If your favorite bands [sic] there you’ll think you’ll never forget
You’ll probably get that wasted you wont [sic] remember there [sic] set
But if your [sic] a festival head then you already no [sic] the plan
Go and pack up all your shit coz [sic] your [sic] going on a trip for those summer days
- Pez feat. 360
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Every time I go to a festival I promise myself it will be the last. Then the promise of saving money by seeing multiple music performances on one day, in one venue for a heavily discounted price lures me back in. Last year I realised that by travelling to Melbourne for Laneway - one of only a handful of decent festivals left - I could rule out some of the more serious negative aspects of the experience, many of which are glorified in the Pez song/embodied by people who like the Pez song.
1) Minimise bodily discomfort by entering a (generally) less harsh summer climate.
2) Minimise social discomfort by surrounding myself in a crowd of complete strangers.
At this year’s Laneway, I really wanted to get my money’s worth and see as many bands as possible. Watching the Drums/Cults sideshow the night before resolved our main timetable clashes and we were able to visit every performance I set out to see. It was god awful hot and the line for the ATM prevented us from drinking or eating anything after 4pm, but it was an indisputably good day of tunes, which is what festivals are supposed to be all about. So it was kind of a purist festival experience for me.
DZ Deathrays always put on a good rock and roll show. Last I saw them was in a giant stadium and I respect their ability to create such a huge sound in open environments like this. Yes they are a hype band, but they do back it up. They remind me more of Death from Above 1979 than ever before, maybe because I am concentrating on their lyrics. Simon’s gift to us of tequila shots later on in the day only serves to make me love them more. I knew I would enjoy The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, so I pre-purchased their t shirt from the merch tent. They were upbeat and enthusiastic and I love Peggy Wong I love Peggy Wong I just love her. Givers were new to me, and mainly attracted our attention because watching them also meant sitting on a grassy hill, one of the only opportunities to sit down. They were sweet and fun and despite a few sound problems, delivered a nice set. I like the fact that they are so young, also that they come from Louisiana.
Pajama Club were just a fill-in but I enjoyed seeing Neil Finn on stage. Girls lived up to their reputation: green hair and fresh-cut flowers and a really not-memorable performance. Twin Shadow were a disappointment too - their sound wasn’t great and my feet really hurt at this point. A bit more of Cults (and sitting on the lawn) was enjoyable, but too intense an episode of deja vu from the previous night led us to leave after a few songs.
Feist and her three-woman a capella group were the stand-out of the day, even though I had to watch them on screen because the crowd was so huge. Their set was as awesome as their wardrobe. Caroline from Chairlift delivered an equally wonderful wardrobe choice and stage presence and gets my vote for best dressed front woman. Waiting for the man in the tree to vacate his tree branch pushed their set back fifteen minutes or so, which was probably more annoying for them than us, but still really annoying for us.
Back-to-back female spunkiness was a bit too much to handle, so we caught the beginning of The Horrors set instead. They were fairly tepid, and the absence of stage makeup/frivolities was a let down. I am very glad they played Who Can Say, but disappointed by their Strokes-esque churning out of numbers with little variation or dialogue in between songs. Ending the night in the front row of M83 was amazing. They were a strange choice given the attention to lyric, voice and acoustics that the rest of the festival’s performers emphasised, but alas, there is a techno head inside all of us.
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“Rock [music]…is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defences torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.”
- Pope Benedict XVI
