Big Day Blah?

There are times when I feel really young. Like when I'm at swimming lessons with Ari and realise I'm just about the youngest Mum there.
And then there is the annual trek to the Big Day Out, which always leaves me feeling about 100.
This year's BDO was all about change for me.
For starters, it wasn't at the usual venue, the Showgrounds, but in lovely Carlton parklands.
There was new stages, more food options, abundantly more viral advertising and a rolling text message ticker above the big screen where 16 year olds with mobile phones could shout out to their mates or make rude remarks.
And it was the first BDO I could remember that I left feeling, well, a little unfulfilled.
Apart from a blistering set by Melbourne rock stalwarts the Beasts of Bourbon, some twee loveliness from The Magic Numbers and a rather good performance by Iggy and the Stooges, the lineup was not much chop.
In the past, Big Days Out have always delivered a defining moment, an overriding memory that magically blocks out the crap food, drunken dickheads, dehydration and sunburn.
Like watching Wilco on the RRR stage in 2003 with what seemed like about 20 other people. It felt like Jeff Tweedy was singing Calfornia Stars to me.
Dancing to Underworld the same year in the Boiler Room. Fulfilling a lifetime ambition by seeing New Order in 2002, watching Jane's Addiction with a handful of others in 2003 while teenagers next to us booed because they were waiting for the Foo Fighters to come on. Batting a balloon around the crowd to The Flaming Lips in 2004. There are too many more to list here.
This year, I'd seen most of the acts before, so there was no magic moment.
Has the event passed this oldie by, or was it a particularly tired BDO?
Asking a few friends, it seems it wasn't the best BDO ever. As usual, the ridiculous scheduling of acts had something to do with it. I would have loved to have seem The Grates and Airbourne - who were both scheduled at 11.30am. The same thing happened to The Darkness a few years ago.
Then there was the disappointment of seeing hype bands like Wolfmother - I just don't see what all the fuss is about.
Still, there's always next year. This rock dog ain't dead yet...