I always tell myself the Big Day Out will be good and am disappointed by an abundance of festival jerks, but Laneway actually was good! Great, even.

On a whole the crowd was respectful. You still get the some that’re there purely for the social aspect, but the BDO has degenerated into pretty much only people that are in attendance to be at a festival… Or to get blind drunk and show off their pecs while rubbing their sweaty arms against you.

Anyway, bands I rated live…

BDO:

• Kasabian!! I’m gonna have to catch them when they tour. I really like their latest album – the energy behind them and their tunes gets the crowd pumped.
• Passion Pit were pretty good. Another one I’d like to see touring… with a better sound setup; the vocals were somewhat drowned.
• Rise Against was a surprise. I don’t follow them or anything but the singer is so powerful. And a winning showman!

Laneway:

• Mumford and Sons!! Pick of the day. Awesome! I can’t figure out how much is novelty though. Their music is new and exciting, involves a banjo, and their songs are really well structured. They build up so well and typically develop into some form of hoe down. Also, the crowd extended as far as I could see outside the Museum. I was quite proud of Perth, and the band seemed genuinely stunned by the support. Heartwarming stuff.
• The XX were pretty good. The vocals were a bit airy on the girl’s behalf but otherwise a fine set.
• Florence and the Machine went off. I was having crowd issues during her set but if I wasn’t raging I would’ve been loving it. Her voice cuts through ambient noise like nothing else. If she hooked up with the Rise Against guy they could have very loud (but gifted) babies.