Archive for January, 2012
6 items.
The Big Day Out Auckland always arrives on the Friday of the 3rd week of January. It’s a date I look forward to in my calendar every year. Just a day in the sun watching bands – some old favourites and hopefully making some new discoveries as well.
This year leading into the week was the news that this would be the last time I’d be able to look forward to the festival in Auckland. Due to the lack of support this year, Auckland will be left out of the festival tour henceforth. Very sad news indeed, but completely fair. If New Zealanders can’t make the show viable, then there isn’t much point in putting on a show that can’t cover it’s own costs.
The show was dramatically re-aligned this year. Less stages, no Boiler Room tent at Mt Smart, and only one main stage. I wasn’t sure how this would play out over the course of the day, but I was optimistic that the streamlined approach might be a good thing for the show.
Sure enough it was definitely the least attended Big Day Out I’ve ever been to. It hardly came to a point where it felt like the volumes of people were even close to that of previous years. This was bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s total shit because it means hardly anyone there for the artists to play for. Not to mention this is exactly the reason why the show won’t be continuing on in Auckland. On the other side of the coin though, all the annoyances that usually exist with a festival environment weren’t at all present this year.
It was easy to get around. Queues were manageable. The lack of volume on the mobile networks meant it was easy to communicate. It made for a very pleasant day. Those of us attending the show were making the most of the reduced capacity.
Onto the music!
Cage the Elephant were the first band we saw. Their enthusiasm was great. I haven’t heard too much of their stuff, so I’m going to check out more for sure.
Das Racist were having fun during their Boiler Room set. The AV visuals they brought with them were pretty damn hilarious. With mash-ups of television intros from 90′s X-Men cartoons and Law and Order, through to Kindergarten Cop and Bart Simpson. Awesome stuff.
We snuck away early to catch Wellington’s Beastwars playing the Skate stage. I’m glad we did, as they played an impressive live show. I’ve been playing their album for a while now, so it was good to catch them live, finally.
Right after on the main stage the Cavalera Conspiracy came on to rip through some metal numbers. They were tight and heavy as shit. It was pretty fantastic. They played some old school Sepultura songs and that really got the mosh pit going. These guys were the welcome surprise of the day. Blisteringly awesome.
Time for another wander around the festival, which allowed us to take in some Best Coast. I had time to give them because they had a video with kittens in it. I guess you could shelve them under inoffensive sunny pop music.
Then we went to the Boiler Room again (weird calling it that seeing as there was no super top tent any more and it was just an open stage like the other stages. Where was the room?). We caught Battles, whom we had high expectations for, but found completely boring. It just wasn’t working for me. Maybe after that Cavalera Conspiracy set I was critiquing a little differently? Who knows? Other people there seemed to be enjoying though, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
Resting our feet in the late afternoon seemed necessary. The crowd had gotten larger from earlier in the day, and that was a good sign that there might be a respectable crowd once we had reached the finale of the show with the headliners.
Eventually we made our way down to the main stage and position ourselves in to see Kasabian and Soundgarden. We were in pretty close, which generally means you can expect some aggression from folks who also want a good vantage point at the front and will do some pretty awful things to get there. I have to say, I was surprised that all the bad behavior in our immediate area came from women this year. They weren’t just being annoying either, some were outright bitches. As always, I burrowed in tighter when people tried to challenge me for my spot. It’s a simple rule. First in first serve. Nothing else matters.
Kasabian were fun, and worthy of their spot on the main stage.
However Soundgarden was who we came for. I’ve been a fan for a long time and never seen them, so I was pretty excited for them. They didn’t disappoint. The band was very tight, Chris’ vocals were sharp. It was just a great performance. Loved it. They dedicated a song to Christchurch as well, so extra brownie points for the consideration there too.
Awesome day out. Sad to see an old friend go, but a lot of great memories, this year included. I put together a small collection of photos and some short video clips as a Big Day Out retrospective Set on my Flickr. If you want to go check that out, you can do so here.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
2 Comments
Whoa this comic took a long time to draw. Sometimes I feel as though I have to cut corners to get a comic up on time. This was the opposite case. I wanted to spend time working on it to make it look nice. I hope you look at it for at least 3 seconds longer than normal out of respect. Ha ha!
That line Adam uses in the last panel is from an old Mel Brooks film. I’m pretty sure it’s from “History of the World: Part 1″. I love Mel Brooks movies. For some reason that particular line always stuck with me. Great flick.
Almost the weekend! Go enjoy it!
Thanks for reading,
Marc
I started this sketch on the flight back from Christchurch on Sunday. I eventually finished it a couple of days ago on my lunch break at work. Kinda cool to be able to bust out a colour sketch without having to carry a series of markers around with you.
I’m still playing with the whole drawing on the iPad deal, but I am getting more comfortable with the Sketchbook Pro app. The main thing that gets me is the couple of steps it takes to switch your drawing tools out, or to change a color or something of that nature.
With a little more patience and practice though I’m confident that I’ll get used to this way of working. Who knows, maybe after I get used to the process, I’ll be able to make some comics on it? That’d be pretty neat. Digital drawing is pretty great.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to have briefly met Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content (QC) at a fan meet up he had arranged in Auckland. It was fortunate for me, and the other fans at the meet up, that Jeph and his wife had decided on New Zealand to spend their vacation.
If you haven’t heard of QC, then you are missing out! It’s a great comic. This was evidenced by the turnout in the middle of a park in the city centre on a very miserable rainy day. The meet up tweet was sent out the day before, which was gloriously sunny, however the summer here has been horrible this year, so that eventually turned into the rain we were expecting. About half an hour beforehand, Jeph sends out another tweet confirming the meet up is still on, and that we’d be taking shelter in the old band rotunda in the park.
I was hanging out with my brother that day. We arrived at the location of the meet up about 10 minutes before 3pm. There are already twenty or so people hanging out inside the band rotunda. The Rotunda has perimeter seating, and everyone is slowly starting to fill in. We are all there for the same reason, to meet someone who makes an awesome comic. This doesn’t make things less awkward though, as while we all share an interest in the comic, everyone is keeping to themselves. What you end up with is a bunch of strangers turning up, not talking to each other, and seating themselves inside a band rotunda, in the middle of a public park, on a wet Auckland afternoon.
Two homeless residents of the Rotunda, who had obviously claimed the spot as a quiet shelter area from the rain were starting to get weirded out by a bunch of folk quietly entering their dry space. One of them, on a foam mattress in the middle of the Rotunda starts to get a bit self aware, and eventually stores his mattress under one of the bench seats. It doesn’t take too long before his friend seats himself next to me to make small talk.
“Hey man, uhhh, what’s going on?” was the lead in question.
I tried explaining as best as I could why we were all there (with more people filling in as we were talking) and I also apologised for us all, intruding on their spot. Deciding that it might be best that they find another quiet area, the two homeless guys eventually take their leave.
Soon after Jeph and his wife Cristi arrive, and greet everybody. Jeph breaks the ice by breaking out his sketch pad, and drawing some sketches for people. At this stage there is about 50 people at the meet up. People eventually mingle and get talking before they have a chance to talk to Jeph himself. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere and fun.
Jeph himself was a really nice dude, he comfortably chatted with everyone, and drew a picture for them. I got a nice sketch of one of the newer characters of his comic – Padma. In return I gave him one of my comics to read. He was gracious enough to pose for photos if people wanted them too.
All in all, a really fun meet up. It was good of Jeph and Cristi to make time for everyone while on their own vacation time. Incredibly generous. Thanks so much. I believe another meet up is happening today in Sydney. If you’re a reader of the comic, I encourage you to go say hi.
Marc
Hello everyone!
Happy 2012! Thanks for being patient with the lack of comics. I had a break over the holidays, and it was awesome. Auckland’s weather wasn’t super accommodating, so I pretty much just stayed in. I watched a lot of NBA Basketball. Good to have some downtime.
Back into it now though.
Going down to Christchurch this weekend. I’m very much looking forward to it. It’ll be the first time I have been down since the deadly February 22 quake last year. I’m prepping myself for something completely foreign even though it was a city I knew very well. Hopefully it’ll give me a fresh perspective and I can incorporate that into the comic.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
Hey, 2012! Can you believe it?
Kinda cool to be starting a new year. It wouldn’t take too much to top last year on the good side of things. Let’s face it, last year was a rough one. I have high hopes for 2012 though, so as long as the world truly doesn’t end, I think we’re in for a good one!
Meanwhile here is a drawing I made on an iPad. It took a little while, as I was learning the drawing programme I was working in, but it was fun. Hopefully I can get some more sketches going soon.
Hope to get the comics going again, soon!