I saw the
Sydney show yesterday.
Wow.
It was the first large rock concert/festival/whatever I'd ever been to, so I didn't know what to expect. Even just at the train station the atmosphere was overwhelming... it was packing with young people like myself, drinking, yelling and swearing. Last-minute tickets being sold for double the original asking price. Spray hair colour everywhere.
We got there in time to see 28 Days, who put on a great show. The audience was relaxed and having a good time, with the usual mooning and half-assed crowd surfing happening. Frenzal Rhomb were a lot of fun as well. Killing Heidi were the usual average show, but they did an interesting version of Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 which was worth watching.
The highlights of the day were in the last three acts on the main stages - Powderfinger, Rammstein and Limp Bizkit. Powderfinger were incredible. The whole crowd was moving in time with the music, singing along. It was the first time in the whole day where the huge speakers simply weren't huge enough. That on it's own made the day worth the ticket price.
Rammstein put on a great show, with plenty of props, explosions and spraying fire. Right from the start, the main singer was on fire and had a Borg-like laser shining from his left eye. Very cool. Lots of fireworks and other effects made it an excellent show, even if you don't like the music.
Limp Bizkit was the major highlight, and the reason a lot of people went. The crush was incredible, and we weren't even close to the stage. The show was stopped twice to ask the audience to move back, for about half an hour of delays.
The first song played was insane. They played "Hot Dog", and we literally had no choice as to where we went. I held onto my wallet, put my arms in front of my chest, and tried to move with the crowd as best I could. Soon afterwards a guy came pushing past, saying "it's too crowded up there, someone's going to get hurt".
I never understood how people could get up on top of the crowd in the first place, but if I'd wanted to crowdsurf right there, all I'd have to do was jump and push up a bit. The space I had occupied would close up, and I'd be on top.
Fire trucks were brought in to spray water on the crowd, but it would have only reached about a third of it. I was near the centre of the stadium where Channel V were recording, and after enough of the crowd started yelling "Water! Water!" one of the camera operators started throwing bottled water.
The show was more enjoyable after the crowd loosened up - Limp Bizkit does a great job with the audience interaction. "I want all the guys to look to their right and left, and if there's a girl there, pick her up on your shoulders ... (something something) ... might help you get some ass".
They also played "Show Me What You Got", "Faith", "Nookie", "Re-arranged", "Break Stuff", "My Generation", "Full Nelson", "Rollin'", "Livin' It Up", "The One", "Take A Look Around" and "My Way", not in that order. Mostly stuff off Chocolate Starfish, which is OK, but I would have preferred a little more variety. They didn't play "Counterfeit" unfortunately.
Reading forums, a lot of people seem to be disappointed with the show. I honestly can't see how. Everything about it was great - they had audience interaction, excellent music, special effects and atmosphere.
I saw on the news about a dozen people were injured, and an 18-year-old girl's heart stopped. She is alive. Limp Bizkit have decided not to continue with the Big Day Out tour.
The blame for the injuries is going both ways - some blame Limp Bizkit for not stopping the show, others blame the organisers for not having good enough security. Apparantly Limp Bizkit had proposed their own security arrangement, which the organisers ignored because it would be too hard to implement at such short notice. Idiots. I hear that At The Drive In left the stage after about 15 minutes because of continued crowd surfing, even after they asked them to stop.
After Limp Bizkit, we (the friends I went with) had planned to go see Carl Cox in the Boiler Room, but we were just too exhausted to bother. A girl approached me carrying her friend, asking me for a sip of my drink. I handed her the near-empty can, the carried friend started to drink and promptly threw up. Fun.
Most memorable sign: "After 7:30PM people wearing hairspray or polyester must be no closer than 15 metres to the stage".
Most memorable quote: Fred Durst: "Have any of you been drinking that Red Buuull? That shit makes you crazy."