For Michelle’s (my sister’s) birthday I gave her a ticket to the Big Day Out. This is an annual music festival similar to Lollapalooza etc. There are a lot of bands playing over the course of the day, but I only needed to see one name: Tool. Tool are the best band in the history of the world, including the future. Their music is pure art, there have been so many times when the lyrics have spoken to me personally. After seeing the Tool fans in the crowd, this seems to be consensus.
Before we saw any acts, Michelle and I did some reconaissance, checking out the locations and the various market stalls. There was a lot of the usual market crap, weighted towards the anti-establishment end of the market. I made a comment about some rings and a random agreed with me. The random looked up and she was Mel, Bunni’s friend. I was surprised, to say the least. I knew that I would see them during the course of the day but I expected maybe a glimpse in the crowd, not a meeting in open air with no background noise. Bunni was hiding around the side of the stall, I guess she had seen me first. It was the first time that I had seen her since The Purge and, all hurt aside, she was much more herself than she was when I met her in Hobart. She was obviously nervous but in those minutes I saw a bit of the Bunni I knew. She had a dressing on her back. New tattoo? Claiming she was OGT?
I am not gonna write a massive review of the actual day, because Claudia will get sad if I say that it was a great day. The non-musical highlight was, of course, getting to spend the whole day with Michelle. It is a long time since we have done something like this together, and I really enjoyed it, I hope she did too.
Musically, the two highlights for me were Hot Chip and Tool. Hot Chip really went off, for me, because someone got up on the rigging and was spraying a firehose on the crowd, centred on me. I was saturated and, as you may know, it is my belief that being saturated makes festivals way more fun. In order to get a good spot for Tool, we went to the main stages when Muse was playing. I don’t really know their music much but they were very good. Were I a Muse fan they would certainly have been a highlight. It was my first time seeing Tool, and I can now die fulfilled. They played every song I needed to hear and the show was great. The only (slight) problems were that Maynard barely moved and that they pretty much stuck to the recorded arrangements of their songs.
We didn’t bother staying for Violent Femmes. I don’t know why they were headliners. It was great when I saw them 13 years ago but in 2007 they offered little to me.
Walkingrek had, through Laura, invited me to the Annadale for some industry afterparty but I was too tired and wanted to get onto home turf. When I got home, after 5 SMSes, 3 PXTs and 2 missed calls, I finally agreed to meet Slorebags at The Slounge. After showering and changing I met her and Snugs there, with Dandom. They had collected a few randoms for me but they were not keepers, even though one of the dodgy chicks kissed me hello on the lips. I gave a lift home to Slorebags and Snugs, both the worse for wear, and rejoined Dandom.
Dandom and I had a good chat, for many hours. It was actually the first time we had been alone together since we met, on a similar drunken night. Dandom is good value, I enjoy his company, even though he is convinced that I have evil eyes and steal people’s souls. When we got kicked out, at 4am, Dandom refused to go to Maisys with me citing “work”. Apparently at some point I arranged a poker game with him for the following night.