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Festival Report - The Big Day Out
Sydney - January 28 2001
Lexi Harris - Australia/New Zealand correspondent

I love festivals, I love the atmosphere, I love all the bands, I love having an excuse to drink beer all day long and I love that this year's Big Day Out was headlined by DriveSHAFT. I also love Emma, my festival buddy, who kept me company in this twelve hour music marathon.

Early in the day we caught The Go-Betweens who were great, 28 Days who rocked as usual and Frenzal Rhomb who hit the stage pretty happy, having locked Alex Lloyd in the portaloos for an hour before they let him out. Way to go boys! We also caught Killing Heidi who are a relatively new band; discovered in the JJJ Unearthed band comp. I see big things ahead for them because they stepped up and didn't let the big festival crowd intimidate them at all.

As it got dark, we made our way to the main stage to make sure we got a good position to see the boys and also to catch some of the bands that were on before them. Powderfinger are a great Australian band, they really played well and my prediction is that they will be the next Aussie band to hit it big overseas. Queens of the Stone Age totally rocked out and it was cool to see Dave Grohl drumming for them. Placebo were of course fantastic and they did a version of "Every You and Every Me" that had the crowd screaming for more.

Finally the band I had been waiting for made it to the stage at about 11 pm and we were right up the front because, well, we are tragic fangirls and it's our job. About fifteen minutes before DriveSHAFT came on there was a southerly change and an electrical storm exploded far away on the horizon. As they came out, there was a huge lightning bolt and clap of thunder and I almost had a nervous breakdown. This was not helped by the fact that when my vision cleared from the lightning flash, there was Charlie and the rest of the band smack bang in front of me. They didn't mess around, they just careened into their first song "Burn" as the crowd went absolutely crazy. Things pretty much went out of control from there; at one point the crush so bad that they stopped playing and Sinjin got on the microphone to get everyone to take three steps back. Emma and I must have looked pretty crushed up the front 'cos Charlie actually came over and knelt down in front of us and asked if we were alright. If I had been able to breath I would have answered; instead I just nodded like a crazy person. He told us to wait where we were and he went and grabbed a couple of bottles of water for us. When he came back I told him I loved him and he kissed my hand. Then I went weak at the knees and they went back to playing. At this point I decided Never. Washing. My. Hand. Again.

Things are a little blurry from that point but I do remember them playing "Down the Days", "Deep Enough", "Let Me Ride", "Friction", "(You All) Everybody" and "Anchor", but I have no memory in which order. They also did a couple of new songs mixed in with the old and I wish I could remember the names of them but I was too blown away by the whole experience.

They ended with a scorching version of "Let Me Ride", and as they left the stage the crowd started singing the chorus over and over and didn't stop till the band came back out. As they came out, the heavens opened and the rain poured down. For the encore they did a fantastic version of "Going to Ground" and Charlie's vocals were awesome, and a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall" which had everyone dancing and singing along.

Fantastic DriveSHAFT gig, awesome day!

And yes I still have the water bottle, if anyone wants to come over to my house and touch it, and no I haven't washed my hand yet.