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 Photo: Justin Edwards
Laneway arrives not as a sweaty sizzle fest but as the kind of rainy day that festival dreams are made of. Sporting humid hairdos and cheap raincoats, mellow festival-goers stroll in for a day of sulphur lights and musical hopscotch across the four stages at the RNA Showgrounds’ Alexandria Street.
Triple J darlings Cub Scouts are the right dose of sunny goodness to strip away the haze of the day, opening The Zoo/Big Sound Stage. Frontman Tim Nelson’s gentle vocals layer precisely against soft male harmonies as early-goers gather round to dance. Songs about girls who are into cadavers sound gorgeous and delicate against a fistful of wispy drums.
Though he’s on first at the Car Park Stage, Geoffrey O’Connor’s show is one of the day’s best. With Wayfarers on and looking like a lanky if oddly sexy geography teacher, O’Connor is flanked by a pair of lovely keyboard players, and delivers a suave set of synth pop. The vibe is a little bit Addicted To Love, so it’s really no surprise when a cover of this song comes out.
Having long disposed of the Danimals moniker, affable Sydneysider Jonti Twirligig-s away in front of a small but appreciative audience gathered at Eat Your Own Young/Young Turks Stage, pressing buttons and moving faders like a pro. It’s all great fun, however the most hands-down amusing moment arrives when he grabs a uke and strums out a joyously daft ditty about Saturday night, grinning goofily all along (alas, there is no Skrillex drop/Rickroll this time).
New Yorkers The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart play fuzzed-out noise pop with a melodic sting in the tail, and make a joyful racket at the Car Park. As the early ’90s come back, it’s very much the vogue for young bands to graft buzzing guitars onto danceable beats, but these guys do it with panache and their songs of hurt and heartbreak strike just the right tone.
Silver letters spelling LONER nudge EMA (Erika M. Anderson)’s jugulars. Before her are a small crowd at The Zoo Stage who’d readily contradict the necklace: behind her… who cares? She saunters through her set in round sunglasses, a walnut Gibson draped lazily on her frame as she opens with the haunting Marked, slides into the feedback fuzz of Milkman and tears a ‘LONER’-shaped hole in the ether with the stunning, stark California.
With his neck craned sideways and the skinny forearms of a ’90s child, Yuck’s lead singer Daniel Blumberg draws in a mass of aficionados to the contagious energy explosion that is their set opener, Holing Out. Hypnotising fuzz-ball ballads like Milkshake get punters bobbing happily along, while the chamber-drenched guitars in The Wall surge over the crowd with enough emotive charge to warm up unsure onlookers late to the EYOE party.
Meanwhile, Melbourne garage-punkers Total Control are, well, in total control of the livestock shed gloriously christened the Inner Sanctum for last year’s event, now shackled with the unwieldy name The Zoo/Big Sound Stage. As befits the true-blue racketmakers (core member Mikey Young’s other band being Eddy Current Suppression Ring), the five-piece are hell noisy and buzzy, sending reverberating guitar clangour, distorted synth blasts and Henge Beat bouncing off the concrete walls and the tin roof.
Meanwhile Austra’s Katie Stelmanis has jetlag, which probably aids the dreamlike quality of their set. Stelmanis is swathed in gold and black and flanked by dancing twins whose outfits evoke both Cocteau and Thompson; behind them are the drums, bass and synth that float around, twist towards and pulse underneath that (don’t mention Kate Bush!) voice. Oh, and right now the sound at the EYOE stage is awesome.
Shane Parsons from DZ Deathrays soundchecks his mic with the sort of command that gets dudes gravitating en masse towards The Zoo Stage. Quickly losing any semblance of moral behaviour, the crowd swings energetically to the anarchic mood of Cops/Capacity while security plucks the bad seeds off and away one by one. Vocals gain controlled strobe-like contours, and blood spills in the mosh as per usual.
Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost album is beautiful for its understated genius, frontman Christopher Owens captivating with his Elvis Costello-in-afternoon-sun crooning and lyrical honesty. Unfortunately, something is lost in translation between studio and stage: the cavernous EYOE space is rocking for the perfect pop of Honey Bunny, but the intimacy of Saying I Love You and Alex just feel awkward and lacklustre, which is a shame, really.
Meanwhile, a rainy day like this is actually the ideal setting for Laura Marling’s spooky brand of folk, and she puts on a fine show at the Car Park Stage. She plays mostly older songs, and while it’s always great to hear the likes of Ghosts and Rambling Man, it’s clear we’ll have to wait for her next round of solo shows to hear a more daring set.
If anything, Active Child – or Pat Grossi – is proof that ginger-haired former choirboys have a lot of soul (here’s some redemption for Mick Hucknall), the ensuing 45 minutes of M83-like melancholic dream-pop being resolutely blissful on The Zoo Stage. Seemingly sans any effort, the American prodigy keeps the crowd mesmerised with his angelic tenor and dextrous harp work, the Hottest 100 entry Hanging On receiving the loudest round of applause.
 Photo: Justin Edwards The substantial rumours about dreamy outfit Cults being shocking live performers is not unfounded: though there is plenty of xylophone and bouncy synth magic happening behind frontwoman Madeline Follin’s awkward falsettos, it’s hard to block her out entirely. Still, the hype seems to have immunised the crowd’s eardrums as boys and girls sway desperately to anthems Never Heal Myself and duet Bumper – the set’s highlight at The Zoo Stage.
Getting electrocuted by your microphone isn’t the best start to your show, but Feist puts on a brave face at the Car Park Stage. Front-and-centre with an electric guitar, she plays a set that draws mostly on Metals, and though it takes a while for the new stuff to click with the crowd, by the time she gets to A Commotion, everybody is won over.
Over in the adjacent building, New Yorkers Twin Shadow prove to be one of the festival’s surprise packages as they induce an ’80s new wave-flavoured daydream at EYOE. Bemused by Brisbane humidity but nonetheless rocking a double-denim outfit, the smooth-voiced George Lewis Jr. takes his Rickenbacker for a walk on the majestic Castles In The Snow and sings his heart out on the propulsive Slow. A comprehensive triumph.
Though the festival looms close to its crash and burn apex [punters, it’s only weather – Live Ed.], Toro Y Moi peels the crowd off the walls of The Zoo Stage with its much danceable song-punchbowl that is last year’s release, Underneath The Pine. The fusion of classical and elevator music with dance pop proves pretty genius.
 Photo: Justin Edwards His music has been called ‘post-dubstep’, and SBTRKT is certainly pulling something dubstep-esque from the live drums and synth setup manned by himself and Sampha, both disguised behind his trademark stylised African masks at EYOE. The set initially flows beautifully, with smartly dealt tribalism, R&B and electronica inciting the dance floor, then momentum dips with the spartan Something Goes Right, but by the time Pharoahs and Wildfire are released no one cares for genres anymore.
Technical difficulties at the Car Park Stage delay M83’s arrival for close to an hour, but the bulk of the audience stick around nevertheless. Ongoing sound problems mean that the shortened, seven-song set isn't quite up there with the band’s best, but they attack songs like Teen Angst, Midnight City and closing number Couleurs with all they have, and what could have been a disaster becomes a stirring show.
Despite the delay to M83’s start, the stage management and sound this year are laudable – on most, but unfortunately not all of the stages. Still, it’s proof that sound doesn’t have to always be shit at festivals. As a satiated sea of punters ebbs towards Alexandria Street, it’s clear that weatherproof Laneway has been pulled off with aplomb, like so many ankle boots will be later in the evening.
ALASDAIR DUNCAN, DENIS SEMCHENKO, ALICE REZENDE & JANEWORLD
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