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Stories and pictures by NIKI CHEONG

niki@thestar.com.my

A

S THE cool eveni ng breeze bl ew, thecrowd easi l y 20, 000-st rong swayedto t he fol ksy musi c of Nei l Young. The

egendary rocker was perf ormi ng an amazi ng90- mi nute se t that had t he audi ence, made

p of teenagers and ol d foggi es ali k e, si ngi ngl ong.

Everyone was savouri ng the beauti fulmoment watchi ng Young play hi s heart outwhen a woman i n the audi ence scr eamed i nto

er cell phone: I m standing ri ght i n front ofhe screen on the ri ght si de of the stage.

Perhaps, at any other t i me, the peopl eround her mi ght shush and chasti se her forui ni ng the moment.

But i nstead, the gentl eman (or bl oke, as theAussies wo ul d cal l hi m) next to her

xcl ai med: Hah! You ve got no chance.Hi s response provoked a ri ppl e of chuckles

nd for that short moment, Young, perform-ng as the headl i ni ng act a t the Bi g Day Out

BDO) event for 2009 i n Pert h, WesternAustrali a, l ost t he att enti on of a few fans.

Not that he d compl ai n, though. Aft er all ,hi s i s exactl y what f esti val s l i ke these are al lbout they are as much about t he commu-i ty and camaraderi e between musi c l overs ashey are about the musi c. And Young, i n al l 64ears of hi s l i fe, has perf ormed at his f ai rhare of musi c fest i vals.

Big history

This year s Big Day Out marks the 16thnniversary of the festival being hel d in Perthexcept in 1998 when organisers decided toorego the BDOfor an el ectronic and danceestival ).

I t was al so the l ast l eg of the big Summer09 music festival , a cul mination of two weeks

f great music at five other venues Sydney,Mel bourne, Adel aide, the Gol d Coast andAuckl and ( NewZeal and).

Over the years, big international names

such as Muse, My Chemical Romance, Bj ork,

Red Hot Chil l i Peppers, Col dpl ay and Bl ackEyed Peas have performed in Perth. Joiningthe el ite l ist this year were Young, The Prodigy( who has pl ayed the festival several times) as

wel l as The Arctic Monkeys.

I n its earl y years, the festival was verymuch about giving the peopl e of the LandDown Under the chanc e to catch maj orgrunge performers l ive (its biggest coupwoul d probabl y be Nirvana in the first everBig Day Out concert in Sydney in 1992, oneyear after the band rel eased its iconic SmellsLike Teen Spirit) .

Th is time ro u nd , h o w ev er, th e mu sic w a s a sd iv erse a s it c o u ld g et, f ro m th e h a rd ro c kso u nd s o f B risb a ne s Th e B u tterf ly E f f ec t toth e d a nc e pu nk b ea ts o f C u t C o py to th eh a u nting o pera tic - inf lu enc ed ro c k mu sic o fSerj Ta nkia n ( f o rmerly lea d v o c a list o fG ra mmy - w inning b a nd Sy stem o f a D o w n) to ,o f c o u rse, Y o u ng s f o lksy tu nes.

Perth offerings

Such diversity in music meant that theevent which sol d out al l its 38, 000 ticketsfor the Perth l eg drewin a crowd that wasfl uidl y moving between the eight differentperformance areas at Cl aremontShowgrounds, j ust 15 minutes drive fromthe

city centre.

More than 60 acts wowed the crowd fromthe various stages, fromas earl y as 11 amonthat fine Sunday of Feb 1, til l cl ose tomidnight.

The two main performance areas, theOrange Stage and the Bl ue Stage, were l ocatednext to each other in the heart of the show-grounds. The bands took turns to performonone stage as the other was being set up forthe next show.

Besides Young, Western Austral ia s ownPendul umdrewin the biggest crowd, quickl yfil l ing up the mosh pit area in front of thestage.

Popul ar Aussie band Sneaky Sound Systemwere al so quite a hit.

There was al so the Boil er Room, situated inan open area (instead of the usual indoorl ocation which l ent it its name) , fromwhere

Austral ian dance group I nfusion and Britishel ectronica duo Simian Mobil e Disco pl ayed toa capacity crowd before The Prodigy cl osedthe event.

The l atter was so popul ar that organisershad to cl ose off the area, causing the crowd to

T14  YOUTH  STARTWO, TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2009

 Magical day out 

It seemed as if everyone at Claremont Showgrounds was dancing away at the main stage area where home act Pendulum wasperforming during Big Day Out in Perth, Western Australia.

Lilyworld dancers performing on the green, leafy stage in between set changes.

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