Big Day Out/Perth Fan Report

Phew ;)

A fantastic day all up :) Met and had a few drinks with Calvin & his girlfriend, fellow Goodson-ers from South Africa who are now in Australia :) It was an extremely hot to be out in the sun and I think everyone got burnt, but by about 5pm a breeze had come in and things started to cool off ;) The music was excellent and the stages were relatively well positioned.

Firstly, the Dirty Three are now my second favourite band on the planet. [d'you like the way I've fitted a one, two, & three in that line??] :) Warren Ellis's performance was the most intense musical experience I've encountered in my life. Having only heard one or two of their songs, before I was completely blown away by the utterly concentrated and passionate emotion in their music. Warren, despite an apparent phlegm surplus, played like Hendrix and moved about the stage like a mixture of Ian Anderson and a drunken gypsy in purple corduroy pants :) Amongst the songs they played were Sue's Last Ride, I Try to Hate You But I Always End Up Loving You, Mick's Love Song, and The Dirty Equation. Porno for Pyros' excellent bass player, Mike Watt, joined the Three on this last song, complete with "BB King facial expressions" as a friend of mine pointed out :) For me they were the highlight of the day :) Make sure you see them when they come to your town :)

At about 7:50pm, the Bad Seeds came on stage one to huge applause, followed by Nick ;) Overall it was a good performance, although Nick's voice was out of tune during the more difficult songs, especially Mercy :) He looked annoyed during this song and once it was finished, said something along the lines of:

"Sorry... Sorry about that. I was flat. Hands up who could tell I was flat."
[half the audience puts up their hands]
"Shit!"
[Mick puts up his hand too. Nick smiles]

The rest of the comments are also approximations ;)

1. Stagger Lee
2. Do You Love Me
3. From Her To Eternity
4. Mercy
   "An ancient song, about John The Baptist, Christ's cousin"

5. City Of Refuge
6. Loverman
7. Red Right Hand
   "A cautionary tale about a man... with a red right hand"

8. Into My Arms
   "...one we've never recorded. It's a beautiful peice of music, called Into My Arms. Into my arms. You understand? [points to someone in the audience] You understand? Into my arms... a beautiful piece of music"

9. The Willow Garden
   "This one's from the, er, Murder Ballads album, I guess." [Mick & Blixa left the stage for it. Nick sung, not Conway.]

10. The Weeping Song
11. Jack The Ripper
12. The Mercy Seat

Warren Ellis joined for the last 4 songs, possibly 5. The highlight was, without a doubt, The Mercy Seat which was the best version I've ever heard. Amazingly intense. Warren looked like he was slashing a throat instead of a violin. Blixa broke several strings ;)

During both the Dirty Three gig & the Bad Seeds gigs there was a guy up on stage filming the shows with a professional looking camera :) Can't wait to see where the footage shows up! :)

Cheers,
Greg O'Beirne