Posts by Glyn
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
What a great day! Missed the early stuff so day started for me with nostalgia at Billy Bragg (the line about his backing tapes was a JOKE about other bands' over reliance on them!). He was perfect for 4 o'clock intensity in the sun, with his story and joke telling. An all round entertainer and his guitar sounded great. Now he's 50 he should run for the UK Parliament - he'd surely be their answer to Peter Garrett, but better!
Tom Morello's solo set was actually quite good for a rabble-rousing US-style thing (the Yankee Billy Bragg anyone?). Arcade Fire were OK but sound no good where we were so so checked out Unkle (body and ear splitting bass down the front - lasted three songs!) Battles was interesting and Shihad absolutley rocked the house again. Jon Toogood is f'ing brilliant but uses the f'ing f word all thru the set song breaks (tiresome). Bjork was entertaining though the volume of her band was too low even at the lower west stand near her stage. Briiliant visuals and her voice is incredible - would have been ideal for the St James or Town Hall.
LCD Soundsystem was amazing. Brilliant sound mix; proper band; complex rhythms mashing to a crescendo each song. Without doubt my fave act of the day by a country mile. They promised to come back too so I'm now hanging for that. I'm not a Rage fan so headed for the Clean and was very impressed, and Supergroove wrapped up the night beautifully.
God I love the BDO. Cheers all. PS Wilco coming soon!
-
From what I saw, who was great at BDO? Hot Chip and John Butler Trio (both fantastic), Lily Allen, Muse, Violent Femmes, SJD all really good and Jakob (a local Hawkwind-like revelation!).
Who was average? Jet, Killers (even though I like them), Streets, Dimmer.
Who was crap? Scribe. Oh and the Herald coverage on Sat which was sad ( I sent a rave to Graham Reid about that particular aspect yesterday if you can dig it out). It's disappointing when you have a great day out and Granny Herald totally misses all the good bands (except one or two)! What were their gang of journos doing there all day? Noshing in the corporate boxes?
Missed Minuit who I heard were good but were on at 11.45 AM?! Hello - they're a dance band. Doh (should have been in Scribe's slot!).
Access to the stands was pretty good and gets better each year. New East Stand is a huge improvement. Alcohol policy is immature (ironically!) - NZ will grow up ONE DAY like the rest of the world and let over-18s wander with a beer.. Please!
Stagecoach was also silly - we had to queue for ages to get a bus ticket home. Here's something revolutionary Stagecoach - let poeple buy RETURN tickets! Or a bus pass with their BDO ticket! And have more than FOUR staff collecting the money for thousands of poeple! Gosh outside the square thinking or what? Took me well over an hour to get home cos of that you sadly misguided folk.
What does BDO/Auckland need more of? A reggae roots element (NZ has so many great bands in this department) and ideally a larger festival site so people can spread out - eg a 2-day event perhaps like Splore?
Aside from that it was a Great Day Out! And I met some nice but tired people in the bus queue...
Cheers all
Glyn
Aged 41