From: a.norrish@trl.oz.au (Mark E. Smith's speech therapist-ah)
Subject: Reviews: Big day out/Pre-BDO (Melbourne) (Long)
Organization: Telecom Research Laboratories
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 22:49:24 GMT

[Our news machine has been broken, if there's been a previous review 
- tough.]

The leadup to the Big Day Out in Melbourne saw some club dates from a 
couple of the visiting international acts.

On the 22nd January, Sonic Youth played the Prince of Wales. Surprise 
support was Helmet, so the place was a sellout, completely full and 
extremely hot. I hadn't heard Helmet before, and they impressed me with 
their chunky sound (good mix too). They played for about 45 minutes, solid 
grungy guitar all the way through. (This flannel craze, do they ever 
*wear* it, or just tie it around themselves?)

God knows why Helmet played before the next band, who may have been 
called Jimjams, I don't really know or care. They started with a 
woeful version of 'I wanna be your dog' and went steadily downhill. 
If you play *well* loud, that's fine, but when you play loud just for 
the sake of being loud you lose points with me.

Although Sonic Youth toured here about 4 years ago, I hadn't seen 
them before. I knew it would be loud (take note Jimjams, SY played 
well), I'd seen photos, but at last I see the famous play the guitar 
with the three drumsticks trick (in stereo, no less!). There was (not 
in order) 'Swimsuit issue', '100%', 'Kool thing', 'Teenage Riot', 
'Eric's trip', 'Sugar Kane', 'Teresa's...', erm something Butterfly 
(Ok, so I don't know every title). Disappointingly, no 'Silver 
rocket' or 'Youth against fascism' (there are tons more I would've 
liked to hear e.g. 'DV69', but they probably do their recent stuff 
only nowadays). One thing which surprised me, most of the 'effects' 
guitar is not done by Thurston, but by ...erm, the other guy. (Yeah, 
I don't know all the names either). Anyway, they blew me away with 
their attacking of guitars, never falling apart into a mess, but 
staying 'pleasantly disjointed'. Best exchange: Thurston - 'We're 
gonna take a short break'. Crowd - Good natured booing. Thurston - 
'Hey, come on! We're the grandfathers of grunge'.

The next night, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy played the PoW. 
This wasn't as crowded, but there was no drop in the level of 
enthusiasm of the previous night. Their harder-core rapping (stuff 
like 'Satanic reverses' or 'California uber alles') was excellent, as 
was the angle-grinder percussion. 'Television', complete with screens 
displaying what we can expect when *we* get pay TV (evangelists 
ahoy), also received 'maximum respect'. I found it difficult to 
really get into the jazzy sounding stuff, although I must say the 
guitarist is an accomplished musician. On a cynical note, it's funny 
that a crowd that's being right-on and thoughtful about the causes 
championed between tracks (TDHoH - 'Insert political cause here', 
Crowd - 'Wooooohhhhh! Yeah! Woooohhh!') can be told 'Throw your hands 
in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care' and do *exactly* 
that. If told to clap, they clapped. There was much punching of air 
and chanting 'Go' when required. Mind-control or what! I did give a 
cheer however when they bagged Bush and Kennett in the same breath.

The Big Day Out was on Sunday, 24 January at the Melbourne 
Showgrounds. There were 27 bands to play on 4 stages (the 3 main ones 
outdoors) and the weather didn't look good, with a forecast of 26 
celcius (nice and warm) and thunderstorms (nice and wet). We arrived 
at about 1.00 and saw the line for alcohol ID wristbands spanning two 
separate timezones, so we made a decision to have a dry day (at least 
alcohol-wise). Trying to enter the main arena, however was difficult 
without a wristband (unless, we found out, you walked miles to the 
end of the grandstands to the 'pleb bridge' a sort of dangerous 
plywood ramp providing a soundbreak between stages 1 &3, and stage 
2). I got to see the last bit of  the Clouds on stage 1. As usual, I 
found them uninspiring, so we wandered around getting a look at the 
layout of the place.

At 1.30 Hoss were on stage 3. Again, I wasn't too interested. (The 
skateboard ramp was pretty cool though. There but for the emergence 
of BMX and Skatebrats [tm] go I.) Mantissa were playing on stage 2. 
They really were poor. Cock rock wannabes. When the rain started to 
come down, I was glad to get out of there. A brief look at the 
wristband stall (the queue still a mile long), stage 4 (no band on, 
but this one was indoors) and back to the main stage.

At 2.15, Carter USM arrived to the sounds of JC Superstar, announcing 
they brought the weather with them. They launched into 'Murder mile', 
the heart was in the performance but the sound took a while to gel. 
The vocal were way down and the drum machine too prominent. Having 
seen Carter in a smaller venue, they lose a bit being on a huge stage 
(too high for stagedivers). Also, they weren't loud *enough*. The PA 
certainly could have been wound up, maybe it's the curse of the 
support bands. (Sorry, but indie rock gods Carter are a support band 
in Australia). It was about this time when it started really pissing 
down, but as the stands were full of people with wristbands (grr) 
there was nothing to do but get wet. Anyway we got (not in order) 'Do 
re me', 'Sherrif Fatman', 'Anytime..', 'Bloodsport', 'New Cross', 
'Perfect day to drop the bomb', 'After the watershed' (quick, Keef, 
call the lawyers!). It was good to see them, but they should be 
better next week at a smaller venue.

At 3.00, Helmet were playing stage 2. It was basically the same set 
as their Friday show, except a larger crowd (and rain!). They have 
their act together, this lot. Another tight, chukka-chukka-chukka 
guitar assault. We cut it short to get back to stage 1 to see 
Mudhoney, only to find they'd lost their gear and the Meanies get 
their big chance, promoted from stage 3. This was a good time to 
finally get a wristband and head for the bar. Once we got used to the 
smell (usually a livestock pavillion, but it could have been some of 
the mud-encrusted fans), we discovered the organisers had really 
thought about this one. First, you had to line up to buy a token (for 
pete's sake), and then line up to redeem your token for a drink. Erm, 
would it not have been easier to line up and buy a *drink*? Kidneys! 
Kidneys! (points to head.) At least now we could cower from the rain 
in the grandstands and watch the 'we don't have Reading, will this 
do?' types pulling each over in the mud.

Bands were now beginning to overlap and choices had to be made. We 
settled for a quick look at TISM before Sonic Youth. TISM continue to 
be entertaining and genuinely funny, without *ever* becoming a 
novelty band. [Note to non Australians, TISM are (it is rumoured) 
professional people who never show their faces and always have an 
incredible stage show/dance routines/costumes. They shun the media 
and the 'scene' (indeed they usually slag off at arty/indie/goth/rap 
i.e. just about everything). References to local identities/locations 
in their songs would make it impossible to enter a global market, so 
you'll just have to take my word for this]. This time they had the 
usual identity-masking balaclavas and boilersuits, but also nets 
(about 10 foot long) filled with helium baloons attached to their 
heads. So all the while they're jumping around, their balloons are 
getting caught in the lighting grid, wrapped around each other's 
balloons etc. Ron Hitler-Barrassi took a dive into the crowd and had 
only half his boilersuit (and balaclava) intact when they dragged him 
back out. The boilersuit was discarded after he tripped on it, so 
he's jumping around in his Y fronts until they gaffered the 
boilersuit back on him. After urging the crowd 'Go and see Sonic 
Youth. They don't tune their guitars. They come from New York. We 
only come from Glen Waverley,' there were a couple of new songs, but 
the best was a new rant, this one anti-Jeff Kennett. Oh, the music? 
The trademark funky, driving TISM rhythm. 

Sonic Youth came on at 5.15 and, disappointingly, played virtually 
the same set as the Friday show. Although the crowd couldn't 
stagedive, plenty were being passed around overhead (a photo making 
the front page of the Monday paper), a food fight developed and 
Thurston picked up a wallet and watch which had been lobbed onstage. 
(and wanted to see ID before he gave it back :-) The music was 
suitably powerful, (the PA had been turned up a notch), it was still 
raining.

Mudhoney had their rescheduled slot at 6.00, unfortunately on stage 
3, with some tinpot, tinny PA nowhere near large enough for them. 
Matt Lukin (bass animal) keeps the rhythm going while Mark Arm whines 
away in those nasal tones. No 'Hate the police', but 'You got it', 
'Touch me I'm sick', 'Suck you dry' got an airing. The crowd were 
throwing mud now, at least it had stopped raining.

Iggy pop was on at 7.00 on the main stage.  I'd shyed away from 
previous Iggy tours, assuming he'd be a boring old man doing 'Blah 
blah blah' stuff. Wrong! He comes out jumping around like a maniac, 
the band are thumping out this huge noise (PA now up to 11) and he 
proceeds to get everyone jumping around in the mud. A true showman, 
bare-chested, long haired, strutting, arse-wiggling, guitar playing, 
cussin' crazy man. There was 'Raw power', 'Loose', 'Search and 
destroy', 'No fun' and 'TV eye'. (Along with 'The passenger', all 
these have been covered (successfully) by indie-type bands - surely a 
sign of the respect I should have had all along). Easily the best act 
of the day, (he even managed to cut himself - just like the old 
days!), even though it started raining again. Young, new fans dancing 
alongside wrinkly 'I saw the Stooges, man!' types. Probably should 
have headlined.

8.00 - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on stage 2. Again, a run 
through of the previous night's set, except *everything* was 
identical. The same jokes, the same inter-song banter, the same 
'spontaneous' 'Boom!s' from the little guy. It's unfortunate, I don't 
think the same about them now. I don't doubt the politics are 
genuine, I just thought it was a bit like listening to the record.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds headlined at 8.45.The stick insect 
thrashed about in his inimitable style (the two police near me didn't 
know what to think) while Blixa played every third note, or every 
third minute depending on how he felt. 'Deanna', 'The ship/weeping 
songs', 'Papa won't leave...', 'Tupelo' (Whattaya tryin' to do, make 
it rain again?), 'Brother my cup is empty', 'Black Betty' and the one 
they should never drop, 'From Her to eternity'. Better than his 
month-earlier club gig, but again, overshadowed by Iggy.

So, after initial worries about my first outdoor concert, I was 
entertained for 9 hours, wet for 8 hours but never uncomfortable and 
I'll be back next year. Anyone who taped all the segments from JJJ, 
email me.

Andrew Norrish.

'Nah - we don't play 'Rent'. You'll come out in spots' - Jimbob.