Best Big Day Out ever!!!!!!!!

And why was it the best BDO ever ever EVER??? Two words really -

The Stooges.

Yep I said it, definitely the best ever! And I should know, I've seen 'em all!!! So what made this year's the creme de la creme of travelling rock festivals? Ok, a couple of things contributed to the experience in general - well, it was my first Gold Coast BDO, and I have to say it's a much better set up in this neck of the woods than the poor old Wayville Showgrounds - no bottlenecking as you move from one stage to the other, so 90 000 people in the crowd felt less crowded than the 30 000 you get at the Adelaide BDO; all nice and open and although for the middle of the day not a huge amount of shade all of the stages (aside from the two main stages) were under muhassive big tents so there was actually plenty of shade when seeing a band; The whole of the showgrounds is grassed so instead of hot baking asphalt on which to cook oneself from the underneath there was cool and pleasant (and actually quite wet for most of the day!) grass to sit on, roll around in, play hacky on etc etc etc; Friendliest crowd I've ever been a participant in (outside of the Falls Festival); and a great bunch of mates to share the day with :-)

We were uber organised and got up at 6, and on the road at 7.15 (not bad for a sunday morning when we'd gotten on it the night before eh?). Bubblicious drove her car with D and C, I drove my car with S and we picked up M on the way and made it down to the coast by about 9 - picked up a few further supplies and headed to the Southport Sharks (Aussie Rules can you believe it??) Football club - which is conveniently located right next to the Gold Coast Showgrounds, to meet Chops and L. Bubbles and I happen to be members so they were more than happy to let us park there for the day - the security guard on the gate even telling us to have a great BDO!! Woohoo!!! We went inside for breakkie, and met some more mates and after a munch out ended up in the cocktail lounge enjoying a pre-festivities cocktail - woohoo!! I LOVE IT when a plan comes together!!!

So off we trundled and within 10 minutes we were inside the gates and checking out where things were... can't do THAT at Wayville either!! As there were no sniffer dogs or body searches (the guy inside the gate barely looked inside my bag - I could've brought an entire METH LAB with me if I a) knew how to operate one b) had a bag big enough and c) had any interest in cooking up amphetamine inside the showgrounds!!). As it stands next year I won't worry about rolling spliffs before we go in and may well just take along my tin and pipe hehe too easy!

First thing I did as soon as I walked in and saw the rides in front of the main stages was drag S onto one of them with me - I chose the MegaDrop over the slingshot as I have ridden the Slingshot and sure it was great but man it's not enough! 2 seconds of fabulous gut-churning adrenaline is NOT enough (considering it's $20 or so to ride it). S bravely swallowed his trepidation and came on the ride with me - and as we cranked up to the ten odd storey top of the ride he said "I'm hyperventilating already!" so I advised him to breathe deeply and ensure he was exhaling on the way down!! We hung there for a few moments, savouring the height and the view and the impending rush before - WHAMMO!!! Down we dropped in a few heart stopping seconds!!! It was insane and I couldn't stop screaming and yahooing!! What a rush!! That so got the blood pumping I was bouncing for the next 10 minutes!

First band off the rank was local act The Grates on the Green stage - and not to put too fine a point on it, they were (unsurprisingly) great! So I thought 'right! No buggerising around I'm going to the merch tent where I promptly bought myself a Stooges t shirt and a Mars Volta t shirt. That out of the way I then went to check out Gerling with the kids - we had all gone our separate ways by this stage as some people wanted to look at some stuff and alla that malarky. All the while I was keeping an eagle eye out for a game of hacky, but nothing in sight, so we watched Gerling (Bubblicious' favourites) and enjoyed the crowd - quite colourful as you can imagine!! Some hilarious t shirts were making the rounds - a few of my favourites were 'I may look like a 7 but my dick's a 10!', 'my girlfriend told me to be more affectionate so I got a second girlfriend' and 'Rock n Roll Motherfucker' - a D4 t shirt that I saw a couple of times that I simply MUST have!!! (think ebay may be my only hope here).

We then made our way to the Local Produce stage to catch local band Shifter do their thing - and man!! Were these guys absolutely cranking it out!!! Micky the lead singer is shy and quiet and introspective offstage (I met him at a party some months ago) but onstage the man's an animal!! (in the best possible way of course). The bass player was wearing (and I kid you not in stinking hot, humid summer queensland weather) black leather pants, the worlds LARGEST belt buckle, and a black shirt open to the waist - yeehar!!! These guys were totally awesome, and did the best version of Highway to Hell I've ever heard (including the original) and just basically absolutely rocked their little hearts out to the small but devoted crowd there to appreciate them - totally my play of the day (aside from the Stooges of course).

We kept cool by wandering through the spray tents and hung out under the shade just enjoying the spray that was misting the crowd through the trees... a really nice set up, without a challenge!

It was S's first ever BDO, and Ch (our gorgeous South African friend) also had never been to one, and we really wanted them to have the best possible time... which I think they did as Ch said to me within 5 minutes of walking inside the gate - "I just LOVE this country!!". S was having a blast and thoroughly enjoying the music so we passed a very pleasant afternoon as Magic Dirt followed Gerling. As always Adelita rocked - although there's a hell of a lot of hand clapping and encouraging the crowd to join in these days - cool for kids but not that rock n roll ya know? Anyways Mudvayne blew the speakers on the main stage at 3 and they were out of action for about 40 minutes until Wolfmother took to the stage and man! Just like last year I felt like I had warped back to the mid 70's and was at a Deep Purple gig... nice one boys! Now these guys only played a short set, but by this stage I had met three divine young lads (all up from Byron Bay) who were keen jellybeans to play some hacky.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!! Finally!!! My cup runneth over and this little peanut was happier than a pig in the proverbial!!! So hacky shenanigans ensued all through the remaining hours of sunlight and in the meanwhile Henry Rollins ripped out an awesome spoken word performance, the Beasts of Bourbon tore it up on the green stage, the Mars Volta cranked out a massive set, the Hilltop Hoods did their thing on the main stage, followed by our own awesome Living End (who still very much have it). Truth be told once the hack was on there was only one thing that could stop it, and Franz Ferdinand was just not it... entirely forgettable to be honest (although I confess the hacky was SENSATIONAL) and once day had faded I was up on the MegaDrop a few more times.... Yahooie!!! Love that rush!!!!

Our recalcitrant buddy Bruce managed to make a late appearance just before the Stooges and instead of waiting for me to finish my spliff made his way down to the front of the stage in time for the set to begin. I was somewhat more tardy and was unable to get all the way down to the front, but as Iggy took to the stage I was able to follow his onstage antics from the comfort of the hill (after one last go on the MegaDrop) and rock out!!!

The Ashton's were phenomenal - now I know what all the fuss is really about - the last 30 years have done amazing things for Ron Ashton's guitar playing - the man is a genius!!! As Bruce so succinctly noted 'that guitar could cut you in half!!'... it was unreal! Iggy is a maniac and so exciting to watch live... old, wrinkled and leathery he may well be but the man is unstoppable and still radiates unbelievable attitude and energy - in spite of his 'barely there' hipster jeans (that ended up soaked with sweat). 'I wanna be your dog' was a highlight for me... as was 'Fun House' and 'Skull Ring' - Scott Ashton thumping out relentless beats on the drums, with Mike Watt contributing to a seamless rhythm section that just totally drove home the power and energy of the whole Stooges experience. Iggy got members of the crowd up on stage as always and somehow even with all these people dancing around, as well as himself like the maniac he is, no one tripped over any cables, no leads were unplugged, and no damage was done to person or equipment - remarkable really. Just wish I was one of the lucky buggers up there on stage - well who knows... maybe next time eh?

Once in a lifetime? - Quite probably.

Worth every cent of the price of admission just for the Stooges alone? - Most definitely

And frankly, after they had finished up, and the sweaty, bleeding, utterly awesome and fanfuckingtastic Stooges had left the stage, anyone would have been crap but in my opinion, the White Stripes were utter rubbish!!! Complete crap. Total bollocks. Fucking shite. To put it bluntly. So after their very forgettable set finished we made our way back to the cars, where we hung out, smoked a few spliffs and waited for the traffic to settle down, before making our tired, yet happy way back home to Brisvegas.

Ah Iggy... I love your scrawny, leathery, sweaty little guts!!!