St Jerome's Laneway Festival @Sydney College of the Arts,Sydney (6/2/2011)

Mon 7th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

In the interests of ending this review on a good note, let’s talk about Laneway’s transport situation now. Because, as anyone caught amongst the thousands of tired, drunk revellers lining Victoria Rd jostling for sporadic cabs and sparse buses will attest to, it’s a shambles. Sydney College of the Arts isn’t in a central area by any means, and delegating the task of getting everyone home to Rozelle’s light Sunday night public transport is a frustratingly careless move.

Let’s call it growing pains. An incredibly popular festival, Laneway has changed a lot in its short six-year history. Once a refreshing new boutique indie festival, it’s now a rather big mainstream event, with big bands, lots of corporate sponsorship, and no more actual laneways. Yet it remains, broadly speaking, a strictly “indie” affair, with a lineup of mostly emerging acts and a small, packed-in layout.

Gates opened under a blisteringly hot sun, and Rat vs Possum proved themselves to be a perfect summer opener. Their psychedelic, percussive calypso-influenced sound rewarded those who got there early, with a giddy cover of My Disco’s impossibly stark track You Came To Me Like A Cancer Lain Dormant Until It Blossomed Like A Rose closing the set in a surprising, but fun fashion.

The Antlers, on the other hand, are a more brooding sort of band. And when they kicked off with Hospice opener Kettering, things certainly started to feel a lot heavier. But the group opted for bombast over brooding, following up with a borderline fist-pumping rendition of Sylvia and an ensuing set that followed a similar route. It was festival-friendly, and a bigger sound works well for them… but I missed the tumultuous feel of their album.

Stornoway seemed ill-fitted to the festival, with their heavy folk leanings failing to gain traction at the Carpark stage. It didn’t hold much interest, but over at the Inner Sanctum PVT weren’t faring much better. A celebrated Sydney act on the prestigious UK label Warp, their brand of live electronica just didn’t quite translate to the festival stage. Technically everything seemed in place, but there just wasn’t a lot of excitement to be found. Luckily, Levins was playing a pitch-perfect DJ set at the Red Bull stage, dropping laid-back hip-hop that’s a welcome respite from the indie onslaught elsewhere and a great soundtrack to drinks in the sun.

Speaking of sun, American indie power-couple Jenny (Lewis, formerly of Rilo Kiley ) and Johnny (Rice) brought summery folk to the Carpark stage just as a cold snap suddenly came on, leaving a festival full of minimally-dressed punters wondering whether the heat was so bad after all. And thus began the ongoing threat of rain – one that saw menacing clouds blanket the festival, spitting out the odd warning shots but never quite delivering. Thank goodness. Despite decidedly un-Californian weather, their set was sprightly and cute, striking a wonderful balance that stopped it from being too saccharine. Their chemistry is obvious onstage and make for some great harmonies, although the songs led by Jenny were clearly the stronger ones.

“God is working against us”, quipped Victoria Legrand a half-song into Beach House’s set. And she was barely kidding. Despite a huge crowd packing into the Carpark stage to see them, they’d already endured obvious audio issues, a fallen and broken stage prop and an opening song that had to be aborted after her vocals cut out altogether. Fortunately, they managed to get it together and the remaining set of seductive pop was an absolute delight. Taking mostly from their most recent record Teen Dream, they sounded massive onstage, with Legrand’s vocals soaring amongst a dreamscape of instruments.

Over at the Inner Sanctum, Warpaint were winning themselves a heap of new fans with their take on post-punk. They have claustrophobic sound with a clear Cure/Siouxie and the Banshees influence, but their oft-chanted vocals seem heavily influenced by 60s girl groups and recent bands like Vivian Girls. It sounds great, and there’s just enough variety in their sound to make it remain entertaining for the duration of their set. One of the day’s great surprises.

You’d have trouble finding a more motley-looking bunch than Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, with ridiculous seeming to be the only constant amongst their fashion. But then, it’s appropriate – their set was a mish-mash of glam, 70s pop and garage rock that’s loose, shambolic and very, very fun. And although the crowd only seemed to know recent single Round and Round, they seemed to gain a warmer applause with every song.

One of the more critically-adored bands of the day, Deerhunter followed with a set full of noise and rhythm. They barely let a moment of silence in as they powered through colossal renditions of tracks mostly taken from their last two albums, with the one-two punch of Little Kids and Nothing Ever Happened providing the set’s clear highlight. It seemed to leave people divided – some found it dull, while others called it the highlight of the day. Put me in the latter camp – It was by far the most polished, yet exciting and engrossing set that Laneway had to offer, and I could’ve stayed inside their cocoon of guitar noise for a lot longer.

With such a strongly international lineup, it was great to have an Australian act headlining the biggest stage, and Cut Copy filled the shoes more than adequately. Emerging 25mins late through an on-stage door that would later transform into a big video screen, they started off in subdued fashion with Feel The Love, but got the burgeoning audience into a frenzy a couple of songs later with Lights And Music. And while only a few songs revisited that kind of ecstatic vibe (singles Hearts On Fire and Saturdays ), they sounded great and looked like they were having almost as much fun as the crowd, who were finally finding an excuse to dance in unison. They may not have been an obvious headliner for a day that was dominated by indie rock, but they certainly ended it on a high note.

Now then, to get home…