By James Murray
:: Laneway Festival
:: Aotea Square, Auckland
:: January 31, 2011
The Laneway festival is an anti-possum, a new word I have just made up to describe an Australian import that we don’t want to troop around in the night exterminating.
Its indie, Melbourne vibe fits in nicely with Auckland and Wellington’s cool, alternative kids. It’s about skinny jeans with turn-ups, thoughtful but still fun pop music, doing things on a small scale, and fancying men who look like Jarvis Cocker rather than Matt Le Blanc.
Aotea Square is a small, but perfect venue for a summer festival. The grass was a pleasure to sit on, its benches made natural stands for shorter people to see the stage, the toilet and drink queues from last year had disappeared and the coupon system for drinks worked smoothly.
There were a few bands here that I had not heard of before I did my research for the festival. It’s the mark of a well curated festival that two of those bands are now new favourites.
More on them later.
The day started with An Emerald City, on paper I should love this band. On their album they sound beautiful. It’s great music to lie around and do nothing to. It never quite works live for me though, the songs are a little long and the mixing always drowns out their higher pitched instruments which play such an important part in their sound.
The mixing and sound at Laneway was pretty good, which helped things, but I still found myself losing interest.
Children’s Hour brought an older, head-nodding crowd. I saw such luminaries as the music journalist Graham Reid enjoying their set, so I think the boys did good. They remind me of a heavy Echo and the Bunnymen, with a little nod to early grunge acts.
Lawrence Arabia lead singer James Milne took to the stage looking like a man who was about to audition for ratty in a stage version of the Wind In The Willows. His red pinstripes complimented what must be the music industry’s neatest moustache beautifully.
Milne’s 2009 album Chant Darling was a runaway success, and hits like ‘Apple Pie Bed’ were a great fit with the sunny, early Laneway mood nicely. He was a charming man too, wittily suggesting that the Black Eyed Peas were replacing !!!, who missed the festival due to a delayed flight, on the bill.
Canadian synth-pop band Holy F**k played a tight set and provided a good change of pace. It was just the right time to get people dancing.
All good so far, but nothing really stood out until Ariel’s Pink Haunted Graffiti took to the stage.
This band are eclectic to say the least. Lead singer Ariel Pink is part of the ‘freak folk’ scene, which sounds interesting. Their album is a nostalgic, acoustic journey through pop and folk music and divides the crowd when play it live. Ariel is an unusual frontman and sums this up himself quite well:
“People boo me everywhere...They don't even hide their contempt. I'm used to it now...Hey, I'm giving audiences the real thing...For better or worse, I'm out there, and those are the circumstances. People don't like it when it seems like you don't know what's happening, or I'm getting bummed out with certain aspects and I can't hide it. I think people feel that pain and just think it's bad.”
Some people fled at the sight of Ariel, an Andy Pandy in red, scuttle round, howling into the microphone, a floppy, exciting mess. I loved every minute though. They are a band with real character and put on a good show that made me laugh and dance. They are shambolic and then suddenly melodic, they know how to use discordant sound, how to frustrate and then please. Hit song ‘Round and Round’ was an instant festival classic.
Blonde Redhead were quite the opposite - slick and beautiful but somehow lacking in excitement. I may find myself in a minority here though as I know several people who loved their set.
Warpaint, who probably came to the festival with the most hype, suffered similarly. They make beautiful noises but didn’t do anything on stage to hold my attention. They didn’t make me want to move, or involve me emotionally with their songs.
Ladyhawke cured the malaise. I am not a big fan of her music, but she got most people at Laneway dancing. Including one woman near me, who flung off her shoes to reveal heelless leggings. Shudder.
Ladyhawke is another charming performer, with a smile that wins you over. She is awkward and cute at the same time. Her big songs are great, sort of like Lady Gaga drinking a cup of tea. She is reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde, she should write some more challenging lyrics and get a bit more angry – then she would have the complete package.
Deerhunter was the band I was personally most looking forward to. Their album is full of subtle songs with interesting chord changes and it mixes a bluesy sounds with noise-rock. However, the noise-rock takes too much precedence when live, and the beautiful harmonies underneath become a bit too hard to pick out. They weren’t bad at Laneway… far from it. They are a really great live band. I just had extremely high hopes that weren’t quite met.
For me though – Laneway saved the best till its last three acts. Yeasayer, Beach House and Foals.
Yeasayer are so much fun. They’re a sort of multicultural madness that could only come out of New York. They even have a bass player who is rocking the guido look.
I would not be surprised if they were many people’s favourite act.
There were two equal high points of this festival. The first was Beach House playing ‘Zebra’. This is what I said about the moment at the time:
“’Zebra’ by Beach House is the festival high point, hands down. Swaying and swaying. Aoetea Square is not a city centre right now.”
It was a moment of clarity, and harmony, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage.
Next was pretty much the entire Foals set. These guys should go down as a legendary live act. I can take or leave their albums for the most part, but when they play live their idiosyncratic bouncy sound is addictive. I didn’t want them to stop playing, despite being tired and ready for my bed.
All in all, everyone I have spoken to about the festival agree it was a great, great day. There was only 5000 punters compared to the Big Day Out’s 60,000 plus, but it was an absolute pleasure to go to, rather than a nightmare to endure.
I hope Laneway doesn’t become a victim of its own success.
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