Rumours were circulating that this was going to the best BDO
lineup ever with an unprecedented 3 headliners.
The initial announced lineup is a solid one but certainly not the best ever.
On the other hand, it’s also far from
the worst. Two of the three acts rumoured
as the headliners were confirmed. Unfortunately,
rumours of The Cure were wide of the mark, their spot as co-headliner going to
The Arcade Fire. Also on the bill and of
interest to me are The Lumineers, Flume, Portugal, Tame Impala, the Cosmic
Psychos and, best of all, my beloved Mudhoney. Snoop Dogg will also be playing although I’ll
be unlikely to be watching. A second announcement will be made later in the
year and the big tip is this will include the Wu Tang Clan.
But there are three other acts that will also be
appearing. Combined with the above acts,
this will be sufficient to guarantee my attendance for another year. They are;
(# 539) Pearl Jam –
Backspacer (2009)
Pearl Jam are another of the three co-headliners and will be
making their first appearance at a Big Day Out.
By the time they appear their follow up album to this, their most recent
release, will be out. It will have to be
an excellent album to top Backspacer which was certainly their best release in
quite a few years. On this they had the
good sense to keep the songs short, unfussed and direct, eschewing a tendency
towards polished musicianship that marred some of its immediate predecessors. Opening cut, Gonna See My Friends has a distinct
Mudhoney feel about it and The Fixer and Supersonic rank among their finest rockers. Johnny Guitar and Unknown Thought likewise should be
regarded as superior Pearl Jam ballads.
(# 540) Blur – Blur (1997)
Blur are the other co-headliner who, like Pearl Jam and
Arcade Fire, will be making their Big Day Out debuts. It will also mark their first visit to
Australia since their only tour in 1997 supporting this album. At the time of release this album was savaged
by some critics who felt that it had a strong American indie rock feel. This might be true of some of the music but I’ve
always felt that the Damon Albans vocal work – always and usually the only authentic
“English” sounding element within the band – marks it as a Blur record. Leadoff track and opening single
Beetlebum has a distinct Beatles feel to
it and “woo hoos” in the now famous Song 2 could not have emanated from
anywhere but Great Britain. I suspect
that most of the criticism was directed by English criticism at the lyrics of
Look Inside America but, for the most part, this is a strong experimental album
by a band whose experimental playfulness knows no national boundaries.
(# 541) Bo Ningen –
Bo Ningen (2010)
One of the great things about the Big Day Out is that
totally “unknown” bands can get discovered in the course of a day. For once, I have the inside word on one of
these. Bo Ningen is not a badly named
American country act. Instead, they are
a high octane four piece punk band from Japan and this is their debut album
containing tracks characterised by Mudhoney inspired fuzz guitars with
hints of psychedelica thrown in as well.
The first 5 tracks, including the curiously titled Gasmask Rabbit, storm
by leaving the listener breathless. The
second half introduces greater variety including a couple of slower numbers,
the 10 minute Post Yokai and the awesome
16 minute closer ∆ which all betray a debut to Japan’s mighty Boris. They have a
reputation as being an awesome live act and I for one will definitely be on
hand to watch and cheer them on.
Consider yourself briefed.
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