Kimbra performing “Settle Down” live outside Spotify House. Amazing!

BIG DAY OUT MELBOURNE 2012 - Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne (January 29 2012)

So apparently this year’s Big Day Out was supposed to be a bit of a dud. The line up was apparently crap. Kanye West is too mainstream. Ticket prices had gone up. Well that last one may be true but it certainly didn’t stop eager music lovers turning up to the now 20 year old festival in droves in the scorching heat. On the way there I made up my mind to watch and review three very different artists (of course we ended up catching bits and pieces of other bands and artists as well, OFWGKTA in particular, was simply intense. Tyler the Creator’s Yonkers set the crowd into a wild frenzy).  

First up, the New Zealand pop starlet Kimbra (pictured). In a word, adorable. It was hard not to be a little spellbound by her funky little musical conductor/magical wizard arm waves and constant bobbing all over the stage. Not to mention she is quite a fantastic performer in front of a live band. Fan favourites Settle Down and Cameo Lover were exquisite, as was her cover of the Bobby Brown classic Every Little Step I Take. 

It was party time in the Boiler Room from start to finish with mash up king Girl Talk. Ludcaris, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, Black Sabbath, The Ramones, The Rapture, Daft Punk and Gaga were just some of the artists and bands cut up and mashed together in his epic hour long set. It takes a certain level of craziness, mixing skill and balls of steel to drop a crazy remix with something like Adele’s Rolling In The Deep and know that everybody in the whole tent somehow knows every single word (the curse of the pop song) and will unashamedly sing along as loud as possible! He capped off the wild party antics with everybody’s favourite Isley Brothers’ song Shout!, needless to say everybody did. 

Last but not least, Kanye West. Late too, I might add. Ballet dancers twirled on stage for what felt like forever. The crowd waited, some patiently, others impatiently for some sign of the mega hip-hop star. Finally making his entrance, rising high above the mosh atop a scissor lift rapping Dark Fantasy over a booming bassline. After coming back down to Earth and a long walk back to centre stage he set Flemington Racecourse a light with new and old hits while dozens of ballerinas twirled about on stage. Good Life (featuring a little MJ tribute with an extended Pretty Young Thing intro), Strongerand Jesus Walks were some of the standouts. Newer tracks such as Power and Runaway were also amazing, although had a tendency to drag on. Towards the end of a few of those newer tracks he and his band would go into a jam session of sorts, improvising and extending a track as long as possible before its dramatic conclusion. It was a self indulgent demonstration of his musical production prowess, although parts of the Big Day Out crowd grew agitated and restless at times as they ached for his next song. But when his next song eventually did come around the crowd would still go absolutely nuts (American Boy was a nice surprise)! Kanye put on an impressive (and long!) show, finishing off a truly memorable performance and festival with Hey Mamma, a tribute to his late mother.  

Oh, and those that were able to catch his sideshow the following Tuesday at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl witnessed an even better performance. It was a glorious ending to the Australian tour in such an intimate venue full of true fans.

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This review also appears in issue 526 (09-02-2012) of Forte Magazine. Big thanks to all those involved for giving me the opportunity to go to this years festival and practice my reviewing skills!

Congratulations to Boy And Bear and Kimbra for their ARIA wins over the weekend. Here are two covers I recently made of them for one of the magazines I design at work. B&B’s original cover pic had heaps of crap in the background that took ages to erase and clean up (in the printed version you can see the pink bear in all it’s halftone patterned glory, a technique I’ve been abusing recently) while Kimbra’s photo was very clean and allowed me do the minimalist styled cover that I’ve always wanted to do. Nothing spesh really, just thought I’d share :)