3 comments
29th Jan 06
strawberryhopeFor not posting, I figured I’d write an update. I went to the Big Day Out last Sunday and it was fantastic. It was one of the most awesome experiences I’ve had so far. I got up early [around 6 or 7] to go and buy a bag, since my brother wasn’t letting me take his to BDO and I didn’t have any other bags. We drove to the Brisbane markets, but they didn’t open till nine, so we decided to go down to the Gold Coast. Did so, went to a shopping plaza and to City Beach, where, in order to spite my brother, I bought a bag exactly like his, but a different colour. Then Mum drove to the Parklands and dropped me off. The line was huge, absolutely massive, but it moved along quite quickly, too. Went through the line, tickets were checked, my bag was checked [not very hard to sneak something in, though. The chick took a cursory glance at it, said, "Are those bottles sealed?" and that was that.] and I was inside. I arrived pretty early, so there weren’t really that many people there, which was a nice way to start. I called one of my friends [Hayley] around 11 to see when we’d be meeting up — but she only got there at 12. By that time there were so many people it was crazy; we arranged to meet up as you went down the stairs of the exit on the right hand side facing the main stages. We were both there, only metres apart, but still didn’t see each other.
I’d seen Airbourne while I was waiting for Hayley, and I kind of caught a bit of Faker [would have liked to see more, actually, but I was meeting up with her while they were playing]. We wandered around for a bit and got a drink and caught a bit of Gerling — which Hayley wanted to see but didn’t really arrive early enough. After that we lined up to get into the D-Section [Aka the mosh pit] to see — God Help Me — Mudvayne. Got in there and had to wait a while for Magic Dirt to finish. I was kind of bored and everyone wanted to see Mudvayne. So I was in the mosh pit when Mudvayne started. And let me say: the Mudvayne moshpit is so much different to the other mosh pits there. Everyone in the mosh pit were teenage males; they were tall, they were heavy, and they were crushing us both. It was really scary, to be honest. I got an elbow in the head and almost fell down a couple of times, and I couldn’t breathe. Hayley looked at me and we mutually decided to leave, and had to shove our way out. There was one guy there as we were going [quite good looking too] and he says us and pushes the guys away and yells, “Let them through!” which was really nice of him. I ended up with just a bruised head and a small bruise on my thigh, while Hayley had bitten her lip when she got pushed foward and she got a bloody nose because someone smacked her in the nose and Hayley was wearing a nose ring.
From there, we left and wandered around for a while. Hayley ran into her sometimes toy-boy Robbie, and they went to see Wolfmother, which looked good, but I really wanted to see End of Fashion — and I’m glad I did. It was great fun and it was excited but not scary, ha. They sang the songs off their album [glad I bought that!] and when they got round to “O Yeah”, everyone got so into it. I had so much fun, it was really fantastic. After that, I went to the loos and ran into some friendly-people [you know the type, not friends but you talk to them and have fun with them...] and since I’d lost Hayley by this time I went with them. We hung around for a while, saw Hilltop Hoods [really good, everyone got into it] from outside the moshpit and then just hung around some more.
By this time you could tell that there were 50,000 people there, which was pretty cool. Around the time that The Living End started I decided I’d better go line up to get into the D-section — the crowd there was pretty big, but I didn’t expect it to take too long.
I was wrong. I was lined up for over an hour waiting to get into the mosh pit area, and no one was happy about the wait. People were so annoyed and didn’t see the point about security keeping us out of there — I still don’t know why. Anyway. During that time I met this chick, Sonia, who was pretty damn cool. She was there with three friends; two guys [one of them was her boyfriend] and a chick. I first started talking to them because they were telling bad jokes and because I was standing by myself in a crush of people. [Funny-ish thing -- Most of the crowd was wanting to get into The Living End. The only song from the Living End that the mosh pit to get into the mosh pit really danced and song and er, got into was Prisoner of Society: "We don't need no one to tell us what to do..."] They were really nice. One of her friends was in front of me and he wasn’t wearing a shirt and he looked good without a shirt, and that was nice, especially since I was pushed up against him, haha. He turned around at one point and was talking to Sonia and then says, “I’ve got a nice view from here.” and I look at him and he’s looking right down my shirt. Cause he was hot and not geriatric, it was flattering, but because he was nice and too old for me [maybe 27 - 30ish?] it wasn’t like he was hitting on me. Anyway, we heard that they were letting people through, so he shouldered his way through [because of shuffling crowds Sonia had ended up in front of me, her friend beside me.], and Sonia told me to grab onto the loops of her shorts, and she grabbed her friend and pulled us through [and it was such a tight squeeze] while Sonia’s boyfriend was behind us making sure that we got through okay. Finally, I got in, but by this time the Living End had finished and Franz Ferdinand had played Jacqueline.
Franz Ferdinand was FUCKING FANTASTIC. Everyone was really excited and jumping up and down and by that time it was dark, and the lights were going and it was hot and sweaty and writhing and dirty, and the Crowd Care guys would come up with sprinklers and shower the crowd with them, so there was water coming through and lights and the bass was so cool and the songs were just so much fun. They played my favourite songs and I was so glad — I loved it. It was one of the best experiences of my life, I swear.
After that was Iggy and the Stooges. I was kind of impressed with Iggy’s energy, and I Wanna Be Your Dog was really good. Iggy looks really good for an old guy — you can tell he’s old [he's 60!] but he really looks after himself. He was jumping around the stage and doing all these moves, which was pretty impressive. He kind of came across as a little arrogant at times — “Turn the lights on the audience! I need some reality man!” — but he was really awesome. Because I Wanna Be Your Dog is the only Iggy song I know, I kind of lost interest after it, although there was an awesome part where he got members of the audience to come up on stage to dance, which was fantastic.
The White Stripes were last, but because I’d been waiting so long for Iggy to finish and The White Stripes to start, I’d kind of snapped out of the mood, which was unfortunate. I left fifteen minutes in, but I think it was partly to do with the fact that there was a guy in front of me who wore his long [sweaty] hair out and flicked it in my face and jumped on my toe repeatedly. I was tired and in pain and so I decided to go home.
I let about 15 minutes before The White Stripes finished. I was sunburnt and tired and in pain and I could barely walk because my feet were so sore, so I caught the shuttle bus to the Helensvale train station to catch the train home, thinking I’d miss the rush when it finished —
– didn’t quite work like that. The next train was going at 11, when the concert finished at 10. Everybody who went to the Big Day Out and was catching the train back to Brisbane was on that train. It was so cramped. I was actually leaning over some girls who were sitting down, so that I could lean on the wall instead of falling down. Then I was talking to a couple of girls and we somehow discovered the train toilet, which was actually very spacious — about the size of a generous lift. So the two girls, two others and I sat in there, and it was so much nicer than being cramped, although it was a toilet, lol. Because the train left at 11 and we were going to Brisbane, I didn’t actually get home until about 12:20. Someone at the front of the carriage actually turned 18 on the train, and so the entire carriage sang Happy Birthday to them, which would have been an awesome way to start being an adult.
So I got home at 12:20, went to bed, got up at 9 and packed and went to Toowoomba because I had a driving lesson at 1:45 and I had to pack.
I spent the next week in Toowoomba and, long story short, on Friday I got my full driver’s licence! Yay!
And I think you’re pretty much up to date.
P.S. Liam, long enough for you?
