Entertainment

Review: St Jerome’s Laneway Festival- Adelaide.

Making its return to the historical Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival showcased a diverse line up almost as hot as the scorching 37 degree heat.

Adelaide-2015CITY-SPECIFIC-LOGO3Making its return to the historical Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival showcased a diverse line up almost as hot as the scorching 37 degree heat. Emerging music talents from the world’s music hotspots as well as a strong local lineup, took the opportunity to explore the newly renovated area before gracing the stages to be met by many of their adoring fans. Admittedly, this year’s line up even had some hipsters going ‘who?” but really, this novelty only made the festival extra special.

Starting off the day’s festivities were locals Sparkspitter, who had been hand picked by Triple J Unearthed to the play at the Lion Flour stage. The very textured electronic band entertained a small but attentive crowd with an hour set which included a live rendition of Vandalis.

Next door, the Hart’s Mill stage hosted Adelaide indie darling, Jesse Davidson. He rewarded his young and rowdy crowd – who had been fervently cheering him on since the end of the Sparkspitter set – by performing 5 new tracks from his forthcoming EP. English punk five-piece Eagulls fronted the stage before ending with lead single, Possessed, while over at the Mistlestone stage Connan Mockasin’s Caramel tones was made even sweeter by Mac DeMarco’s presence on stage. Mac DeMarco was later seen loitering around the festival sight.

Another brilliant feature of the Laneway Festival was the Vitalstatistix stage where local DJs such as HVCK, 12” Phildo, and Strict Face among others, embraced the opportunity to play to an intimate crowd. Unlike the outdoor stages, this stage was in fact a indoor room decorated with flowers, a tower of old analogue televisions and several couches to recharge from the heat draining sun.

Tkay Maidza, who was a last minute addition the line up, went from strength to strength and Maidza blitzed her set with her infectious lyrics and also had a bit of help from her audience. She had water guns and sprayed them into the crowd, much to their delight.

The PIP (Pretty Important Person) bar was an exciting experience to say in the least. Essentially, this entitled those with the privilege to skip the bar line. However, those going without were by no means disadvantaged; this year’s food and bar lines were strategically spaced out meaning that queues were shorter and the distribution of food and drink items was much more efficient when compared to last year. It must be said that having access to the exclusive viewing area of the Mistlestone Stage was pretty sweet, especially from the bathroom perspective. Right next to the PIP viewing stage, there were paddlers who managed to get a good glimpse of the festival proceedings

The most energetic act of the day were The Dune Rats or better known as ‘The Dunies” to their followers. The funny guys are fine purveyors of the rattling surf rock sound, really pushing for the battered and bruised sound. This was certainly experienced by their crowd which were by far one of the rowdiest. There was plenty of crowd surfing and mad mosh times and thankfully, SA Police were on hand to supervise. There will always be that one band at the festival who are a bit edgier than the rest but, really the Dune Rats crowd was only indicative of the forthcoming events.

RatKing bought his A game to the Red Bull Music Academy Stage before Chicago rapper, Vic Mensa. Back at the Mistlestone stage Australia’s leading lady of indie rock, Courtney Barnett played songs from her brand new LP as well as a few of her classics. Australian rockers, Pond were also an alternative favourite. Mac Demarco was laid-back and full of banter. He even bought his mom on tour to keep and eye on him, ending with the Canadian singer surfing the crowd. Seekae came on when it started to trickle down with rain which really was a relief. British boys from, Jungle were busy earnin’ the love from the audience. Goddess Banks dressed in black took us on a different sort of musical journey.

There was then a sweeping silence pervading over Hart’s Mill, and FKA Twigs had captured everyone’s attention. Into her third song of the set, Twigs performed Give Up and began introducing us to her mesmerising dance moves. Sensual, sophisticated and stunning, this was the standout act of the evening and it was an absolute privilege to witness.

The night ended with a trio of equally incredible talent. Flying Lotus had amazing screen visuals and everything appeared to be in 3- D. FlyLo also gave a shout out to the people paddling and not buying a ticket. St Vincent’s Annie Clark owned the stage confidently and shredded her guitar whilst singing some of their tricky parts. Flight Facilities also closed up the festival with a few sneaky faves from their first EP

Laneway is an even better success story the second time round and even though the Port Adelaide is undergoing development upgrades and changes, this incredible festival still manages to attract the alternative crowd by the thousands. It really is a testament to the strong line up selected by the team and the location which is both spacious and cosy. This festival is something else and we hope to be back next year.

Reviewed by Jenny Nguyen

 

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