Big Day Out 1997
Friday, 31st of January, Wayville Showgrounds, Adelaide



The time was 3pm, the location was stage 2 at Wayville 
Showgrounds and the temperature was bloody hot. There 
were, I'd say, 15 thousand people on the oval and the 
surrounding stands. 
Frenzal Rhomb appeared on the stage to the strains of 
the Star Wars theme, Jay holding his polystyrene cup 
aloft as some sort of salute to the masses. They then 
launched in to a very energetic (what else would you 
expect?) version of Not So Tough Now. That was enough 
to set the already over excited crowd into a frenzy, 
inflicting pain on themselves and others. 

The band was in fine form with their usual stage 
antics, most notably Lex trying to stick his bass up 
Jays bottom whilst he was trying to sing. (Well at 
least that's my interpretation of the event.) But the 
highlight of the of the day for me, and I'm sure many 
other Frenzal Rhomb fans was hearing a couple of new 
songs. The one that really put a smile on my face was 
"Get Fucked You Fucking Fuckwit, No You Can't Move 
Into My House." Other new songs included "Some Of My 
Best Friends Are Racists": and something in Japanese 
about throwing up. (Apparently the story of the 
Japanese tour.) 

All the old favourites were played to perfection 
(well almost). Lex practised his leaps and smiles, 
Jay ran around in circles, Nat took out all his 
frustrations and more on the poor defenceless drum 
kit, which almost lost it and had to be put back 
together. It also had to contend with Linsay using 
its platform as a diving board (well almost.) 

Jay thanked the crowd for such a warm welcome in to 
the world of arena rock and let everybody know just 
how very comfortable with the whole thing he was. A 
multitude of gifts were thrown out into the crowd 
including bottles of water, drumsticks, lyric sheets 
and plectrums. Some fans were not content with these 
small offerings, and when Lex jumped down off the 
stage, to the area behind the barrier, I overheard 
two girls begging him for his "FUCKER" T-Shirt. He 
politely refused and moved on. (What else would you 
expect from a boy with a smile like that?) Lex was 
then questioned by a pretty scary looking security 
person as to what he was doing behind the barrier, 
he mumbled an answer and excused himself and took 
off into the sunset. 

Frenzal Rhomb were definitely worth going to see, even 
if I had to battle my way through 25,000 people, put up
with extreme temperatures and pay $2 for a bottle of 
water. I think everyone who heard them at the Big Day 
Out were impressed, hey they even got a mention on the 
front page of the Adelaide Advertiser, and rightly 
so........