St JEROMES LANEWAY FESTIVAL REVIEW
Thanks to FASTERLOUDER for the pic.
ok, so this is nearly a week late sure, but you know what? I got there. Took me ages, but I got there.
Laneway Festival last weekend was killer. The venue is amazingo, and man, that lineup…jeepers. When I reviewed last years, I wrote something along the lines of it being a music bloggers wet dream. Well, this years was more like I actually meant to do it, not any of this of crap, look at the mess I’ve made during my sleep. This years was more like, let’s make more mess and stay awake and do some more.
Ok, so enough of the wank talk.
The first band we saw was The Holidays. We actually missed Buchanan due to the whole floods thing that happened last weekend. Took us a little longer to get to the venue. Pissed off I missed Buchanan, but glad I caught some of The Holidays set. If these guys were to play in a few years time at Laneway, I think their set would be mid afternoon, not one of the openers. No secret about my love for the guys, they’re album of last year made my top 10, and Broken Bones was one of my fave tracks from last year. They’re gonna get heaps big me thinks. Live, they’re really solid. I remember remarking to my mate that they’re heaps tighter than the last time we saw them (supporting Bluejuice early last year). Band on ze rise me thinks.
After Holidays, we caught some of World’s End Press. Same with Holidays, I reckon these guys will be closing a stage in a few years time. But that’s more because they’re stuff suits a bit more of a late night thing. Watching they’re pretty darn stellar disco indie stuff at 1 in the afternoon was kinda strange. But man, they do rock it live. I’d heard things about these boys, and now I know it’s true. Definitely a band that will be up there with Cutters and Juggers as big amazing Aussie bands doing big amazing things os.
World’s End Press – Faithful
From World’s End Press we went a little dark. PVT were good. But I dunno, there seemed to be something lacking from their set. I like them, but to be honest, I only have their last album. They were good, but yeah, something lacking. We left these guys and saw a tiny bit of Jenny and Johnny. These guys were pretty great. Indie guitar pop lovey dovey shit. But it’s good.
Until then, the bands were good, but if I went home at that point, I wouldn’t have been that happy with it all. The bands were all really good, but I didn’t have that moment where you go home thinking man, let’s not ever forget that.
Then we saw Beach House. To say that they were good, well, man. They were in my top three of the day, easily. Maybe 2nd best. Victoria is one of those indie goddess babes that you only think about seeing live. Teen Dream was massive here – made #2 on my albums list. Everything about them was great. I remember thinking ‘man, this is swoons galore’. supes was. Tracks like Zebra and Norway definitely helped the swooning.
Beach House – Norway
After Beach House, things got interesting. The intention was to go an check out Blonde Redhead, but they had swapped spots with Holy Fuck. So we decided to stay at this stage and check out Two Door Cinema Club. I wasn’t that fussed on these guys before Laneway. They can write some amazing pop songs, but they didn’t really do it for me. That, and I was sceptical about them live. Their songs are so quick and tight that I thought they wouldn’t be able to pull it all off. I was mistaken though. After a massive wait (40mins and missing out on Holy Fuck) and seeing the crowd go crazy apeshit, they actually pulled it off damn well. It still lacked something for me though. But that probably says more about my music snobbery than anything else.
Next up was Yeasayer. We were towards the back for these guys, so I think I missed out on the best parts, but tracks like O.N.E., Madder Red and Ambling Alp were all massive, and tight and killer. After those dudes we managed to check out a tiny bit of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, and man, gold pants? Really? I didn’t get these guys at all.
Then it was off to check out Blonde Redhead in their later timeslot. These guys were easily the surprise of the day. I knew they had good songs, but wow. They were tight as hell, had that super loud wall of sound thing going on, and well, then there’s the songs. Pop song perfection these guys are. So glad I was these guys.
Blonde Redhead – Spring And By Summer Fall
And then there was Cutters.
Although their set incorporates a bit of techy stuff (I love tech, but I think I love In Ghost Colours so much that it skews what I hear just a bit), they were solid. They even had a door onstage, which although it was a little wanky, kinda worked. People thought that the only reason they had it on stage was so that they could enter the stage that way (mind you, the door was front and centre). They did enter the door that way, and you could tell that even they thought it was a little funny. But then, man, that door had some magic powers or something. It moved around, they’re were images on it, it was it’s own little light show. It was having a party. And so were we (bad segue anyone?!). I love Cutters and probably will until I die. Anything they do, I love (and I’m sure i’ll love Zonoscope after a few more listens).
Out There On The Ice seems to be nearly everyone’s favourite track of there’s. Don’t even think it’s was released as a single, but they always pull it out live. I loved them. Can’t say it enough.
Cut Copy – Out There On The Ice
All in all, it was pretty darn good. Food didn’t run out also which was a good thing. Bring on next year. The guys always put on a great festival.
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