220120050230 Auckland, New Zealand

I should be in bed since I have work in the morning, but still buzzing a little from another fantastic Big Day Out. There were no massive headliners this year, but it was a good line-up nonetheless. It's also the first year I've caught public transport home, so that was vaguely interesting, although I'm not sure I'll be doing that again if I can help it.

Lucy and I started off the day with trying to push in line for the bus (my specialty), but that was thwarted by the fact that you had to buy a ticket before getting in the line. Bugger. But we got on the first bus anyway. Thanks Kelly for the ride too.

The Bleeders were on stage when we got there, but I didn't really pay much attention. Steriogram was up next on the main stage and they did a fantastic set. Who knows where the lead singer gets his energy and lung capacity from, since he's so extremely emaciated. Must be a rock 'n' roll bogan thing - a la John Toogood from Shihad. After that we saw The Donnas (got free stickers) and then the first Boiler Room set - Shapeshifter. Anyone who knows them knows they're wicked, and their performance was amazing. I have to say that it was probably my favourite of the day (maybe because I had more energy to dance earlier in the day? Concord Dawn played at about that time last year and they were my favourite too). After that was The Hives and Powderfinger, both great as usual. Saw about half of Scribe and P-Money's set, and probably should have stayed for the rest (they were pretty good really). We saw some of The Freestylers who were pretty good too. Concord Dawn went off as usual in the dance tent and I gave myself my first blister from too much glow poi in confined spaces. They ran a little long so I missed out on Regurgitator, and then chose Shihad over Polyphonic Spree (both are good though!). Shihad was wicked as expected, but afterwards was some "trying to block it out" sitting through System of a Down. They were actually not that bad, but I'm glad I didn't have to hear any Slipknot. I caught about half of the Beastie Boys, but then had to abandon them in favour of the Chemical Brothers (tough choice but hopefully people understand). The Beasties were wicked, except I kept thinking that they formed their band the year I was born, and even I'm starting to feel a little old at the BDO. The Chemical Brothers were fantastic as always, and I then gave myself another couple of blisters cause my poi were so popular with random strangers. Matt and Anna met us in the tent, but then they and Lucy went for a break pretty early into it. They found it hard to get back in and then decided to head home (which I think is a pretty sad effort, but I think they know that!). I decided to stay cause I was having a wicked dance (as I had been every time I was in the Boiler Room), even though that meant braving the train alone on the way home. The rest of the set was awesome, and I met a few nice randoms via their interest in my glow balls. The train home ended up being reasonably well organised in the end, although I just missed one when I got to the station. There were a bunch of annoying English people on the way home, but annoying people are to be expected after huge concerts like this. At least they didn't smell too awful. Ended up walking half way home with another random chick so we didn't go home alone.

All in all, it was another fantastic opportunity to people-watch, get new weird tan lines, avoid acknowledging people I went to high school with (apparently one of them gave me some free sunscreen? I didn't notice), look at hot topless guys in the Boiler Room, dance my arse off and enjoy some quality live music in the company of thousands of strangers. It was totally worth giving up two weeks of a boring temp job to go to! Plus I only spent this week's tip money so it was almost free ... !