The Big Day Out is one of Australia’s largest music festivals. It has capacity to cater to a crowd of more than 50,000 partygoers and the name BDO is synonymous with good times. Or so I’m told… The 2007 installment was to be my first ever BDO, as for some strange reason I’d never managed to attend before. But the opportunity arose to catch some of my favourite musical artists, and I decided to take the plunge. Standouts for my first BDO were TZU, Tool, Muse and Diplo, who all managed to either a) play a fantasic and enjoyable set, or b) teach me something new about music and what it can do. Overall it was pretty much a solid effort all round. Impressive. Inspiring. Inspirational. And that was just the ‘chicken’ kebab I ate about 10pm.

It’s a difficult thing to know where to start with this story, so we’ll start at 4:30am. I am suddenly awake and listening to Aenima by Tool. Not out of pure excitement for the day to come, but due to the fact that I needed to squeeze in a whole day at the office before heading to Homebush, and Aenima happens to be my alarm tone. I understand the reasoning behind having this year’s BDO not on Australia Day, and it obviously didn’t have much of an effect on ticket sales, but for people like me – the honest, hard working youngsters – it meant a truly grueling day.

As I left the office to arrive at Showgrounds by 1pm I had a mental checklist of things to remember; wallet, keys, ticket, phone, map and playlist. The last two were tack-ons, just on the off-chance that somehow – as ludicrous and unlikely as it may be – organisers didn’t have them when I arrived. I rocked up with everything except a map and playlist, and spent my first hour or so asking every single BDO-related staff member where these two items may be procured. “Sorry, they’ve run out,” was the general response. This led me to my first dilemma of the day. Who is “they”? And why don’t “they” have anymore of these fairly crucial items at only 1pm! Having no info proved to make my day a tad more difficult than it should have been. But I’m not one to get caught up on the minor things like that.

Typically for me, my first hour and a half was spent wandering from place to place just checking where everything was, and getting some sense of direction. In the main arena The Butterfly Effect already had a fairly solid crowd bouncing around to their tunes, and the Herd in the Boiler Room were also doing well from my brief drive by at around 1:45pm. Evermore were pretty cool, playing at one point their own rendition of Stand By Me, followed by their own big tunes. Already the place was comfortably full and there was a pretty good vibe going ‘round.

My second dilemma of the day was in working out where the Hot House was (a problem without a map!) It was to be the venue I would spend a lot of my time at. The single sign I saw pointed in the correct direction, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it was exhaustion, or maybe I’m just a simpleton, or maybe the signage just wasn’t awesome… Who knows..? When I eventually found it, I let out a sigh of relief and settled in to watch Foreign Heights perform for a small but very supportive crowd. The girls MCd and sung some great tunes and the crowd was generously offered some pretty tasty beats. I was impressed. I’d never heard of them, but they were great. Not so sure about their choice of crowd member to take on stage and sing a love song about, but hey, even a soaking-wet-from-sweat-twenty-something is entitled to his 3 minutes of fame right?

I made my way to the Boiler again where Ben Morris was finishing his set before handing over to Lily Allen. The lasers and lights were already in full swing at only 2:45pm, and Ben was pumping out some fairly tough house and electro. To be honest not a great lead-in for Lily, and an odd choice by organisers. It was a bit of a consistent issue in the Boiler Room. The event seemed to significantly lack the electronic constituents of previous years and artists were randomly chucked in because, well, someone had to be in there didn’t they? In fact, it was the lack of true electronic acts that disappointed me most. Where were the equivalents of The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers or even Basement Jaxx, like in previous years? To be quite truthful, Crystal Method DJs just don’t cut it as a headline act, as great as they may be. But I digress, Lily and her band did a great job in playing some bouncy, poppy tunes, opening with Smile and generally putting us all in a good mood. Eventually I made my way back down to the main stage to watch Scribe.

I wasn’t too sure how Scribe would be. I wasn’t sure the 45 minutes would be adequately filled, since there’s only so many remixes of Not Many you can go through before the crowd would get bored, but I kept my faith. Apparently he’s actually got other tunes too, and people know them! Here’s me thinking he’s pretty much a one hit wonder… One of his points – which made an appearance between shout outs to his “MySpace posse” – was that hip hop has hit the main stage at BDO. I’m sure it’s been there before, but he’s right, it is great to see more and more hip hop acts making it to the big time and getting prime slots at the BDO. It’s great to finally see the music I love taking pride of place in the Aussie scene.

I unintentionally continued my hip hop theme by heading over to the Hot House where TZU had just taken up position on stage. I had no idea who this band was, what they did, what sort of music they made, or who cut their hair. I guess the last thing didn’t matter, but how could I not know who this band was? They were fantastic! They were by far the highlight of the day for me. They managed to pack out the whole arena and have the crowd going absolutely ballistic to their funk-infused hip hop that simply oozed class and originality. The MCs were great, the DJ was talented and the dude riding the MPC, sampler and drum kit was insane. I loved every second of their performance and even got up and had a dance during the track they did on the current state of Aussie politics. “Yeah that’s right, fuck you Johnny!” Over the day, a lot of musicians passed comment on the whole flag issue, which is fair enough I guess. I got sick of it, but it was mildly relevant. These guys basically stepped to the crowd and said we love the flag, but we hate all the racists, the homophobes, the sexists and the “conservative fuckwits” who essentially fuel the fire. Great music, awesome lyrical flow, and a peaceful political message – what a great way for me to spend 45 minutes of my day.

45 minutes a lot better spent than those during the slot for Spank Rock, or a portion of what should have been Spank Rock. Sloppy DJing, terrible MCing and obvious track selection really let them down. I remember the MC (not Spank Rock’s typical mic operator, who was not even in the country due to him missing a flight) mentioning “technical difficulties” after a particularly obvious screw up, and I wondered whether he meant with him and his DJ or with the equipment. I figured he meant the latter, but really – subconsciously perhaps – he was apologising for what a let down they were. There was a brief hose incident where some kids found their way to the stage rooftop and turned on the fire hoses, which was kinda funny, but obviously had some consequences for the equipment below. Spank were cut off in the latter part of their set and security got on the mic, telling the kids to turn the hoses off or the show would be cancelled. The hoses were promptly disengaged and we were instructed to put our “hands together for Spank Rock”. “I’m actually Diplo,” was the on-stage response from Dips who quickly kicked things back into action with a very decent set. The main drawback was that the bloody Spank Rock MC kept talking. He was dribbling some bollocks about the flag and how he didn’t even care: “I’m a fucking American.” I was impressed by Diplo, not his best performance, but he’s a real quality DJ and he cemented that for me once again.

The Streets were OK in the Boiler Room, but there was nowhere to sit, and my body was quickly going downhill, along with energy levels, so I left not long after for the allure of seats at the main stage. The Killers were playing a great, fun set and the crowd was in raptures. Sing-alongs, earsplitting cheers and a sea of hands were on the cards for this crazy band. The main stage was pretty much faultless from the moment the Killers stepped up to the second Tool finished up with Aenima (a strangely suitable finale given my rather rude awakening some 16 hours earlier). Muse were beautiful in their execution and played a set that was both subtly brilliant and soulful, whilst also being truly and classically rock. They are one of the true performing bands of our era, and are perfectly suited to peak slots at the Big Day Out.

Tool was one of the primary reasons I wanted to head along this year. Along with Nirvana, Tool rate as one of my most favourite bands for many years. Their album Aenima is still near to the top of my CD pile, and it gets regular airtime on my stereo. In post-BDO discussions with friends, I have decided that the sounds of Tool are similar to another of my favourite groups, who are more typically associated with electronica. The Prodigy. It’s as though the two were born to the same parents, and one took a more metal/rock direction, whilst the other went more electronic. Both combine sounds and noises in such original and interesting ways, creating music that is not only groundbreaking, but accessible and listenable. From Vicarious, to Opiate, 46&2 and finishing with Aenima, the guys were simply amazing live. Although I was off to the side with muddy sound, I could still enjoy the music and the vibe they threw out to the crowd. I could also see clearly the breathtaking light, laser and visual show that was going on. The mosh pit was packed, and going absolutely nuts the entire set. I thought to myself that I wished I could turn my biological clock backwards and be 16 again. Just so I could have the opportunity jump around like a kid and not worry about getting smashed in the face by rogue elbows, but alas my moshing days are over and I was not willing to brave it – even for Tool.

From here it was on to the Crystal Method boys doing a DJ set. I realise many enjoyed the set, but I didn’t. It all sounded a little bit aged – not like a good red wine, but like a sandwich that’s been in my bag for a week. But I forced down the week-old ham and cheese sanger and heard some cool tracks including Prodigy’s Voodoo People, a remix of Bloc Party’s Banquet and some others, but the mixing was stock, and the set in general lacked what’s expected from Boiler Room headliners.

Transport home was great. Quick, easy and cheap. As I sat on the train with my buddy I was happy that I’d decided to go to the Big Day Out. It’s an institution and it’s world-renowned as having the best names in music headline. I was privy to some exceptional talent, and walked away with a new adoration for music in all of its forms. For me, rock is slowly making its way back into my musical directory in the section of my brain that deals with such issues. The electronic section of the same area was none too impressed with the BDO 2007, but hip hop was beautifully represented. The fairly friendly crowd and lack of violence was nice, though the drinks lines were stupidly long. But I had a good day, so I left happy enough!