Soak Up The Sound At Laneway Festival 2013

The 12-hours boutique festival is back with a bang! Even though the crazy heat has been the main distraction of the day, but the crowd seems less care about it, as the new venue, The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay, has turned into a huge field of music enthusiastic that are ready to kick off their weekend.

The Norwegian duo, Kings of Convenience was honored to start the festival at 12.40pm. Performed “My Ship Isn’t Pretty” which taken from their 2009 album “Declaration of Dependence”, and continued busting the crowd with their good twisted songs and live band playing “Misread”, “Boat Behind”, “Rule My World” and “I’d Rather Dance with You”, which somehow sounded much better when we saw it live. Poliça headed up after, and even though the set was sounded a little bit flat, but the Minnesota native, Channy Leaneagh’s presence somehow reminded us of Sinead O’Connor with her smooth sound and eclectic music. They performed songs from their album “Give You The Ghost” such as “Lay Your Cards Out” and “Amongster”.

Right after Polica, the Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings brought another heat for the crowd. Dylan Baldi’s high-pitched screaming turned out to be an annoying thing to hear for some. But they have performed some songs from their album Attack on Memory such as “Fall In”, “Stay Useless” and the 8 minutes track “Wasted Days” which then received a cold reception from the crowd. The so-called U.S indie super group, Divine Fits was performing after, Dan Boeckner and Britt Daniels controlled crowd’s needs of classic alternative stuff with their singles such as “My Love Is Real” and “Would That Not Be Nice”.

The festival ambiences grow bigger when Of Monsters And Men came onstage. Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, were able to electrified the crowd with a singalong and dancing sessions. Their hits, “Little Talks”, along with “King and Lionheart”, “Mountain Sound” and “Six Weeks” turned out to be a major sing-along sessions and become one of the most memorable set of the day.

The Canadian duo, Japandroids delivered a hell of a rock n roll set. During an interview, Brian and David stated that the only thing they expect from the crowd is a warm reception from the crowds, which what exactly they got during their performance. Starting the set with “Adrenaline Nightshift”, the crowd jumped and moshing like there’s no tomorrow. The crowd went nuts when “Wet Hair”, “Fire’s Highway” and “The House That Heaven Built” were played. They ended the set with a memorable drum crushing session and guitar-jumping movements.

After tired banging their head, the crowd couldn’t help but to enjoy the sound of tropical live electric sounds from Nicolas Jaar. With a mission to turn the green grass into a massive dancefloor, he managed to balance the needs of the partygoers to Kimbra’s die-hard fans, which are waiting patiently for her set at the other side of the stage. And off course, wasn’t a big surprise that the girls and the curiosity of the boys, went crazy when Kimbra showed up after Nicolas Jaar’s Balearic set. Her expressions, dance moves, thumping feet and not forget to mention, her attractive costume, gave the crowd energy to jump along to each of her songs, which taken mostly from her Vow album.

New Jersey’s Real Estate was armed with a warm indie tracks from their breakthrough album, “Days”, such as “Easy” and “Green Aisles”, as they tried to show their magic to the crowd. Although it felt flat for most of the time, which I think maybe because their songs were suited better to listen in a warm sunny day instead of a cold night. Unfortunate for Mercury Prize winner, Alt-J, turned out to be this year’s The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, as they have to face the sounding issue at the beginning of their set, worst, it was during their hits ‘Tessellate’. But luckily, they came back stronger and brought more of their unique gloomy music through “Matilda”, “Something Good”, “Breezeblocks” and “Dissolve Me”. Joe Newman managed to keep his voice steady all the way through their set, which was an improvement compared to their previous live set.

Yeasayer, one of the Laneway veterans has also managed to make us dancing with their improved set. During the years, Yeasayer has been known for their live set twist, as they tend to remix some of their instrument’s sounds. That’s why their old hits such as “2080”, “ONE”, and “Ambling Alp” sounded different than the original track. Some of the crowds thought their set was a little bit weird and thought they should’ve stayed with their original sounds, but some of their die-hard fans were able to appreciate the band’s effort, as they were able to lift their set to the next level.

Another Britton, Natasha Khan or known as Bat For Lashes were able to deliver a good, mesmerizing set for the night. Natasha showed us the definition of a good singer perfectly. She nailed the high-pitched notes in “Laura” perfectly. It gave us a goosebumps! The way she performed “Daniel” and “Pearl’s Dream” was just perfect.

And as the starts popping out the sky, its time for the four psychedelic Aussies with one Frenchman, Tame Impala delivered their expansion of consciousness through songs from Innerspeaker and Lonerism, which managed to turn The Meadow upside down. Started with “Solitude is Bliss”, continued with “Music to Walk Home By”, “Enders Toi”, and the unexpected jazzy breakdown at the middle of “Elephant”, which made the crowd went nuts straight after. They also lead the crowd into a massive sing-along sessions with “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and “Half Full Glass of Wine” as their closing song.

To top it all off, Gotye showed us his live acts capacity, playing songs from “Making Mirrors” with a solid performance, especially during his hits such as “Easy Way Out”. Well off course, before he ended the show, he managed to surprise the crowd with the appearance of Kimbra while singing “Somebody That I Used To Know”. After another couple songs, he closed the festival with a style and smiled on everyone’s face, as each genre’s listeners has received what their ears want to hear that night. So, once again, congratulation to St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival for bringing South East Asia some good taste of music, and we surely can’t wait to see more of great line-ups in 2014!