BDO 05 - Late Afternoon

After another short break I was off to The Have. I didn't know much about these guys other than that I like that one single, but there was nothing else on (ugh, Powderfinger. Yick, Fast Crew) so I thought I'd go along and check them out. On the surface of it they seem like another 'The' band along the lines of The Hives, The Checks, or The D4, but I was quite impressed with their plain no-nonsense musicianship, from their unpretentious bogan dress to their energetic, old-school, almost countryish rock. Another one on the 'I'll buy their album when it comes out' list. Unfortunately I think I was one of the only people to feel that way, their audience was dwarfed by the line to see Slipknot at the signing tent. Which wasn't so bad, it was fun to check out some of the crazy goth outfits, I should have taken a few pictures. (Of course most of them were just along the lines of leather pants + slipknot mask, very original guys...)

By then I was really feeling the heat, but I just told myself that it was after four o'clock and I couldn't possibly be getting burned at that late hour, despite what my body was telling me. The plan was to see Evermore, who were on right after The Have, but at the last minute I decided that Evermore were just too twee and girly for me, and bailed off to Kid Koala. The idea was that since he was on the hip-hop stage, I would end up seeing something on every stage (except for the Lilypad, but you can safely ignore that one). In the end I didn't see anything on the blue stage, but there you go.

I'm very glad I went to Kid Koala. He was very good natured and cool, giving lots of free stuff away and chatting to the audience between every song. I'd only heard of him because he appeared on one or two songs on the Lovage album (with Mike Patton again...) but apparently he's one of the best decks guys in the world. I really liked his choice of songs to mix too: Bjork, The White Stripes, and a couple of Radiohead tracks (including 'Fitter Happier', an excellent choice for his medium). It was the perfect wind down after the big afternoon, and his set left me on a real high. Well worth getting sunburned for!

So then there was an hour of absolutely nothing I wanted to see. I did the now familiar food/drink/pee dash and spent some time looking for a bunch of my friends, and not finding them. In the process I was unfortunately subjected to a little bit of Scribe, and any satisfaction I gained from seeing how totally empty the stadium was for his act was whipped away when he bought Blindspot out on stage for a Linkin Park/Jay-Z style 'mashup' (in quotes because I don't think any of the marketing morons who made this shit up have ever heard a real mashup) that everyone involved should be embarrassed about. Including me for watching it. Eventually I gave up, and got ready for my big evening, which was to start out with Slipknot.

But that, my children, is a story for another time. Like tomorrow. Tune in and listen to the conclusion of my thrilling tale of hardcore metal gone bad, stoned hippies, vomit in the moshpit, and the biggest fucking circle pit I've ever seen.