15th of Jan was BDO 2010 today, as with the other half of Auckland, I wandered down to view the show. This is far more of a commentary than a review, as I was wandering and enjoying the atmosphere to really focus on most of the music.
Logistics
First adventure was catching a train there, while they were coming very regularly, coming on time was a different matter, we had to wait 30 minutes for a train to come. When we finally got on, it was filled with topless sweaty boys, this of course was the theme of the rest of the day.
The show itself was laid out well, I managed to manoeuvre around without to much difficulty, although I generally stuck in one place for a while, and had 3 distinct parts of the day – Build up to girl talk in the boiler room, Decemberists etc on the back stages, then heading to the main stage to see Mars Volta & Muse.
Boiler Room & Girl Talk
My day opened with Concord dawn, while I am not normally a dance bunny at all I enjoyed their show, as did the rest of the crowd, managed some slight dancing, while keeping my distance and getting myself set & orientated for the day.
After a quick break and some sun, it was back into the boiler room. I wandered up to the front for Minuit, who were far better than I thought they would be, pop sung over electronic backing. The key priority of this was to get a good spot for girl talk.
We knew girl talk was something special when random (underdressed) members of the crowd were picked out to dance on stage. When Girl Talk came on the boiler room was packed, with many people, from all genres of musical life getting ready to see what the party was going to be like.
And a great party it was, all the mixing was live (meaning that only 2 tracks could be mixed at once as opposed to 3 or more on his recorded work) but still some great mashups. I was stoked to hear Girls & Arcade Fire being mixed into hiphop & pop classics. The stage performance was also excellent – Toilet paper being sent into the crowd via air machines, lots of crowd involvement and of course the forementioned dancers. I had a great time, and considering I was stone sober & it was only 4pm had a great dance, thoroughly getting into it with the rest of the crowd.
Peaches were up next, while I wanted to see her, as always at the BDO sacrifices have to be made, and in my case this meant heading to the back stages to get a good spot for Decemberists.
Back Stage – Decemberists
I am a new fan of the Decemberists, only really knowing their latest CD plus a few of their hits, but I had a great time. They managed to change the mood from happy and summery, to dark and mellow, changing the theme of the songs from their life, to the various tales they have told through their CD.
I was also impressed by the wide range of instruments played, different guitars from every song, accordions, xylophones, and Bouzouki Guitars. All of this made their prog folk sound come of brilliantly live. What surprised me was the setlist, I was expecting a full play through of Hazards of Love as seems to be normally the case with their concert, but instead got a full show, including their older popular songs.
The crowd involvement was great, at one point requiring everyone to lie on the ground (well, in my case on the knee of the friendly mettaler behind me) before jumping up when the song fully kicked in.
I was quite spent after Decemberists (especially as their was a giant rush of bogans rushing to get prime position for Rise Against) so wandered off for a sit down and some food. Unfortunatly my food was atrocious (as opposed to most people who seemed happy with the food they had received), Savory waffles = over priced disgusting cheese on toast.
I caught half of Devendra Banhart and his band, and was not as impressed as I was expecting to be, I think I was expecting a far more intimate performance, and to see him putting on a rock show was very different. While everyone else seemed to be enjoying it, I was content to lie back, get some final rays of sun and enjoy the show.
Return to the Main Stage
At this point it was time to brave the masses and head to the main stage. At this point it was 7.30, and I had been impressed by the lack of cellphone reception problems which seem to occur every year. Of course everything changed at this point, when I headed to the masses, I tried to find people, anyone, to watch the show with. After 30 minutes of not being able to text or tweet anyone, I decided rather than spending the next 2 hours wandering in desperate hope of finding friends, I should deal with the face I would be watching the end of the show alone and go for a good spot, which I eventually found (In a relative sense, sitting on a step squeezed between 2 sweaty guys was hardly ideal)
I caught the end of Lily Allen, who seemed to put on a good show, and kept the crowd happy, her sound was very true to how it was recorded, but she was very controversial, smoking on stage, oh my.
Mars Volta
Mars Volta came onto the Orange stage at 8pm. I should like Mars Volta, musically they are exactly what I should enjoy (plus I was/am a giant At the Drive-in fan) but I have never got into them. The Mars Volta set was different from what they have previously played, I’m guessing due to the fact they were 2nd headlining main stage rather than playing an afternoon on the back stage – it was far more of a rock set rather than being experimental.
I thoroughly enjoyed their first song, Son et Lumiere?, a more rocky song off their first CD, however the middle of their set descended into noise (The fact that I was situated on the opposite side of the stadium, with the wind affecting what I could hear made a big difference). The rest of the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves, even if they some didn’t quite know what to make of it. The final song, Roulette Dares reminded me the potential I felt they have, sounding like the great mix of all their influences. Cedric is a great (my favorite?) band leader.
Muse
Finally it was time for Muse. It was obvious this was who people were here to see as a huge crowd came to crowd the stage. Muse as always were amazing. They were as always straight to the point (no introduction/no talking) and they were as tight as always. The show itself was amazing, with a great laser show shining throughout the whole stadium. They definitely are one of the greatest live bands in the world right now.
What I found interesting, was how poorly the new songs stood up compared to their older classics, I was obviously not the only one who thought so as the full crowd was far more enthusiastic to older classics. The one exception was Unnatural Selection, which came across far more powerfully live than it does on the CD.
I was also impressed by Matt’s Keytar-caster on Undisclosed Desires.
Other favorite tracks were Supermassive Black Hole & New Born.
Returning Home
When Muse finished their main set, it was time to make a move, I managed to leave the stand in time to be in the main crowd for the encore of Plug in Baby & Knights of Cydonia, before making a brisk walk for the exit.
Catching a train on the way home was simpler than getting there, I missed the first one by 1 minute, but a second one was there 10 minutes later (very impressive) and made it back to Britomart by 11.30, in time for a quick snack run to Foodtown, before making it home, with very sore feet before midnight.
Sober & Very happy, it was an excellent day.
Muse Setlist –
Uprising
Supermassive Black Hole
New Born
Stockholm Syndrome
Dead Star intro riff
Micro Cuts outro riff
Undisclosed Desires
Interlude
Hysteria
Nishe
Helsinki Jam
United States of Eurasia
Resistance
Starlight
Time Is Running Out
Unnatural Selection
Encore:
Plug In Baby
Man With A Harmonica
Knights of Cydonia
Mars Volta –
Son et Lumiere
Inertiatic ESP
Cotopaxi
L’Via L’Viaquez
Goliath
Cicatriz ESP
Halo Of Nembutals
Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
