Big Day Out 2012

Overview

The below article was written post first lineup announcement, and we liked the discussion so much we decided to keep it. Since it was written, the festival has downsized its lineup to exclude Kanye West. Full lineup now consists of:

NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS, NERO (LIVE), THE VACCINES, BASSNECTAR, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, REGURGITATOR, KIMBRA, PARKWAY DRIVE, MIDNIGHT YOUTH, DAS RACIST, SIX60, MT EDEN, THE ADULTS, I AM GIANT, CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT, JAKOB, BULLETPROOF, JUNICA, @PEACE, DJ SIR-VERE and NICK D

SOUNDGARDEN, KASABIAN, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, THE LIVING END, BATTLES, GIRL TALK, ROYKSOPP, FOSTER THE PEOPLE, GIN WIGMORE, MARIACHI EL BRONX, CAGE THE ELEPHANT, BEST COAST, BEASTWARS, GHOSTWAVE, CUT OFF YOUR HANDS, DAVID DALLAS, UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA & MAYA and VANYA.

Whether you’re a vet, a noob or a naysayer you’ve gotta think something about Big Day Out 2012, its lineup and how it compares to previous and possible future incarnations. Since the first announcement, mouths have been filling up and spilling over with phrases like “best ever”, “yawn” and “double-you tee eff”, and it’s indicative of current music and general coolness trends that the buzz surrounding certain acts is working in a different way to what was probably planned.

BDO has always been about the headliners. Look at any year’s schedule of acts and you can plot the progression of the day on a bar graph from least popular to most popular, with a final cartoon-spurt of outside-the-scale amazingness for the final act. But with the initial drop of 2012 headliners, Soundgarden and Kanye West, this polarised the BDO target audience like nothing I’ve witnessed before. From what I gather, the veterans are finally bored of Olden Days big-namers who go off with a roar but are so forgettable afterwards (Rage Against The Machine springs to mind here); those same veterans are scared to say they like Kanye, or they genuinely dislike him, because of his associated douchebaggery. Conversely the younguns are loving the idea of having a band they weren’t alive to know in its heyday entertain them, and also having the poster child for 21^st century cult of personality wowing them with his undeniably slick product.

Of course the cracks in my logic here are filled with the older, veteran yea-sayers – the ones who go every year for the atmosphere – and the younger ultra-early-blooming haters (they’re the ones who’ll show up to watch a couple of bands on the Green Stage and then go home to do their homework). And to bolster the headliners are some of the reportedly best support acts announced in recent years – hipsters are happy with the Best Coast/ Girls/ Battles/ Royksopp angle, and mainstreamers can delight in the Living End, Kasabian and Foster The People.

For me the strength this year is the Kiwi contingent. Cut Off Your Hands, Beastwars and Ghostwave are some of the hottest and most critically acclaimed local offerings yet – it’s a hard double-whammy to achieve in NZ and it’s great to see that BDO respects that. Also Gin Wigmore and David Dallas feature – surely the most award-winning duo in their respective genres in the last couple of years.

Like any other established institution BDO needs to evolve to remain relevant, especially because it makes its home in that flimsy and fickle factory of popularity, The Music Industry. Maybe the days are gone where two gigantic (and expensive) acts and a few cheaper little guys are enough to keep festivals chugging along. Laneway and Splore City are coming along with their ensemble shows and (almost) doing it correctly; BDO organisers have to listen to the chatter and respond accordingly.

For Map click here, and Schedule click here.