The 2015 Melbourne Laneway, now in its sixth year at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, was an embarrassment of riches. Despite Lykke Li cancelling, the crowd still had a wealth of options to choose from – with many surely choosing to watch her replacement Tkay Maidza. There were too many choices on the eating front as well, with Melbourne’s finest food trucks delivering many a delicious meal.
Sohn (aka Vienna-based English born electronic musician Christopher Taylor) and his two-piece backing band were up early at the Future Classic Stage, this year presented by the Red Bull Music Academy. Cloaked in all black, the group was seemingly impervious to the hot afternoon sun.
With the three piece all seated, it was a nice, laid back beginning to the day, with tracks played including ‘The Chase’, ‘Bloodflows’ and ‘Veto’. But halfway through the set Taylor begun encouraging the crowd to dance – it felt a little awkward given that he specialises in laid back R&B-tinged electronica, which is clearly what the crowd wanted early on.
Listen to Perfect Pussy’s Laneway set here:
Next up was Andy Bull on the Moreland Street Stage, who was arguably the most feel-good act of the day. After receiving an introduction from Festival MC Agnes De Marco, The Sydney-native cycled through Triple J favourites such as ‘Talk Too Much’, ‘Baby I Am Nobody Now’, ‘Keep On Running’, as well as his well-known cover of ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’. It was an extremely charming set, and the unpretentious Bull had punters dancing almost non-stop.
Meanwhile over at the Mistletone Stage, Perfect Pussy played a brave and demanding set of their signature hardcore, noisey punk rock. Despite only modest numbers, the crowd that was there was clearly engaged. Drummer Garrett Koloski was in nothing but short shorts, frontwoman Meredith Graves apologised to all sound people everywhere, and the band begun packing up even before the last song had properly finished – all this combined for a truly entertaining and blistering set, if slightly uncomfortable.
Angel Olsen gave some very faithful and excellent sounding renditions of her folk-rock tunes off her 2014 release Burn Your Fire for No Witness, but it wasn’t until JUNGLE came on afterwards that the Laneway crowds really flocked to the Moreland Street Stage.
The soul-tinged English seven-piece sounded like consummate professionals, and looked great too – complete with Tom McFarland in absurd head-to-toe camouflage. The band played pitch-perfect versions of songs off their 2014 self-titled debut, including ‘Accelerate’, ‘Platoon’ and ‘Lucky I Got What I Want’. ‘Busy Earnin’ of course got the biggest reaction from the crowd, complete with Chicago MC Vic Mensa coming on stage for a guest verse.
Scheduling nightmares ensued after this, with the Laneway crowd presented with a suite of excellent international options to pick from throughout the evening. Most flocked to FKA Twigs at the far away Dean Turner Stage – as such, many were relegated to standing back and viewing the screen while the English singer delivered superb sounding versions of songs off her 2014 LP.
With so many other excellent options to choose from English producer Jon Hopkins started off playing to a small crowd initially, but numbers grew exponentially as he went on. Despite releasing his breakthrough Immunity almost two years ago, he was clearly still very engaged with the music he was playing. He regularly brought his head up from his laptop to smile with the crowd, clearly pleased with the reaction he was getting.
With the sun setting and rain falling halfway through his set, it felt almost euphoric as Hopkins’ amazing visuals backed his unique brand of physical, melodic techno. It was, perhaps surprisingly to some, one of the highlights of the day. Indeed – for at least a couple of hundred in the audience, Hopkins was worthy of ‘The Boot’ – a tradition that originated at Victoria’s Golden Plains Festival where punters hold their footwear aloft to show appreciation.
Flying Lotus aka Steven Ellison closed out proceedings, with the LA producer bringing his acclaimed Layer 3 show to Footscray. Ellison stood with his music gear between two projection screens, with the crowd at the Future Classic Stage again treated to some amazing visual displays.
Flying Lotus live is a very different experience to Flying Lotus on record, though. Unlike his albums, the LA producer doesn’t give very polished live shows; if this sounds like a criticism, its not. In fact, it’s refreshing to see – particularly when a lot of electronic shows can feel too stiff and regimented.
Ellison unleashes his personality on to his crowds, and never allows anyone to get bored – most of all himself. He played versions of the lesser-known tracks from his now-extensive back catalogue, two remixes of songs from the video game Final Fantasy VII, and produced some charming, laid-back banter when his equipment cut out for around a minute right in the middle of the set.
Urging the crowd to ‘summon’ his alter-ego Captain Murphy, Ellison came out from behind his screen to rap, before going back behind the screen to conclude the set with his 2014 Kendrick Lamar-featuring ‘Never Catch Me’. While it’s always pleasing to see Laneway deliver new international acts to Australian shores, it was nice to see a few more veteran names on the bill in 2015 such as Flying Lotus.
Although the site did feel stuffy at times, there was at least a reasonable amount of shade and adequate amenities for the crowd, which meant that punters were generally good-nature and well-behaved.
Many of the main international draw cards were also inexplicably stuffed into a three-hour window, but there was at least staggered stage times, meaning you could catch a little bit everyone if you chose. Generally though, organisers proved once again why Laneway is one of the most successful festivals in the country, with a solid delivery on another excellent lineup.
Check out the full gallery from Melbourne’s Laneway here.
