It’s been a few years since I last attended the Sydney Laneway festival. As impressive as the lineups always are, I’d been content with their sideshows, knowing the negative attributes of the original venue. Having to line up for the Basement, noise restrictions making hearing bands on the main stage difficult (already made much the same due to the constant bus traffic to your left) – while certainly capturing the ‘laneway’ vibe.
But knowing much of the above, organisers have brought 2010’s incarnation to a new location in both Sydney and Melbourne. In Sydney, this happens to be the old mental asylum in Rozelle, which is now, fittingly, the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA). It was a fantastic choice – beautiful, unique surrounds unseen at a Sydney festival since ATP – and of course, no noise restrictions. It was played loud, and it was played proud. It never felt overcrowded, either – the promoters going to quality in numbers, rather than quantity. The only problem with the layout were the food stalls, often creating a bottleneck in traffic as you roamed to and from the Clock Tower stage – but such is the natural teething of a new venue – I have no doubt it will be taken care of next time around. All in all, a fantastic effort, and I’ll definitely return next year.
Oh, but what of the bands, you say? I arrived a little late to the day, unfortunately, and missed most of Hockey – I got there just in time, however, to catch the catchy “Too Fake” and set closer “Put The Game Down”. They were good fun from what I saw, and had the crowd bouncing along to every beat.
Next, I caught 20 minutes or so of Kid Sam‘s set and was blown away by the bands unique live sound. There’s only so much a 2 piece can do, but they know how to make it sound good and look easy. Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit followed, with a set leaning heavily on their 2008 LP, The Midnight Organ Fight. “Square 9” was the only track to make an appearance off of their first LP, and their upcoming single “Nothing Like You” made its debut off of the upcoming LP, The Winter of Mixed Drinks. You can’t say they don’t love their unique titles.
This set was truly awe-inspiring. And with a myriad of passionate fans up front, singing along to every word of every song (barring the new one, of course), you couldn’t help but get swept up in it all. Highlights of the set were “My Backwards Walk” and “The Twist”, which translated surprisingly well live. The backing chorus accentuated lead singer Scott Hutchinson’s vocals beautifully. But it was “Keep Yourself Warm” which closed out the set, and received the loudest sing along of the set – “It takes more than fucking someone someone you don’t know to keep you warm”. Out of an album born of the sadness of a break up, truer words have rarely been spoken. Although in this case, all we needed was the sun to keep US warm. Such a hot day! (and what a segue way!)
I ran over to the main stage to catch The Middle East next, and the stage was packed to hear their set which included the popular “Blood”. I was a bit too far back to enjoy their sweet sounds, however, so I headed to the ‘Inner Sanctum’ to catch English four piece Wild Beasts, one of the big draw cards of the day. Local fans would note a similarity between lead singer Hayden Thorpe and our own Kirin J Callinan. They both have a distinctive countertenor style of singing, often creating some pretty infectious vocal melodies. They opened the set with one such example, “The Fun Powder Plot”, which also opened their 2nd LP Two Dancers. The track is most popular for its lyric “This is a booty call; my boot, my boot, your arsehole!” Ah, what brilliance.
They were true showmen, too; Hayden thrashing his guitar with his drum stick, members switching instruments, and Tom Fleming getting a lot more time on the mic than we ever knew he received on the album. In fact, he and Hayden virtually skipped and jumped between each others instruments throughout the set. Other highlights included “Hooting & Howling”, the incredibly infectious “The Devil’s Crayon” and the appropriate “Empty Nest”, which closed out the set. A truly gripping set which stole the show.
As we started running into the tail end of the event, I started noticing an odd thing with the timetable – there were no longer any crossover periods – all the bands stopped playing at the exact same time! This made the whole “bottleneck” problem even more severe, and I couldn’t quite understand why they did it. Perhaps it was to keep everyone at one of the three stages? But it made for some pretty frustrating clashes to say the least. None more so than The Very Best vs Mumford and Sons vs The XX. It was a fairly safe choice in the XX for me, but only because I’m seeing Mumford and Sons at one of their 2 sold out Sydney sideshows.
I did, however, catch the end of their set, which saw the Hottest 100 winners jamming out new single “The Cave” and closing up shop with new track “Whispers in the Dark”. Meanwhile, The Very Best were rather lonely at the Clock Tower, but thrashed out a very energetic show all the same. I only caught a few minutes at the start (which included a cover of M.I.A’s “Paper Planes”) but I think the crowd that was there would have rated the whole performance very highly.
Indeed, I spend the majority of that hour watching the XX, and I have to say I was fairly underwhelmed. The crowd, however, did not agree – singing along loud and proud to every track; happy faces all around. These guys have a fantastic career ahead of them, as long as their members stop leaving! Once a four piece, they still play as a three piece, and seem to counterbalance this by playing their music REALLY LOUDLY. I love the album, but I guess I mustn’t have been in the mood.
I got a spot right up the front for Daniel Johnston, who followed, and the buzz in the air was unbelievable. This is a man of legend, who’s infamy has always outshun his music. And none of us truly knew what to expect, or how to feel as we watched him perform. Some of it was truly brilliant, while other parts made you feel slightly uncomfortable. But all the while, you knew you were witnessing something truly special, and you couldn’t help but feel in awe of what was going on on the stage.
Reading from a lyrics book, and not the greatest guitarist in the world, the show picked up quite a bit when the full band took to the stage – but the experience of seeing him solo and raw was a pure thrill, too. “Living Life” and “Fake Records of Rock and Roll” were included in the solo part of the show, with the lyrics of “Fake Records” really showing how astute Daniel is to the goings on of the international music scene. He is an infinitely brilliant lyricist, and clearly loves being in the spotlight, living his dreams as a “rock and roll star”, pushing through his illnesses, and giving audiences a taste of his brilliance. “Are you still there!?” Yes indeed we are Sir Johnston, indeed we are.
He finished his set a bit early, so I managed to catch the last few minutes of Black Lips. The crowd was going absolutely MENTAL! Crowd surfing, stage rushing – the stuff of Big Day Out legend. But it had never felt more appropriate. Echo and the Bunnymen were next, after a confusing 30 minutes without any music. They opened with the classic “Lips Like Sugar”, and highlights of the set included “Think I Need It Too”, “Nothing Lasts Forever” and of course the immaculate “The Killing Moon”. And egoist Ian McCulloch agrees, “I’m not going to announce it as the greatest song ever written… even though it is”. I wouldn’t call it immaculate live, unfortunately, nor would I the set itself, but it was an enjoyable 50 minutes, and a thill to see the Liverpool legends in action. Well the two original members anyway. I felt recent addition Nicholas Kilroe on drums stole the show, however.
Another half an hour passed with no music on any stage (I… are… confused!?), and we eagerly awaited Florence and the Machine. While I felt the XX didn’t live up to the hype, I had my hopes set highly on the songstress, who tore a hole into the Hottest 100 charts last week. Thankfully, she delivered. And not only did she deliver, but she showed off stage talent that I’ve never seen before with a one-album performer. Her voice was IMMACULATE, even stronger than it was on the album, and truly put a spell over the entire crowd. I was hypnotised, I was mesmerised, and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the fantastic day.
Her 5 piece backing band was of great class too, including an extraordinary male harpist (you don’t see many of them!) – although they were definitely turned down a notch, with Florence essentially overpowering the machine throughout the set – and a good choice at that. Opening with “My Boy Builds Coffins”, Florence ran through the majority of her breakthrough debut album Lungs, and brought the show right to 10pm curfew with “Dog Days are Over” (in which she got the ENTIRE crowd to jump as one), “You’ve Got The Love” and “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)” finishing out the set in a 1 – 2 – THREE knockout punch. This is one singer whose talent is held well and truly beyond her years – and I think it’s fair to say she has a long career ahead of her. Unless she does the whole Lily Allen thing. Neighbours, please don’t invite Florence onto your stupid show!
It’s been an interesting 2010 Summer festival season, but I can unequivocally state that Laneway had the best lineup of the season, and is so far the best of the lot. I can’t wait to see what they pull out of the rabbit hat for next year…
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Florence and the Machine Setlist
– My Boy Builds Coffins
– Kiss with a Fist
– Hurricane Drunk
– Between Two Lungs
– Drumming Song
– Cosmic Love
– Blinding
– I’m Not Calling You a Liar
– Howl
– Dog Days Are Over
– You’ve Got The Love
– Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Frightened Rabbit Setlist
– The Modern Leper
– Old Old Fashioned
– Fast Blood
– Nothing Like You
– The Twist
– Heads Roll Off
– My Backwards Walk
– Square 9
– Keep Yourself Warm
