Despite a monsoon of biblical proportions flooding most of Melbourne the previous night, amazingly the Laneway Festival in Melbourne managed to pull off the festival with aplomb; the only casualty being Rat Vs Possum who had to be bumped from their River Stage opening slot due to replacement lighting gear needing to be hurriedly sourced after water damage during the night. Over on the Carpark Stage Violent Soho play a bombastic set of their particular brand of South Mansfield dirty scuzz rock, dedicating ‘Muscle Junkie’ to music website Mess+Noise, saying ‘we love you but some people hate you’, the chorus of ‘I hate your face’ bemusing considering how few Violent Soho fans would be bothered with the musings of the once influential website’s ever diminishing following. They follow this up with a searing rendition of ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend’, the small but attentive crowd all captivated until the last note.
Back on the Moreland Street stage, Oxford’s Stornoway bring their pastoral, folk tinged pop to a steadily building crowd; the building crescendos of ‘When You Touch Down From Outer Space’ providing a moment of pop bliss. Although The Antlers have received little radio play in Australia, they have particularly rabid fans. Call it the ‘Pitchfork Effect’ but their album Hospice appears to has inspired a loyal following and as they bring the biggest crowd of the day to this point on the River Stage, it is apparent that their pop – which owes a clear debt to REM – could have massive commercial crossover potential.
Back on the Moreland Stage, Jenny & Johnny also take cues from REM, adding in country and alt-Americana influences giving their lush harmonies and country swagger elements of Band of Horses at times. A massive crowd gathers on the same stage as Beach House entrance the masses, Victoria Le Grand’s breathy, ethereal vocals and the band’s pulsating rhythms wafting over the crowd shoehorned in to the street for their set. Over on the River Stage, the so-hot-right-now girls of Warpaint also ply a trade in ethereal vocals and a sound that recalls Mazzy Star and Throwing Muses; Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal’s vocals interweaving on ‘Undertow’ to magical effect.
The previous night’s monsoon in Melbourne causes minor hassles later in the day as Blonde Redhead and Holy Fuck are forced to swap sets, while in an announcement to the crowd festival organiser Danny Rogers takes to the stage to announce that rain has caused Two Door Cinema Club to run late ’but they will be here very soon’. The crowd for Warpaint disperses a little as Local Natives take the stage for their set, but their infectious harmony laden pop has the first few rows all dancing along and the fervent chorus of ‘I want you back’ for ’Airplanes’ elicits a massive crowd response. Closing their set with ‘Sundance’, they take their instrument swapping to extremes – furious triple drumming and distorted guitar showing that the band can deftly turn their hand to ‘rawk’ as well as their winsome pop.
A short note should be made about the scheduling of the event. It seems a trifle ungrateful to criticise the effort of organisers to draw such a wealth of talent in to the one festival, but set times rarely go beyond forty minutes and inevitably overlap with other acts. Sure it’s a first world problem – but perhaps they could be less generous with the number of acts next year – just to make us feel less like we’re missing out?
Two Door Cinema Club up the ante by drawing the biggest crowd of the day to the Moreland Street stage, the popularity in Australia of the Northern Ireland trio somewhat perplexing and proof of the effect of Triple J support in establishing an act in Australia. ‘This Is The Life’ is hook laden indie pop, while ‘What You Know’ sees a wave of girls ‘dancing’ on boys shoulders. With Two Door having satisfied the merchant banker’s daughters before they head back to Kew and their Arts Degrees at Melbourne University; Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti offer up a more challenging proposition on the River Stage. From a distance, Mr Pink appears to be the living embodiment of Curt Wild, Ewan McGregor’s fictional character in the 1998 Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine, a character none too discretely based on Iggy Pop. Decked out in gold lamé pants which appear to have a bulge in the lunchbox area disproportionate to his spindly frame and long blonde locks, Ariel Pink and band play a set that always threatens to rise above being flat, the murky sound holding songs back until ‘Menopause Man’ kicks in to its groove which is only a bee’s dick from that of the ‘Billie Jean’ bass line. It’s enough to lift proceedings to that of a solid, if workman-like performance (surely a misnomer for a character like Pink) but the rave reviews one reads of his shows makes one wonder what his band are like when they’re really hitting their mark.
Hit their mark is exactly what Les Savy Fav do on the Carpark Stage to a criminally small crowd. Front man Tim Harrington wows those in attendance with a jump of the fence and belly flop in to the adjacent Maribyrnong River; before taking a swig of the sweet, sweet sewage tinged floodwater out of his boot. Resplendent in peacock green and manboobs, Harrington and co blast through a cover of the Dead Kennedy’s ‘California Uber Alles’ before a cake is presented to Harrington on stage to mark his birthday. He responds by putting out the candles against his well proportioned chest, sharing the cake amongst band members and then taking some with him as he leaps out in to the audience.
Yeasayer complete their set with singer Chris Keating leaping in to the crowd for the finale of ‘Ambling Alp’ while back on the River Stage Deerhunter play a set of jammed out psychedelia; smoke and red lighting obscuring much of the stage during the first part of the set, which oddly draws from their earlier material and considering the short sets bands are playing at the festival, ends with a 15 minute jam which seems self indulgent in the circumstances.
Foals inevitably have the ladies dancing to their mathematical psychedelia, clearly a secret formula that makes girls dance and boys follow in their wake. Cut Copy make their much anticipated homecoming, headlining the event on the Moreland Street stage and sadly it’s a bit of an anti-climax. It looks like Cut Copy and with their relatively new austere office casual garb, the lighting and sound give them their air of a real gang. While the band have always relied on samples and sequencing, particularly new songs such as ‘Take Me Over’ and ‘Sun God’ feel like they’re exactly that – there’s little live performance. Even crowd sing/dancealongs such as ‘Hearts of Fire’ and ‘Out There On The Ice’ feel somewhat empty – a bunch of very talented musicians and songwriters jumping around on stage largely twiddling knobs supposedly triggering samples to music that sounds great but has little soul. Cut Copy’s greatest proposition live has always been when they would lay live instruments over the sequencing – they didn’t always pull it off perfectly, but the sense of abandon and risk made it an enthralling on stage proposition. Let’s hope they rediscover the live sensibilities that made them festival highlights so many times over the last five years.
– Jim Murray
