Big Day Out 2010 - First Announcement

Although I'm more of a Camp A Low Hum kinda guy to be fair, I was still interested to hear that the latest Big Day Out has been announced.

No Bowie - which would have been a surprise but is nevertheless a disappointment it seems - and yes, they're talking about it being "current" whilst recycling acts - Muse, Dizzee Rascal, Lily Allen (who bizarrely quit music last week or maybe not), Kasabian, The Mars Volta, Rise Against and Peaches. Then add Ockers Powderfinger and Grinspoon, the latter of whom are rocking at Christchurch's very own Southern Amp (with the Buzzcocks and The Veils - now's that's what I'm talking about!).

Apart from the bands, the day-glow Aztec visuals are lighter than last year's dark eco-nightmare, and tickets have gone up in price. Finding some positives, they are bringing out the Horrors who's latest album is amazing; Girl Talk who's a copyright lawyer's nightmare and a party stealing dancefloor demon; and Mastodon proving that heavy metal may well be in danger of becoming trendy again. Which is probably why Soundwave seems to be stealing the BDO's audience (and have an Egyptian look going on - so Archaeology is cool again?)...

Perhaps the best thing to take from this is that the fragmenting music industry makes it harder to put on such large scale shows - there's too much risk involved these days to bring someone like Jay Reatard to headline and go back to the heady days where the BDO actually broke unknown acts like this Seattle group fronted by this crazy cross dresser. I think they were called Nirvana....