It's the Big Day Out.

I'm not sure what was different, but I got to see a lot more bands this year, even if only incidentally. First up was Afra and the Incredible Beatbox Band. That was pretty cool, and it was lovely to see the cloud breaking up. The met'llers were right into Sinate, who were trainwreck viewing... and the bass player (surely it was the bass player) was wearing a t-shirt that said, "I have the biggest dick in the band".



From the main stadium area I saw the crowd getting right into a performance from Blindspott, and then My Chemical Romance struck up. Queen, I tell you: Queen. And impressive at that. I stopped by Luciano's set at Lilyworld, lots of people enjoying the vibe there. My wanderings next took me the nearest to the Boiler Room that I got all day, in time to hear Lily Allen's 'Smile'.



By 6:45 I was free to run to the Green stage for Jakob's set. I was so relieved to have a break, and it was just lovely to chill out side of stage and drift away. Next I caught the few songs of Muse's set, and that was quite wonderful. They closed with 'Take A Bow'. Talk about epic.

I was quite amped to see Tool play, and the crowd was really clamouring for it as the start time was delayed by twenty minutes. From my vantage point in the pit it was pretty alarming to see squashed and exhausted person after person lifted over the security barrier. Finally the band took the stage and opened with the superb 'Stinkfist'. In my excited state I raved to everybody afterwards about how great 'Prison Sex' was... true fan huh.

I only saw the one song, as I wanted to go see Dimmer and the Violent Femmes. Wish I'd seen more though, particularly as I heard that System of a Down's Serj Tankian joined Tool onstage for a few songs at the end of their set, including 'Sober'. Damn. Apparently they'll be back in September.

So the Big Day Out was a very successful day. The sell-out crowd wasn't as difficult as I'd expected, and I got to drive a golf cart.

Thanks to all who came along to my bdo recovery barbecue. It was a lovely evening, although it all caught up with me around 4am and I had to bail. Today, I slept all day! This evening my flatmates and I ventured forth in search of someplace to see the McNaught Comet. Amazing. I didn't attempt any photos, but found lots of incredible shots on flickr.