| Big Day Out 2011 - M.I.A. |
| Written by Sarah Mudgway |
| Sunday, 30 January 2011 14:07 |
 The final clash of the day went to the closing acts of M.I.A. in the boiler room and Nick Cave’s GRINDERMAN out on the field. By this stage, the elements had got the better of me and I went for the dry and warmer option of M.I.A. - which apparently was what everyone else had decided as well, as the Boiler Room was PACKED. Squeezing our way in near the back, when M.I.A. took the stage... well, I couldn’t tell. I could hear music, but the screens which had been used all day to show what was happening on stage were instead playing weird geometric shapes. Annoying, but at least she sounded good. Her set was laden with an array of samples - animals, gun shots, chainsaws... however, for un-educated M.I.A. watchers like myself, the lack of singles from the first portion of her set matched with not being able to see a thing, made it extremely hard to get into.  A quick re-positioning near the end of her set, and I found myself close to the front at the side of stage with a much better view. Launching into ‘Boyz’, the stage quickly became filled with those who were in the front row... most of which were girls, however credit must be given to the guy who evaded security while singing into a monitor on stage which he was holding. Good effort. Ending her set in a techni-coloured dance party, our host M.I.A. sung ‘Paper Planes’ from the top of a speaker stack, possibly in an attempt to get away from the crowd of dancers on stage. Her performance wasn’t as out there as I expected, but admittedly I did only hear a good portion of it so visually who knows what I missed. But what I do know? M.I.A. is one badass chick, who I'm glad I stuck around until the end for.  Click HERE for more live M.I.A. photos.    |
