Now in it’s third year overall, this was the first chance for Brisvegans to experience the Laneway Festival. The main stage was set up in an alleyway next to the Zoo nightclub, with the Zoo itself opening its doors for a second stage. This posed an additional festival conundrum. As well as involving the typical dilemma of which bands to see over others, here we also had to choose to Zoo or not to Zoo. You could sweat yourself senseless indoors or remain in relative comfort outside, where unfortunately much of the energy and atmosphere is lost to the ether.
On the main stage outside Ground Components are loose and loud and actually a hell of a lot of fun. Singer Joe did his best Iggy Pop impersonation whilst tearing holes in his throat, and when the band hit their stride on Hands In The Air and On Your Living Room Floor, it actually kind of makes sense what they’re trying to do. Funny, I never really got until now.
Poor Holly Throsby. Her music isn’t suited to festivals and upstairs in the Zoo, the majority of the crowd seemed more intent on talking over her breathy vocals and gentle guitar. Her backing cellist was hardly going to take on the masses either. And it was a shame because when she dropped songs such as the gorgeous Shoulders And Bends there were glimpses of what she was capable of.
Back to the main stage and Youth Group are doing what they do. A lot of Toby Martin’s ethereal vocal turns disappear into the heavens. But when they play harder edged stuff such as Baby Body and Catching and Killing they sound a lot better live than on record. However, since I’d rather stick knitting needles in my eyeballs before hearing Forever Young again, we split before the end of the set. By the way, the newly bearded Toby looks like he is off to do a spot of lumberjacking after the show.
As far as big hair goes though, Gersey’s Craig Jackson is sporting more follicular muscle than the combined strength of Youth Group and the Kings Of Leon. The Melbourne band are in fine form, both musically and with regards to onstage banter. They even posed for a few mid set crowd photos. What – are they rockstars now? They are joined for their finale by Youth Group’s Danny Allen and Pavement’s Spiral Stairs who help them to blast out a raucous and loose version of Link Wray’s Fire and Brimstone. This is the closest thing we’ve seen to rock and roll all day.
The Sleepy Jackson also suffer from the lack of atmosphere over on the main stage. And they don’t help their cause by peppering their set with self-indulgent wank. Many think that Luke Steele is a genius, but his genius lies in creating harmony-laden art-pop. Whilst engaging in five minutes of feedback and laptop noises may help the ebb and flow of a club show, it doesn’t do much for a festival crowd who want to hear the hits. Especially so when you only have 40 minutes to play. When they do actually drop some songs, like Vampire Racecourse and God Lead Your Soul, the results are stunning.
New York’s The Walkmen are up next and they sound amazing even if the crowd is again largely unmoved. They sound like a big, dumb American rock band, in the best possible way – like a far superior version of Creed. Their set has several flirtations with country but when the rockier numbers are in place along with a massive rhythm section, you get the impression of why they’re huge overseas. I would be keen to see them again some time.
By now its getting ridiculously hot inside the Zoo, but the gorgeous sounds of Camera Obscura lure many into its Vesuvius-like conditions. It’s heartwarming to see a Glaswegian band, playing sweet, somewhat twee pop songs, who can still manage to look like a bunch of hooligans (minus the gals of course). Seriously, that bass player has gotta be a front rower. Now, if only Belle & Sebastian would follow suit, that’d really scare the cardigan-fanciers. Anyway, Camera Obscura play some great toe-tapping tunes. And we all drip with sweat.
Whistling Swedes Peter, Bjorn and John (minus the mysterious John who didn’t make it to Australia – maybe he was in Sly’s entourage?) were initially fun. They came across as much more of a cohesive band than the disparate collection of studio freaks who initially came together. However, following an outburst of out of tune whistling (a whistlong?) it was time for a break.
Facing a familiar festival dilemma for the competing headliners, we opted over Midnight Juggernauts provide an alternative to indie favourites Yo La Tengo, with excellent results. Its about a million degrees inside and the Juggernauts have the crowd bouncing off the walls. The whole room literally was jumping with their vocoder-driven disco-rawk.
Then it was all over. I’d sweated my own body weight out and drunk said amount in return. It was a day of contrasts but was still a popular event, despite the incredible heat inside the Zoo. Still, I can’t imagine many better ways to spend a Saturday arvo. Bring on next year.
