Laneway's sell-out crowd of 12,000 music fans sweltered in the heat but the festival's 34 acts kept them happy with their high-quality sets. Photo / Jason Dorday
Laneway's sell-out crowd of 12,000 music fans sweltered in the heat but the festival's 34 acts kept them happy with their high-quality sets. Photo / Jason Dorday
With better line-up, better sound and better food, the festival, now in its fifth year, feels as if it’s fully formed.
If there's a year that Laneway has come of age, mark it down as this one.
With the best and most wide-ranging line-up yet, plus improved sound quality, more food options, more shade and a smooth bar system, yesterday's annual festival felt like a fully formed celebration.
It's the fifth year the festival has been held in Auckland and the third time at Silo Park. But with a record 12,000-strong sell-out crowd, it feels as if the St Jerome's Laneway Festival might need to find a bigger site, because getting around as crowds swelled during the afternoon became a good test of punters' dodgem skills.
The sweltering heat -- with no breeze to be found -- was almost unbearable mid-afternoon as the concrete carpark acted like an oven, but the 34 acts kept hitting home runs with their high-quality sets, and fans seemed to lap up the challenge of dancing in sauna-like conditions.
Image 1 of 17: Lead singer for Royal Blood, Mike Kerr, performs at St Jerome's Laneway Festival at Silo Park in Auckland. Photo / Jason Dorday
It felt like a truly special festival day of international quality that made up for the cancellation of this year's Big Day Out, and there were plenty of smiles from the four stages as the acts clearly enjoyed themselves too.
Here are our favourite moments:
Best place to start ... was with the too-cute-for-words antics of Princess Chelsea, the local lass who swanned across the Cactus Cat stage swaying her arms, jutting her hips and hitting the keys of her xylophone while winning everyone over with the sweet sounds of her alternative magic. Or, as our online reviewer put it, it's like "watching Lena Dunham host a cutest-kitten competition".
Best temptation for hip swinging ... came from Connan Mockasin and his seven-piece band - including guest Liam Finn. Their sultry performance managed to be both fruity and seductive, with songs sped up and slowed down in such a smooth, distinctive way that you felt compelled to sway your hips along with them.
Best vocal performance proving folk stars can be festival stars too ... goes to Tiny Ruins' Hollie Fullbrook. Having spent most of 2014 touring internationally, Fullbrook's warm, husky tones sounded strong and confident as she performed a shining set. They gently pulled everyone into a dreamy reverie with songs like The Ballad of a Hanging Parcel.
Best birthday party ... was Jungle. "Happy f***** birthday, Auckland!" the enthusiastic British band yelled from the stage as they swept one of the day's biggest crowds into a mega dance party, their mid-speed, groove-laden tracks proving perfect for a bit of hands-in-the-air celebration, and Bee Gees-esque sing-alongs.
Best place to play spot-the-punks ... was all over the place. From rapper Vic Mensa's Sex Pistols tee to Iceage's thundering racket and Perfect Pussy's breakneck riot, it seems punk's getting plenty of shout-outs lately. Even electronic act Jon Hopkins played like a post-punk prankster.
Best place to get sunburned ... was with the pulverising instrumental grooves of Jakob. The Napier trio, who had a rough build-up to last year's stand-out album Sines, delivered a set of prog-metal instrumentals that invited you into their world, rather than soundtracking yours. The grinding Blind Them With Silence showed Jakob have refound their form, and it was easy to get lost in their fully formed walls of noise.
Best place to avoid sunburn ... was in the Thunderdome, Laneway's now infamous stage-within-a-silo. Sure, it's small, with only around 500 fans able to cram in there, and bigger acts later in the day can see lengthy queues forming. But with a line-up that included Danish punk act Iceage and New York rappers Ratking, there was plenty to do while you avoided that searing afternoon sun.
The "like us if you dare" award ... goes to Perfect Pussy, the band with the unGoogleable name who certainly sought attention - from their drummer wearing orange Speedos and little else, to singer Meredith Graves doing her best to destroy her vocal chords. The New York punk act faced an uphill battle against their early timeslot and constant sound problems, but in the right place and at the right time, you just know they could start a riot.
The "surely there's more than two of them" award ... goes to Royal Blood, the British rock act who looped Mike Kerr's Black Sabbath-esque riffs back through several amps to deliver the headbanging set of the afternoon. There's just two of them up but the energy of Come on Over and Little Monster saw them playing like a five-piece headlining a much bigger festival. Next time, they probably will be.
Best impression of a mumbling monster ... goes to Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands. Despite his soulful singing voice, Herring's between-song banter was hilariously unintelligible due to its growly, gasping nature. It didn't matter, though; the crowd were still captivated by the band's poetic synth-pop melodies and Herring's energetic dancing.
Best story from a band member ... has to go to Belle and Sebastian leader Stuart Murdoch. The engaging Scotsman told of how his guitar had been stolen some four months back, but by some miracle the Glasgow police got it back, and last night was the first time he'd played the guitar since. He certainly made the most of it, as did the rest of the 13-piece ensemble (including a four-piece string section), who were delighted to be playing their wonderful foot-tapping pop songs to New Zealand audiences for the first time in their 19-year career.
Best hypnotic wailing banshee act ... Well, there were two of them: First, American songstress Banks, who looked shy and sheepish at the start of her packed evening show but beguiled throughout and stepped up her confidence towards the end. She was topped by fellow Brit FKA twigs, who pranced and twirled around the main stage like a circus performer, delivering mesmerising displays during her best songs Papi Pacify and Two Weeks. That thudding bass will ring around our ears for days.
Best reason to stay till the end ... came from hip-hop wunderkid Flying Lotus, who emerged looking like a supervillain from a Spider-Man film, then proceeded to provide a supersonic musical trip that melded trap, rap and drum and bass, with a mindblowing light show displayed on white screens around him. Yes, many were fleeing from a long hot day in the sun, but those who stayed were rewarded with one of the best performances from an event full of great ones.
