Welcome To BIGSOUND: We have Landed

With delegates and bands starting to descend on Brisbane, and the first beers well and truly opened, it can only mean that it is BIGSOUND eve here in Fortitude Valley. Over the next three days and two nights (three nights if you include tonight's pre-parties) most of the Australian music industry and the cream of the nation's emerging artists will indulge in live performances, networking, and beer. It is one of the best knees-ups on the calendar.

In just two nights, 120 bands will perform across 12 venues and during the day industry heavyweights and the next generation of thinkers will discuss, debate and argue some of the industry's most pressing topics. There's a lot on and there's a lot to be excited about, so stay tuned to theMusic.com.au's coverage throughout the week to help get you through it. If you're on the ground, pick up a copy of tomorrow's Time Off for their extensive guide of the event.

Here are some words of wisdom from that guide:

Big Day Out's Ken West tells the mag that, “As an Electromedia student at COFA in the late '70s I realised the more creative and amazing an artist was the less capable they were of achieving commercial success due to how they reacted to the world around them… This began a long association with the music underbelly, including Nick Cave from my early-20s. We were all anarchists fighting against the system. I still am.”

Seth Sentry said that he was hoping to “Become rich enough to buy an aquarium with like, some real nice tropical fish and stuff. Maybe a piranha? But I definitely wouldn't put the piranha in with the tropical fish. That would be extremely irresponsible.”

You should go and see Drunk Mums because, “How many other bands drag their spit-wielding, tambourine-shaking stage monkey from halfway across the country?”

I OH YOU's Johann Ponniah said he was most likely to take “a hangover” away from the week.

And perhaps most poignantly, band booker supreme Richard Moffat claims, “Am no expert! Anybody who says they are is an idiot… always make up life as you go along. Nothing is static and everything evolves in a fascinating way.”

Stay tuned to all our as-it-happens BiGSOUND coverage here.