The Cairns Review

So much has been said in the media and blogosphere about the line up, lack of ticket sales and all the rest of it but the reality is for the punters that showed up on Australia Day they were there to have fun and watch the bands in various stages of Sobriety...after all the BDO is the original and best festival in the country.

Torrential rain in the morning eased up to reaveal  an overcast but warm and humid day...with music to suit everyone’s taste.

King Cannons crowd were initially heavily tattooed and 50’s in style but over the course of their set more and more people flowed through and got the dance floor rocking especially for the tunes “Shoot to Kill” and “Teenage Dreams” whose chorus

“They are taking my teenage dreams away
All they want is my life and my money
Hopes and wishes are up for the killing
All they want is my life and my money”

It was great to see some 40 year old guys dancing and singing along to this in the crowd.

Frenzal Rhomb hit the main stage early just after Papa Vs Pretty and brought their own style of Australian Punk Rock classics to life...deriding all aspects of Australian culture from Russell Crowe’s band...to Australia day racists.....followed by Parkway Drive this was a solid two hours of heavy music and the crowd was loving it.

Faker hit the Converse Green stage mid-afternoon with the lead singer half made up as a lion as they played their set they continued to remind me of The Cure - in a good way.

The Afternoon on the main stage started off to a blistering set by festival favourites The Hilltop Hoods – From the guest bar the whole crowd was moving up and down in Unison.

The Living End followed on from “The Hoods” and played an outstanding set full of on stage acrobatics that reached its climax with Chris Cheney (lead singer) perched high upon Scott Owen’s double bass with guitar in hand for their final song.

The evening was shaping up to be a real mix  of genre’s with Soundgarden to be followed by Kanye West and then Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Soundgarden played a solid set that set the crowd abuzz but as they were finishing off their set a lot of distraction was caused by the dressing of the stage next door for Kanye’s set and the testing of the lasers while soundgarden were finishing off with “Black Hole Sun”...and the stadium was slowly filling to capacity..

Kanye emerged from the crowd in a cherry picker and sang his first song whilst 30 dancers filled the stage. The theatrics of it was massive- Kanye walked through the crowd back to to the main stage with the help of a few massive security guards.

It was amzing to see one man moving around on a huge white stage keeping a stadium full of people enthralled – of course all the smoke onstage almost obliterated anyone from being able to see any of this including the photographers whose job it is to capture these moments.

Whilst Kanye was on stage Aussie band Regurgitator pulled a huge crowd over at the Converse Green Stage proving not everyone was their to see American superstars.

The last performance of the night and one a lot of people had been waiting for was former OASIS member Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds. Not expecting to hear anything from OASIS it was no surprise he started off with songs off the new solo album and it was obvious by the sing a long the crowd new and liked the new tunes.

It was great to see this living legend performing and seeming to thoroughly enjoy it himself and engage the crowd with some banter.

When asked to play “ Wonderwall” he replied “ I don’t fucking think so... If you haven’t seen us play Wonderwall by now you’ve missed it...it was really great though”

He didn’t disappoint Oasis fans though playing a few tracks including “Half a World Away”, “Masterplan” and looking sorry to leave the stage and apologising for not making the rules played an outstanding rendition of “Don’t Look back in Anger” with the crowd choir in full voice.