NZ Big Day Out (18th January '02)

I will have to say this would have been one of the best days of my life, I recommend that everyone goes to at least one BDO.

17 Jan - I was freaking out because tomorrow was BDO!!! I decided to get an early night so I went to bed at about 9:00pm and I was all shaky and shit. I couldn't sleep so I got up and took some pills.

18 Jan - I woke up at like 6:00 (even though the pills were going "SLEEP, BITCH SLEEP"). I had to force feed myself a piece of toast because I was so excited I felt sick. I got dad to drop me and my mate there at about 9:00am. The plan was to see Blindspott, Amen, Drowning Pool, S.O.A.D, Prodigy then NOFX. When we got there the wait in line was a bitch but the security guards were cool so I had a good talk with them and some other dudes behind us. Well the wait was over it was 11:00am, and worth it, we were second into the venue and we wanted to be first to actually get in so me and my mate gapped it to the ticket place. We had wait there for another good 10 - 15 minutes. As we got in there was this huge as gate that was stopping us getting into the main area where the orange and blue stages were.

We finally got in and heaps of people rushed passed us and Blindspott were about to play in about 10 minutes so we weren't worried about getting there cause we had plenty of time. The band played on the orange stage. They came out and played a song that I hadn't heard before then I think they played 'Room to Breathe'. I was right in front of Gareth (Bassist) I had my hands up in the horns figure and he did it back to me.....I felt special. Then Marcus (Guitarist) started saying some shit in Maori which I couldn't understand.  They played some more songs then finished with 'Nil by Mouth' (they might have done it the other way around I cant remember). It was a wicked show and I would have to say probably the best I had seen that day. When they had finished Damian (Vocalist) thanked the crowd for being here and giving their day an awesome start. I saw Marcus, Damian and Shelton around -  I was going to ask for their autographs but I thought I'd just let them enjoy their day and not get annoyed by 13 year olds like me : ).

I had just finished a mean mosh session so I decided it was time for a break before Amen. When I was walking to the grand stands after Blindspott I heard the dude from Goodshirt (blue stage) saying something along the lines of "Those guys were really good [Blindspott] so we're gonna suck after them". I felt sorta sorry for them, I wasn't paying much attention but their set sounded pretty good. I sat on the grand stands until about a half an hour before Amen. I had to put up with the whining of that fruit from Rubicon (Rub a cock?hehe fuckin fags) on the orange stage for about 30 minutes......it was hell. All the people in Amens crowd we're mocking them and I'm sure the dudes from Amen we're having a bit of a laugh as well.

The only Amen song I had ever heard was one that was on Channel 4 and Mulch at the time....(It's just a holiday for you...???...??)can't quite put my finger on the name. They came out (blue stage) and the vocalist was fuckin awesome. He was swinging the microphone over his head hitting the drums and the guitarist in the head once. After a couple of songs he said "I know I'm not pretty like Brandon from Incubus or that Christian faggot from Creed" then they played another song. During the next song he jumped up onto the barrier infront of the audience a couple of times, then got up on top of the onstage speakers which were a good 10 feet+ high...I thought he was going to jump....but he didn't. On the last song he was smashing his face on the microphone all this blood and shit was coming out...it was cool.

We had a while until Drowning Pool (green stage) so we went and got a feed and sat down for a while. I saw my cousins mate just after Sommerset (played on the essential stage before D.P.) he said they were awesome but I didn't see any of the set. Drowning Pool had quite a big crowd and I spent the whole time in the mosh pit. They played a few songs then Dave (Vocalist) said "Have we got any sinners here?" and everyone went "YEAH" and Dave said "Put your fists in the air for metal" Everyone was chanting "METAL! METAL! METAL!" it was cool.   After that they played 'Sinner' some more songs Dave said "Have we got any beer drinkers here?" Again everyone went "YEAH" he said "Well that's cool you can come all the way from Texas and still find a whole lot of beer drinkers. We're gonna try real hard to come here and tour soon" and everyone cheered. In the next song Stevie(Bassist) gave me the horns back (Ain't bassist's nice guys?hehe) I think they finished with 'Bodies' when they played this the WHOLE crowd (which was fuckin huge) was moshing hardcore throughout almost the whole song it was so cool.

Next was the set I had been waiting 2 months for - System Of A Down. I got some more food and walked to the orange stage. They started to play 'Prison Song' and as you've probably heard the whole barrier crashing and shit that was fuckin freaky. When it happened everyone was pushing and you couldn't do anything so I thought fuck this and I got out and moved back were there was some space and I could still see a bit. Daron(Guitar) said "Come on! Everyone move back!" and most people did. They started to play again and everyone did it again. Daron and Serj(Vocals) were pissed but I couldn't see what the other two were like. Daron was like "People are breaking their fuckin legs! Fuck! Just move the fuck back" Serj was a little more calm and said "Come on guys just move back and we can carry on" No one listened and Daron was fuckin apeshit, slammed his guitar down hard onto the stand and  said "We didn't come all this fucking way too New Zealand to play like 2 fuckin notes and then fuckin leave!!!Fuck This" and he walked off. I was pretty pissed when they did it and I almost went of System. Some dude came out and said "Hey, we'll try and get them to play later tonight so stay around" Everyone was chanting "SYSTEM" but I knew they weren't gonna come back. I waited around then they played after Shihad/Pacifier. SOAD would have been the best set but because of the barrier thing it stuffed it up.

It was another two hours or so until Prodigy (blue stage) were on so my mate and I walked around for a while. We met this like 7 foot tall islander dude....he was cool. You'd look at him and be scared but he was a really nice guy. Someone had told him POD were coming so he had bought a ticket, but we were like "Dude POD.....THE POD??" He said "You know sorta like Limp Bizkit - Korn type band" I said "Yeah dude they're coming in march or something I know that they're definitely not here tonight . He was all "Oh fuck, is it alright if I hang out with you guys?" So he we hung out with that dude for the rest of the night. We all went to see Prodigy ...... well we couldn't see so we just heard Prodigy. They played a song(I can't remember) then Breathe, Firestarter then Smack my Bitch up......We decided to leave after they played those.

We made our way to the boiler room where Basement Jaxx were playing. I'm not a fan of dance music so I'm not going to say wither they were good or not. We hung out there for a while and we saw Mikey Havoc....he's a nice guy. I was standing next to him and I said to my mate "HEY I'M DANCING NEXT TO HAVOC!!" Havoc said "YEAH!!!" So I said "Hey dude the tours you did with News ruled" he said "Well that's great man you liked them" I said "Are you gonna do another one?" he said "yeah hopefully" But then this nice blonde came and took him away. It turned out the dude we met used to hang out with Havoc in high school.....fuck New Zealand is too small.

We started to head over to see NOFX (green stage) and Slim were just finishing so we hung out there for a while. We couldn't be bothered waiting for NOFX so we went back to the boiler Room.

After that my mum came to pick me and my mate up. The best day of my life was over......

Personally I give these ratings to the bands

Blindspott: 10/10 PERFECT!

Amen: 8/10 They had a lot of feedback - it messed things up

Drowning Pool: 10/10

System Of A Down: 5/10 the set was good but everyone fucked it up with the barriers

Prodigy: 7/10

19 Jan - I was soooo sore, my legs, back, ass, fucking everywhere. I got out of bed at about 1:00pm and sent an email to Blindspott saying thanks for putting on a great show and since it was my first (well second, I saw about 10 minutes of them in Hamilton '01) concert ever I really enjoyed it.

Well that's it. If you are reading this and haven't been to a BDO start saving your $$$ now cause its worth the $95.

Oh yeah by the way if you're reading this and thinking "Hey he didn't say it like that or play those in that order" etc. etc. etc. this was like 7 months ago and my memories not great. I know all these things happened, maybe not exactly in that order but they did happen.