And after three weekends of festival mayhem around Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, the 2015 run of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival dates have come to an end. And for each of us, we definitely had our favourite moments. We’re sure you did as well! But here are five of ours…
Jon Hopkins
Jon Hopkins’ timetable clash with Flying Lotus was painful, but seeing as Hopkins was on the more intimate Red Bull Future Classic stage it turns out that he was the smarter choice at the festival. First off, the rowdy festival crowd did a good job at sucking the atmosphere out of FlyLo’s set, where as Hopkins attracted a quieter, no-nonsense group of fans who were rewarded with some full-bodied house, EDM, and dupstep all masterfully spun into one very exciting and unpredictable set. The visuals were deeply involving and added greatly to the textured productions, creating the perfect end to Laneway for the dance-minded. – Chris Singh (Seen in Sydney)
Little Dragon
Little Dragon are always ridiculously fun live, with Yukimi’s spirited dancing around the stage and the band’s seamless multi-genre jams. Though they are stronger as a live force in an indoor environment, or when the sun is nowhere to be seen, their show was still as sightly and entertaining as anything else at Laneway this year. Putting together a joyful set list they remained one of the best parts of the day. – Chris Singh (Seen in Sydney)
Raury
Raury has a fiery live presence, exuding a confidence far beyond his 18 years of age. He takes his debut project Indigo Child and translates it with a full band, transforming it into an infusion of stadium rock and hip hop. We were all expecting some big things from Raury at the Red Bull Future Classic Stage, but we didn’t see this one coming. A big highlight of the tour. – Chris Singh (Seen in Sydney)
Jungle
With huge amounts of energy, and a massive sound perpetrated by the 7 members on stage, Jungle easily brought us one of the most entertaining sets of the whole festival. We are often told by a band like this “you need to see them live to get them”, and this is one of the cases where it’s very much the truth. This is a band who take things to another level live, and really show us the power of their material. – Larry Heath (Seen in Singapore)
Royal Blood
And finally, there was the arguably the loudest band to play the festival, Brighton’s Royal Blood, who totally took things up to eleven, playing our favourites off their hit debut self-titled record. It’s incredible the sounds that this two piece can make live. I think they may be wizards. – Larry Heath (Seen in Singapore)
Honourable Mentions
Honourable mentions have to go to the amazing performances FKA Twigs and St Vincent put on each and every night. They were mesmerising, hypnotising and sounding damn fine. Eagulls impressed as another to put in the “loud” column, and have improved greatly since we first stumbled across them earlier in 2014. And then there was Mac DeMarco and his Mum. Now that was fun.
