too impressed with the Boiler Room this year and spent a good deal of my time seeing bands.

Having said that though, the Herd were the first band I saw, and testament to the draw of hiphop, especially in Adelaide, they had the Boiler Room packed and pumping in the early afternoon. They have such energy and vitality on stage, and bringing John Schuman out for their cover of Redgum’s “I Was Only 19” was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

The floor thinned out considerably for Digital Primate, which was a shame because he was really good. Playing his own tunes, with his rappers jumping up next to him and kicking some delicious rhymes, he was better suited for a later time slot. Also at this time I decided to get a drink. What a farce that was! Lining up for 30 minutes in the hot sun just to get tickets to go line up again for a drink? From a logistics perspective I can see why they did it – only a few places that deal with cash so no money goes missing from the bars, but from a punters point of view the idea is almost as stupid an idea as trying to prevent people wearing the Australian flag.

Spank Rock surprised me. I knew MC Spank Rock was a no show, but I expected the Spank Rock DJs DJ Devlin and DJ Darko to be far more hiphop orientated than they were. They only did a couple of their own tunes and played a lot of dance orientated stuff in mashup style, mixing up Mylo and AC/DC and the Rocky Theme, with Pacerock hyping the crowd rather than rapping to the music. They reminded me of the Nextmen or Z-Trip, and I really wonder how different they would have been if Spank Rock had made it.

I went for a wander after this, managing to catch My Chemical Romance, who, I grudgingly admit, were rocking the crowd far beyond my expectations. I’ve never really listened to them, and what I’ve heard on the radio I can’t say I like them, but I didn’t run away with my fingers in my ears screaming “You Suck!” at the top of my lungs like I have to other bands in the past.

Making my way back to the Boiler Room for Peaches, I was not disappointed by her on stage shenanigans. Sucking water out of fake boobs during Shake Your Dix, ripping off her tight black jumpsuit to reveal porn style electric pink underwear, she dominated the audience with her sexy style and on stage presence. And I love how many instruments they swap for every song – I much prefer to see people playing samplers on stage than relying on DAT backup tape.

Needing a rest, I wandered over to the Lilly Pad, and managed to catch King Kapisi, New Zealand’s king of hiphop. I don’t care what people say about Scribe, King Kapisi wipes the floor with him. Better rhymes, better attitude, just simply better.

After Kapisi came Afra & the Incredible Beatbox Band. And my word, they are aptly named! Beginning with the Shadow’s Apache, made famous by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, the proceeded to box out various beats from Michael Jackson to James Brown, and classic hiphop like ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’. The Japanese rapping was pretty cute too, and these guys are the best beatboxers I’ve seen to date. Although I’m seeing Rhazel next weekend, so my opinion is open to change.

After Afra, I went and checked out the Streets, who played far too much of their slow stuff, so I went to see Jet instead. I must admit in the past I’ve not liked Jet, thinking them to be too derivative, but seeing them live really made me appreciate their sound a little more.

Speaking of sound, Muse blasted some awesome rock, but not knowing too much of their stuff I sought out something I knew and could bop along to. Enter You Am I, another Australian band I have never given much credit to, but on the smaller Green Stage they seemed much more intimate and comfortable than last time I saw them.

Tool kicked off their set with probably the only Tool song I could identify as them, but I stuck around for a while and enjoyed the heavy rock, until hunger got the better of me and I went to grab some food. Here I was subjected to the wailing of Her Latest Flame, which made me glad I don’t go out to see local bands anymore. I understand you’re an angry teenager, but do you have to scream about it? Listen to the other bands on the line up – Tool and Muse didn’t produce eardrum busting yelps!

After dinner, it was time for the Violent Femmes, and I was happy as a pig in mud dancing and singing along from the first note of ‘Please Don’t Go’ to the last I heard, ‘Add It Up’. I loved the fact they played ‘Country Death Song’, one of my all time favourite Femmes tunes, and Brian Ritchie was great on the Xylophone for ‘Gone Daddy Gone’.

Leaving the Femmes before the end of their set was a heart wrenching decision, but I had a job to do. I had to go see Crystal Method to see if they’d disappoint me for a fourth time. In the past they’ve been average or simply downright crap. The ease I got into the Boiler Room confirmed my suspicions that the Crystal Method aren’t as popular as past BDO closers, but I grudgingly admit they played an alright set. Recognising their own remixes of Prodigy, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’, along with their own ‘Born Too Slow’, and capping off with their squealchy and tough ‘Keep Hope Alive’, they exceeded my expectations, but my expectations were pretty low.

All in all it was another great Big Day Out, but there was nothing absolutely mind blowing this year, like two years ago when I heard Wolf Mother for the first time.

To see the bigger versions of these photos, go to www.ringo.com

All in all it was another great Big Day Out, but there was nothing absolutely mind blowing this year, like two years ago when I heard Wolf Mother for the first time.
To see the bigger versions of these photos, go to www.ringo.com