Big day out 2011

hhmmm its that time of year again, yep the festival that helps ends the silly season with a bang aka the Big Day Out has released its supposedly superior lineup. The lineup although strong doesn't really bring anything new to the table. It's a shame because the mainstream ticket buying public doesn't really seem too care much and will be calling this lineup amazing.

The mainstream doesn't want interesting artist choices, they want death crew 77 in the boiler room. When the BDO do happen to book interesting artists like Bjork, The QLD bogans throw bottles of urine at her and then she quits the rest of the tour. In times of summer festival saturation you must feel for Lees and West for the increasingly difficult prospect of delivering the best lineup of the summer. The problem being that everyone's ideas of the "best" lineup is totally different. I mean Lees and West could sell this festival out months before any lineup announcement if they choose too.


BDO has too hustle for artists with other festivals like Soundwave, Laneway, Playground weekender, Goodvibes not to mention all the NYE festivals. NO wonder festivals are not selling out at the rate they were a couple of years ago, they are pretty much running the same lineup they were a couple of years ago.

This years lineup is much the same, enough good artist to justify the ticket price but not enough to get me overly excited. Justifying the ticket price ain't too hard. Is there 8 acts i would pay 20 dollars to see ? (on a 160 dollar ticket price): Grinderman, Primal Scream, LCD Soundsystem, Tool, M.I.A, Plan B, The Black Keys and Booka Shade.

At the same times there are 8 bands i would pay 20 dollars not to see: Bloody beetroots, Angus and Julia Groan, Wolfmother, Airbourne, Birds Of Tokyo, Dead Letter Circus, Operator Please and Bliss N Eso. The sad thing is most of these bands are Australian and there is no shortage of decent Aussie bands that they could have Booked instead. What about Eddy Current, The drones, Jezebels, Thundermentals etc etc

Hmmmm

So this year i suppose the BDO passes with credit but not enough distinction.

Wed Jan 26 – Sydney Showground (tickets on sale 6 October)

2011 Lineup:

Tool
Rammstein
Iggy And The Stooges
Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77
Lupe Fiasco
Grinderman
Primal Scream performing Screamadelica Live
Deftones
The Black Keys
Andrew W.K
The Jim Jones Revue
Crystal Castles [East Coast Only]
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
M.I.A
LCD Soundsystem
Booka Shade [DJ set]
Pnau
Die Antwoord
Vitalic
CSS
Plan B
Ratatat
John Butler Trio
Wolfmother
Airbourne
Birds Of Tokyo
Kids Of 88
The Naked & Famous
Angus & Julia Stone
Dead Letter Circus
Children Collide
Operator Please
Bliss N Eso
Gyroscope
Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock
Sampology
Blue King Brown
Will Styles
Little Red
Gypsy And The Cat
Lowrider