To bring in the millennium, Big Day Out got a whole heap more international acts, and tried its damnedest to give us the best BDO ever – and they almost pulled it off. One funny encounter that happened this year: we (me, my sister and my ex-girlfriend) ran into Jon Bridges (of Ice TV fame) again. He didn’t remember us though. I also fell over twice in the moshpit … read on:

Atari Teenage Riot: So what do you get when you cross thrash metal with techno. I don’t know, but it would be close to this. They had one cool song that I knew of (a song called ‘No Remorse’ that featured on the soundtrack to the movie Spawn). Since I was here to see music, I went to see them – and subsequently got knocked over and nearly killed in the moshpit. Luckily I got up and I was alright. The band wasn’t though.

Blink 182: I’ve never been a big fan of these guys (even though ‘Enema of the State’ is one of the better punk-pop albums around), but their live show was awesome. You wouldn’t think it, but they are incredibly tight as a band, and their singers, Mark Hoppus and Tom De Long, are incredibly funny, and work well together. They played all their awesome songs, including ‘Dammit’, ‘Whats My Age Again’ and ‘Adams Song’, and even doing ‘All The Small Things’ back in the days when it wasn’t an annoying radio song. A great band in the pinnacle of their careers.

(Overall, Blink 182 probably cracks my Top Ten Best Ever Bands at BDO, as well as getting their own show when I’m running my own television station, along with my reality show which follows Matthew Ridge everywhere, in case he ever gets in any trouble)

Shihad: The boys were back again – simply because they were the only good NZ band available. In fact, I think they may even have been playing the exact same set from the previous year!

(Actually, what’s the odds on a band like Shihad making one set-list, and playing the exact same one for an entire calendar year? 2 to 1? 3 to 2? 10 to 1? This needs to be investigated)

Basement Jaxx: I don’t know techno, but I do know this – the 5 minutes I saw of Basement Jaxx just wasn’t enough, and I would very much love to see them again someday. In 5 minutes, I heard the only song of theirs that I really love – the wonderful ‘Rendezvous’ – and it was awesome. This would be one of those “If I was doing it again, I’d see these guys” type shows.

Foo Fighters: The first of 2 Foo Fighters appearances at Big Day Out was possibly the best one – they did all their best songs, like ‘Everlong’, ‘Monkey Wrench’, ‘This Is A Call’, ‘I’ll Be Around’, ‘For All The Cows’, ‘Learn to Fly’, ‘Generator’ and ‘Gimme Stitches’. Just an awesome band at an awesome time in their careers (they were almost at the release date for ‘There Is Nothing Left to Lose’). Foo Fighters would definitely be amongst the Top Ten Best Ever Bands at BDO (they may even crack the top 5)

(One of the other highlights was when they played ‘Big Me’. For those of you unfamiliar with the song, ‘Big Me’ is possibly the cheesiest song ever written. What made it such a highlight was that Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters singer, even told the crowd how cheesy he thought it was, and then he proceeded to do it anyway. Just fantastic)

Nine Inch Nails: I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting from these guys – Trent Reznor is a borderline musical genius, but its just unfortunate that he’s in the “psycho” zone of the genius scale. I’ve got their latest album, ‘The Fragile’, which was released just prior to this BDO, and which is filled with 2 discs of music, half of which is unbelievably good, the other half of which is purile crap. Their live show, however, was totally awesome and they pretty much blew me out of the water, by playing a set of songs from their new album, and some from their older albums, from a variety of different musical styles. A great set from start to finish.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Just recently I borrowed a DVD of RHCP live at Slane Castle, in Ireland and they were awesome there – which made me feel a little sad that they sucked here. Of course, I guess it didn’t help that I got KO’ed during their second song. While Nine Inch Nails were playing, the whole crowd moved to the front of their stage, so I took the opportunity to get as close to the front as I could. When RHCP started playing the whole crowd moved across, rather violently, to the front of their stage. I made it through the first song ok, but the second song was ‘Suck My Kiss’, and the crowd started jumping – it was one of those “I was moving up and down with everybody, but not actually touching the ground at all in between” type situations, and after a minute of the song, I can remember falling over. The next thing I remember is waking up in the St Johns tent at the back of the stadium. They asked a few standard questions, and then I went straight back out (after a few minutes) to the show. I had missed about 20 minutes, which meant there was plenty more to see. But it was all in vain – the Chili’s still sucked, and in fact, put in one of the most disappointing sets of the day.

(Another thing that upsets me is that they played ‘Under the Bridge’ at Slane Castle, but never played it at BDO 2000. If I were more lame than I am, I’d be offended) Chemical Brothers: On the way back to the car, I stopped in at the Boiler Room to see the Chemical Brothers for a few minutes. The Chemical Bros had just come off the success of their huge album ‘Surrender’, and when I got to the tent, I found that they were just finishing ‘Let Forever Be’, then launched into ‘Block Rockin Beats’, then played ‘Out of Control’ – only my 3 favourite songs of theirs! They were definitely better than I thought they would be, but I could be biased (since all I saw was my 3 favourite songs).