After an onstage brawl at a Boston gig, and then the cancellation of dates in the UK and Japan, all eyes were on The Vines has they played at Australia’s Big Day Out festival. And local press weren’t impressed. The Melbourne Sun Herald describing their set on 19 Jan as "painful". Their review ran: "Most talked-about band on the planet? The Vines, still, and plenty more were talking after their set at the Big Day Out on Sunday. And none of it positive. Just a few months ago they played a couple of dynamite shows in Brisbane, but playing in broad daylight at a festival doesn't seem to agree with them."
Meanwhile Aussie website www.news.com.au described their set as "at best, a wasted opportunity" and quoted a fan at the festival, who said: "The place was packed before they started and within two songs people started streaming out. Afterwards I saw one girl ripping off a Vines patch from her shirt. Later I saw punters with their Vines T-shirts turned inside-out." They said Nicholls was "out of control", barely hitting a note, dropping his guitar several times, smashing a microphone and generally "disengaged from his bandmates".