St Jerome’s Laneway Festival review and pics
Despite the current lack of summer in Sydney, the weather report on the eve of St Jerome’s Laneway festival promised blue skies and soaring temperatures. And, as we all know, sunshine + festival = plenty of flesh, short-shorts and, when it’s Laneway…. Sydney’s most beautiful people… oh what a babe fest!
Set within the concrete surrounds of the Sydney College of Arts, what Laneway lacked in grassy knolls it made up for in way of easy bee-lining between stages, allowing us to get the most out of a pretty great all-round lineup. So with so many bands to see and a fair few clashes to contend with, we thought we’d enlist a crew of In Sounders to help review them:
Laura Marling
Laura Marling was splendid as always, drawing a respectfully large crowd who were surprisingly hushed. Maybe they were in awe of her gorgeous voice, or pretty guitar playing, but either way Laura delivered a solid set of tracks from her latest album A Creature I Don’t Know, and a couple of oldies too. – Bianca
Anna Calvi
A passionate performance made complete with Anna’s shedding guitar solos and irresistibly strong vocal melodies. The audience appeared appropriately stunned by the set of the day. Well played! – Sam
Austra
One of my favourite shows of the day (apart from the searing heat at the time) Amazing voice, crazy backing singers. Kinda felt like we were being hypnotised. – Sarah C
Active Child
I’m a massive fan of Active Child but his Laneway show was uninspiring. Probably because the hipster-heavy crowd was crammed into a corner far too small for the size of the stage. That said I still have “Hanging On” stuck in my head 48 hours later. – Sam
He plays the harp live. Amazing voice. Couldn’t see much as I was right at the back. Pulled a mega crowd. – Sarah C
Pajama Club
The area in front of the stage was bare before the start as fans crammed under every possible inch of shade going. Pajama Club opened with ‘These Are Conditions’ – a perfect cruisey way to start the set with the sun at it’s hottest. Neil was warm and engaging with the crowd, as is true to form. They played a cover of Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream ’. Neil made a comment about JJJ claiming their audience didn’t know who Bowie was to which one punter screamed JJJ didn’t know who Bowie was. The oldies were united!
Neil played drums for ‘Tell Me What You Want’ which was a highlight cause I never knew he played drums, and was doubled up by Alana Skyring who played tom toms on the side. It was a fitting way for the kiwis in the crowd (me included) to celebrate Waitangi Day. – Liz
The Horrors
I remember seeing The Horrors in 2005 and being mesmerised by their eerie yet upbeat show. Seven years later, the boys with the bowl cuts and sunken eyes have matured into men, and their set while eerie was not so upbeat but atmospheric; and somewhat fitting to the concrete ex-hospital setting of the SCA. – Emma
The Drums
The Drums totally rocked the Young Turks/ Eat Your Own Ears stage. Each song had the crowd dancing and singing along to hits like ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and ‘Money’, while the sunset relieved us of the heat. It’s a pity the sound wasn’t better! - Emma
SBTRKT
Despite the delay (45 mins of technical difficulties which SBTRKT apologised for personally once he hit the stage), this show was well worth the wait. Sampha’s live soaring vocals combined with SBTRKT’s electronic wizardry capped off with a pretty amazing laser show rounded my day off on a high note. - Emma
Image: Anna Calvi
I like it (1 people like this)
