My last Rock-it post, over on my ColdFusion blog, generated a lot of comments. Probably over 100 in all, some months after the post date. I got sick of all the LOL LOLs, abuse and band slagging by immature 12 year olds who can’t spell and deleted all but the first five or so a while back. I’m almost too scared to post this for fear of the same thing happening again.
But I do want to record for posterity that the Foo Fighters are a fantastic live band who really know how to give the crowd what they want. Despite being soaked to the skin three times, getting horribly sunburned and then nearly freezing to death, Rock-it was an awesome day.
What else? We got there in time for half of local band Karnivool, and it’s good to see them finally getting some exposure – they deserve it. Unfortunately it started to rain right at the end of Karnivool’s set and we got soaked. Gyroscope aren’t my cup of tea, really, and neither are Kaiser Chiefs – so we sat down on the hill and tried to dry out in the sun, which had come out again. In this next hour and a bit we managed to get not only dry but also burnt. WA in December, sheesh.
Wolfmother was next – what a great band. We caught them at the Big Day Out – having never seen them before – and were really impressed. Not a particularly original band – they are basically Led Zeppelin reincarnated – but lots of fun. Of course, some people were trying to have too much fun and the band had to stop for 10 minutes while the security guard tried to get the idiots to step back and stop crushing people in the pit.
Next up, Spiderbait. I love this band – in fact, I bought myself a Spiderbait t-shirt. Janet rocks. They did a solid set and even played a really early, heavy song that I love but had forgotten (and still can’t remember the name of) because they were inspired by Wolfmother’s heaviness. Cool!
After Spiderbait, we had a dinner break while Oasis bored the entire audience half to death. Nah, that’s not fair – there were plenty of people into them. Just not us. Or the couple of hundred other people sitting around where we were, waiting for the Foo.
Ah, the Foo. The Foo put on an absolutely huge show. They played all the classic songs – there’s such a lot of them! – one after the other, without time-wasting applause breaks and guitar acrobatics in between. Dave Grohl ran into the crowd at one point and climbed the audio visual tower right by where we were standing to talk to the people at the back. Dave, you band slut, we love you.
The Rock-it organisers have been doing a great job with these events, there were plenty of toilets, two massive screens for the height challenged, and amusing electronic signs. The people selling hot stewed apple – big thumbs up. There was free sunscreen for those smart enough to get it on early enough, but I didn’t see anywhere to fill up my water bottle (I’m pretty sure there must have been somewhere). But on the whole, a well-planned and organised event.
One more thing that disturbs me greatly at these kind of events – no one wears earplugs. Dave and I always take some along to gigs – the $10 reusable kind, which give better quality sound than the cheap disposables. Dave’s tinnitus is unbearable if he doesn’t, and as I used to drum I’m really conscious of protecting my hearing. I enjoy the music so much more with the painful distorted noise layer removed – and not having ringing the next day is a huge bonus. I’ve seen people wearing plugs at some of the heavier indoor gigs, but they’re mostly an older crowd – the kids these days don’t seem to care. I hope for their sake that bionic ears get much better in the next few decades – they’re gonna need it.
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