Since their first visit to Jakarta in 2010, people have been screaming and begging for Tame
Impala to return. Fortunately for us, KiosPlay heard us loud and clear and invited the
psychedelic rock band from Australia to return on 29th April 2016. The long awaited comeback
concert was held at Lapangan Parkir Timur Jakarta, just big enough to accommodate every
hungry Tame Impala fans.! !
Since Tame Impala announced their show in Malaysia, everyone was on the edge of their seats
waiting to find out wether they will make their way to Jakarta or not. Soon enough, when
KiosPlay announced that they are indeed coming to Jakarta, everyone was ecstatic about the
wonderful news. ! !
We can just taste the anticipation in the air on the day of the concert. Everyone starts lining up
as early as 3 pm. Although the waiting did not go without a glitch, when it started to rain two
hours before the gate was supposed to open, everyone still got their spirits up and braved the
rain (dedication on point!). When the gate eventually opened, the venue was quickly filled by
over 5000 excited crowds waiting to see their favorite band on stage. Little did they know they’re
going to witness an explosive performance from Kevin and the gang.

Barasuara started the night on a high note! The energetic drum beats and bass line combined
with beautiful harmonies from all three vocalist, gets the crowds going. You might think having
three vocalists would be too much, but they have proven it to be just the right amount. They
managed to create a perfect blend of feminine and masculine tones, therefore creating a unique
harmony. The heart pounding drum beats also caught attention, mainly because it was done so
effortlessly like it was no big deal. Also great stagemenship by Iga, telling the crowds how he
met Kevin Parker the first time Tame Impala came to Jakarta and how six years later, he’s
opening for Tame Impala. Overall, Barasuara gave a banging performance and a great warm up
for everyone.

After Barasuara left the stage, a bunch of Tame Impala crew in white lab coats, Tame Impala
scientist as we call it, prepared the stage for the lads. Then, it was time for the Tame Impala to
finally take the stage. The crowds went nuts when they start projecting trippy ‘Tame Impala’
signature light on to the stage and every member took their place followed by Kevin Parker.
throwing friendly waves. They begin the night with a 7 minutes piece from their latest album ‘Let
It Happen’. As they got to the second chorus, confetti was shot through the air. We got the first
glimpse of how explosive the night’s going to be.

The bare footed Kevin Parker greeted the crowds saying about how good it is to finally be back
in Indonesia and how they haven’t forgotten about us, which was responded by cathartic
screams. Indeed it was a special comeback.
The night continued with them playing a great balance of songs from all albums. After releasing
‘Currents’ summer last year, Tame Impala has been broadening up their set list. Playing new
favorites like the mellow ‘ Yes, I’m Changing’, the soulful ‘ ‘Cause I’m A Man’ and the disco funk
vibe ‘ The Less I Know The Better’ they have attract new fans and kept the old ones happy.
Other than songs from their latest album, they also played us some Tame Impala classics, like
the groovy ‘Mind Mischief’, the tempo roller coaster ‘ Apocalypse Dreams’ and who can forget
the heavily effected ‘Elephant’, the little drum solo Julien did at the end was enough to get the
crowds cheering for more!

One hour passed and it’s encore. The bittersweet part of every concert. Tame Impala treated us
with two songs of their two latest albums. The first one was everyone’s favorite and another
Tame Impala classic, ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’. Kevin’s high notes, attractive bass
line and drumbeats easily made it a crowd pleaser and it’s even better live. And they finally bid
us goodbye with another favorite from ‘Current’, ‘New Person, Same Old Mistakes’. The mellow
vibe of this song and Jay’s intro made it the perfect farewell song. Kevin finally said his
goodbyes, thanking the crowds for sticking with them. With another confetti canon, Tame Impala
left the stage leaving us in awe and smile on our faces. It was definitely the comeback everyone
was hoping for and more.
Special thank you to KiosPlay for inviting Tame Impala back to Jakarta! KiosPlay next event will
be M83 on May 21st 2016.

1. Your Youtube history looked a little bit like this.

Still searching for a video of Kevin Parker telling jokes in French. Oui?

2. You have the perfect Tame Impala song for every mood

Friend: Hey mate how are you?
You: A bit gloomy mate. I feel like I only go backwards, you know?

3. You develop a certain taste of music and art.

And it involves a lot of color, and swirl. Like Cinnamon’s Roll’s swirl. Pretty much like that.

Spoiler alert: their mostly psychedelic

4. Tame Impala’s songs are your acid for which you’ll be tripping on

Whenever you listen to them, you feel like on your highest limit, and you turn up the volume so people know that you’re listening to them.

When you think about it is better than the actual acid

5. You were tempted to grow and part your hair.

Because why not!

Well, if it looks good on Kevin right?

6. You have a great collection of summer scarves.

And if you live in a tropical country, you keep wearing it eventhough it’s so hot in here.

Kevin Parker style lesson 101

7. You tried to grow a beard to feel like one of the boys
Even you look up on the internet of how to grow your beard eventhough your skin is smooth like a baby. At some case, you wish you were part of Al-Qaeda so you can own that beard-lyfe.

8. You approach live in a more romantic and poetic way
Each song is your soundtrack. You write the lyrics on a paper while you’re pondering during boring class.

You: *Look up to the sky* such bliss

9. You think of yourself as the disciple of Kevin Parker and friends

10. You take every chance to see Tame Impala concert
When KiosPlay announced the show, you literally blasted on your social media with numerous exclamation points. And you teared.

Which the concert happens to be next week, April 29th 2016 at Parkir Selatan Senayan, so all you can think about is their set list. And how to stalk them so you can have a selfie.

BEEN SAYING YES TO YOURSELF WHILE READING THIS? WELCOME TO THE CLUB!

One of our most favourite things to do in 2013 is seeing a live show! Everyone has their own version of ‘The best concerts in 2013’, so we also have it. Unlike last year’s list (we only listed ten concerts in Indonesia), this year we also listed shows in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In case you missed all of these shows, you still can catch some highlights that we had this year! Here is our “Concerts of The Year”!

10. The Cribs

What would you expect from an all out rock concert? Mosh-pits, wailing fans, blood and the undeniable alcohol would all fit in the ensemble. That it was, The Jarman brothers brought out their persona on stage during their Payola tour stop in Malaysia in a rawness that enthralled their fans, not shy of anything. Ranging from broken instruments to rowdy fan-boys barraging through barriers rummaging across the bands equipment. Everything you would list down to happen at a rock concert happened, not shy of anything. No filters to the band, making everything as real as possible to serve the ideology of the band, “We play every show like our last”. Undoubtedly ending their ‘Payola Tour’ with their highest grace, leaving an everlasting impression. With no filters, the entire experience to The Cribs Payola Tour definitely left a mark of excellence and to justify it as that, would be an understatement.

Venue : The Bee
Promoter : Upfront
Full Review : The Cribs Live in Kuala Lumpur

9. The Kooks (Road To Big Sounds Festival)

Luke (and the band) totally performed a good communicative skills to the crowd and his pampered dance. For song “Seaside”, he did an acoustic solo and followed by a crowd’s choir to the song, it was a pretty smooth move. Hugh Harris’s vocal also strongly shone and balanced the performance. The singing along’s session still much happening for the rest of the songs, especially for “How’d Ya Like That”, “Sway”, “Shine On”, and “Do You Wanna”. After performing “Do You Wanna”, the encore’s typical shout out was cheered massively, the crowd seemed still hungry since the band had not performed their hit songs from their previous albums. After shouting for a couple of times, the band returned to the stage again then played the riff of “Junk Of the Heart”. The crowd went into a jiggling-machine and bobbing their heads to the song. Without having a time to catch a breathe, the band played their hit-maker song, “Naïve”, which was the icing of the show. The Kooks totally nailed the night and they surely knew how to make it “big” for “Road To Big Sound Festival”. Despite the fact of the not so crowded, Road To Big Sound Festival has given us something what the young listeners have been waiting for a long time.

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Promoter : Dyandra Entertainment
Full Review : The Kooks, Delphic, and The Radio Dept : All In One for Jakarta!

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Lovegarage 2013)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Not try to repeat the headliner’s name, but that was our straight expression after experiencing the band’s live set. Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase had crushed the Lovegarage’s crowd into pieces. By the time Nick Zinner and Brian Chase stepped on to stage, the crowd exploded their throath and even became a huge explosive when Karen O, the super front woman, hopped in and screamed “Jakarta! – Indonesia! Yeah Yeah Yeahs!”. Karen O did the deepthroath to mic (literally), screamed, danced crazily, she did all of the craziest stage acts that a frontwoman would never do. When ‘Date With The Night’ was performed, we knew it’ll top any kind of stage acts that she did in the earlier set. it really put a cherry on top of their final act. Yeah Yeah Yeahs totally pulled the night off and shook Jakarta. Got a chance to witness Karen O’s stage act was something that worth it, since we knew the band almost made it to Jakarta on their “It’s Blitz” tour in 2010, but for some reason it didn’t happen.

Venue : EX Park
Promoter : Future 10 & Ismaya Live
Full Review : http://www.svanapaper.com/a-date-with-yeah-yeah-yeahs/

7. Mew (Guinness Arthur’s Day Jakarta)

The show was humble and down to earth. Without any trippy visual treatment on the screen, Mew put us into one of the best Saturday nights that anyone could have. Songs like ‘Special’, ‘ The Zookeeper’s Boy’, ‘Snow Brigade‘, ‘She Spider’, Am I Wry? No’, and ‘156’ had changed the venue into a karaoke party in a larger scale. For the encore, Mew had ‘Comforting Sounds’. The beautiful intro, deep meanings, and simply one of the best ballad songs from a prog-rock band to date, made the night into an epic closure. To make the moment calmer, some of the crowd (which we found out that they were Indonesian Frengers, the local fan base of Mew) blew soap-bubbles to the air, the gloomy and mellow mood quickly sprang as the songs fused in with the crowd’s emotion. The addition of confetti also gave a touch of dramatic ending. Without some trippy visuals that they used to have, they were still able to shine us out with their humble performance and a carefully-crafted setlist. It pulled everything together in an magical way. In short, Mew did beauty. It was definitely not Mew’s first time show in Indonesia, but no matter how often they’ll be here, it will always be the fans’ pleasure to welcome them back.

Venue : JIExpo Kemayoran
Promoter : Guinness ID
Full Review : Mew, One Republic, and Club 8 Dropped the Balls at GAD 2013

6. Tame Impala (Laneway Festival Singapore)

Photo by Dawn Chua c/o Chugg Entertainment

Tame Impala’s set at Singapore’s Laneway Festival 2013 was one of the most-anticipated set during the festival. At the time, Lonerism has just grabbed most of the music blog’s “album of the year” title. So that is why people were flocking at their stage, even before their set was even started. We’ve seen Tame Impala once before, but this time, they’re taking their game into the next level. They kicked the gig with “Solitude Is Bliss”, and it seems like the meadow’s green grass has elevated during the intro of the song. They played “Endors Toi”, “Elephant”, “Feels Like We’re Going Backwards”, and they closed the set with “Half Full Glass of Wine”. Even though Gotye was due to perform after them, most of the crowd had left the venue, with a joyous smile on their faces. Because Tame Impala has filled the crowd’s “Half Full Glass of Expectations”.

Venue : Garden By The Bay
Promoter : Laneway
Full Review :Soak Up The Sound At Laneway Festival 2013

5. Linkin Park

Mondays may not be a lot of people’s favourite, it’s the first day of the week and the mediocrity stains throughout the nine-to-five schedule. Yet the Monday on August 19th 2013 was a different story. There were approximately 20,000 people, of which 5000 of it travelled overseas just for this live event, waiting eagerly for the day to come. After precisely a decade for the legends to come back to the land of multi-ethnicity in South East Asia, Linkin Park exclusively came back to yet again amuse the audience. Linkin Park made their fans to sing till their lungs out as they performed their topnotch songs, such as ‘Faint’, ‘Given Up’ ,With You’, and ‘Somewhere I Belong’. Needless to say, Linkin Park live in Malaysia 2013 is among one of the best performances any band could ever deliver. The energy, the music, and the chemistry is one of those substance that can never be engineered as precisely and immaculately. Next time a Linkin Park concert comes play, even if you need to fly over to watch it, do it. The experience is worth the expense. We walked in the stadium as a fan, but walked out as a straight-up LP soldier.

Venue : Stadion Bukit Jalil
Promoter : The Wonderland +
Full Review : A Decade for an Encore: Linkin Park Live in Malaysia 2013

4. Blur (Big Sound Festival)

No one would forget what happened at Lapangan D Senayan on May 15th 2013. Especially if you’re a major fan of British music. Blur, one of the lineups for Big Sound Festival (BSF) made their fans’ surreal dreams come true. Blur jammed the nineteen songs just like it was their first time to pump the crowd, even though they have become wiser in age, they still know how to captivate these songs, sounding as great as how a legendary band should be. Witnessing Blur in Jakarta, where A-list bands don’t come too often, is another reason why you should be in for a whole lot of woe if you didn’t catch their live performance. We witnessed most of the crowd having glassy-eyed and even cried when the show ended. Knowing Blur also felt happy with the crowd has proved that Jakarta has one of the best crowd that the band have been performing to. Whether they will come back to Jakarta or not, they have dropped one hell of a good show. Let us all cross out ‘Blur’ from our ‘Artists That You Have To See Before You Die’ list.

Venue : Lapangan D Senayan
Promoter : Dyandra Entertainment
Full review : Big Sound Festival : A Surreal Dream Has Come True

3. Weezer

Photo by Agung Hartamurti / Deathrockstar.com

In November 2012, the rumour of Weezer’s show in Jakarta had been growing rapidly on the social media as Weezer posted “Jakarta!” on their facebook page. And finally, the rumour didn’t stay as a rumour, it came true!. On January 8th 2013, Weezer made their Jakarta debut. The set was pretty amazing and very captivating. With Rivers’ ability in entertaining the crowd (and his ability to speak in some Indonesian words) were getting a good credit. The concert itself was divided into two segments; The Greatest Hits and The Blue Album. When a break to the second part of the show, Karl Koch, the manager and long life buddy who have been with the band for about twenty one years put his slot of Weezer’s journey with a title “Karl’s Corner” which was the best supplement for Weezer’s avid fans of course. A great long set and the surprises put the fans into their very best moment of their life. By seeing how the band got a great feedback from the Indonesian Fans last night, we totally are sure that the band has found the second home and hoping they would be back soon for another show. As Rivers Cuomo said before he left the stage “Sampai Jumpa!”

Venue : Lapangan D Senayan
Promoters : Asia Live Entertainment, Marygops Studios, Blackrock Entertainment, and Star D Pro
Full Review : Weezer did a historical night in jakarta

2. Sigur Ros

Photo by irockumentary.com

Sigur ros have visited Singapore and Malaysia for their first time right 6 months before this Jakarta gig, and there are lots of Jakarta’s post rock aficionados who came to our neighboring countries and witness the beauty of Sigur Ros’ music. That’s the reason why this concert doesn’t drew the same attention to Jakarta’s Indie enthusiasts when the promoter and the band announced the gig date in January. But still, this is the band who is capable of producing one of the best melodies on Earth. So that’s why thousands of people came to Istora Senayan on May 10th, 2013. They opened the gig with a huge visualization and mesmerizing lighting setups. They played a setlists consists of some brand new tracks from their recent albums, Kveikur and Valtari, and some classics such as Hoppipolla, Olsen Olsen, Festival, and Saeglopur. They closed the gig with Popplagid followed with a long applause and satisfied smile from the attendance. That night, Sigur Ros have transformed Istora Senayan into a some kind of new, beautiful world that nobody’s ever dreamt of.

Venue : Istora Senayan Jakarta
Promoter : FLUX&PLAY

1. Metallica

Metallica’s show in Jakarta broke some of the records of Indonesia’s concerts. A couple of weeks before the show, people worried the terrible things that happened to the band’s show (in Jakarta) in 1993 would happen again, but thankfully it didn’t. With a very organized system from the promoters, the show, which took place at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, became one of the most successful (and also the biggest) concerts, which has been held in the last 10 years. Metallica blackened the stadium, they heated up the metal heads, and they definitely rocked the nation. Half of 20,000 festival class tickets were sold within few days after the ticket box opened. About 54,000 tickets were quoted on sale, more than half capacity of Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium. On August 25th 2013, People dressed in black, mostly wearing metal band t-shirts, were packing the venue since 2 pm. They came from all over the country to celebrate the ‘National Metal Day’ that day ames Hetfield, Kirk Hammet, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo hit the stage with a bang and all of sudden screams were exploded to the open-air. Everybody was quiet yet amused. After they played some of their songs such as ‘Fuel’, ‘Ride The Lightning’, and ‘Kill ‘Em All’. then Hetfield said “Jakarta, do you feel it?? I know you see it, I know you hear it. But DO YOU FEEL IT? Now here, I know you know every word of the song… CYANIDE!” and the crowd exploded in shouts once more. Metallica never seems aged. They still had constant power and energy since they started the concert until its finish. That was probably the reason why we choose as our Concert of The year! They make other concerts in 2013 seems not so enthusing!

Venue: Gelora Bung Karno Stadium
Promoter: Blackrock Entertainment
Full Review: Metallica Live in Jakarta : It’s National Metal Day!

Pond was formed in Perth, Australia. Ever since their formation, there have been some changes to their line up. Current members include former Tame Impala member Nick Allbrook on vocals and guitar, Tame Impala’s Jay Watson and Cam Avery on guitar and drums, respectively, Joseph Ryan on guitar, and Jamie Terry on bass.

In 2008, the first three members of Pond, Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, and Joseph Ryan stayed at Allbrook’s parents’ residence and recorded what would be the first LP for their band; Psychedelic Mango. The LP was then released in January 2009 with only 500 copies pressed, and was later re-released digitally in 2010. Psychedelic Mango was full with catchy, feel-good summer jams. It’s filled with ultra-feedbacky guitars, repetitive bass lines, and lots of weird chanting. And as the band’s first LP—despite the lack of buzz it received at the beginning—it had given them a great start line for their career. It wasn’t even a year later that they followed up with a second album, Corridors of Blissterday, which Spinning Top has described as “a frenzied effort recorded live with an eight piece band at some point (nobody seems to remember exactly when) in 2009.”

And while the band has had members of Tame Impala as their line up, Pond is most definitely not a side project. Aside from the fact that Pond was formed before Tame was, there was also the slight difference in their style of music. Pond combines not only a mix of psychedelic rock, garage rock, and funk, but also a taste of Bowie-esque glam rock into their music.

The original idea of Pond is to get anyone they want to make whatever music they wanted in a collaborative way, and boy, don’t they stick true to their concept. It shows in the way their music sounding a lot like firecrackers; bursting with fiery spirit and untamed creativity. You can hear their excitement and passion dripping in each song they write. And according to those who have had the privilege of seeing them live, Pond’s live shows are much like a punch in the face that you’ll really, really enjoy.

Their third album, Frond, was released in May 2010 and featured a heavier pop influence than previously heard from the band. But it wasn’t until their fourth album, Beard, Wives, Denim, was released in March 2012 did the band start to get a boost of real critical acclaim. Beard, Wives, Denim was made in twenty weeks, with ten people involved in the project–neither of them had gotten any sleep throughout the whole process. As the result, in the record you can hear people coughing, or woo-ing and laughing—which to us, makes the record sounds raw and somehow much more alive. The first single off the album, Fantastic Explosion of Time, is explosive, jumpy, and brilliant. NME branded it as sounding like “The Stooges playing an early Kinks raunch-rocker for a ‘Nuggets’ compilation,” and later also called the band as the “Hottest New Band in 2012.”  It was also Beard, Wives, Denim that ushered Pond to the North America market, securing them 31 shows, including 8 at South by South West.

Pond might sound like a bunch of friends who make music because they truly love it and they’re having so much fun doing what they do—which, is actually how it should be done. But passion isn’t the only thing they have; they have shown the decency to write only the amazing songs. This is why we feel like we should be keeping an eye on these guys. Judging by what they have laid out in store for us so far, it seems like Pond have both the blooming talent and the extremely fertile mind grapes. Their next album, Hobo Rocket, is set to be released earlier this August. While speaking to Tone Deaf, guitarist Jay Watson had said of the new album: “We were going to do a really nice, beautiful orchestrated album, but we figured we might as well capture the live band as we’ve been touring… So that’s what ‘Hobo Rocket’ is, the full on, manic acid rock.”

Tracklist:

1. Tame Impala – Alter Ego

2. Pure Saturday – Awan

3. Everything But The Girl – Walking to You

4. Vampire Weekend – Finger Back

5. The Strokes – 50/50

6. Serge Gainsburg – La Javanaise

7. Jens Lekman – The Cold Swedish Winter

8. The Flippers Guitar – Coffee Milk Crazy

9. Medeski Martin & Wood – Let’s Go Everywhere

10. Camera Obscura – Do It Again

11. Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al

12. Manucao – King of The Bongo Bong

How did you end up with The Vickers? Are you guys high school friends? or?

Well, it happened five years ago, Fra and Fede were schoolmates, they started to play with other guys here in Florence, then I met them and I contacted Marco to play drums. We started to play some covers by Syd Barrett, Kinks, Beatles, Blur etc… In three months we were working on our original stuff!

In 2008 you’ve been chosen by David Bash for IPO. That’s awesome. How did that happen??

David is a fantastic music lover, really cool person. One day he sent a message on our MySpace messages box (at that time MySpace was at its best): “Hi guys, you sound great, amazing songs, do you wanna come to play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool?” I remember we were incredulous, we formed the band a few mounths ago and now we’re gonna play at the Cavern Club? It was an amazing experience, we all remember those days with affection, four young people at the Beatles’ home!

When I listened to your Album Fine For Now and then listened to She’s Lost I felt something different. Fine For Now is kinda brit-pop-rock or more like garage rock and She’s Lost gives more psychedelic ambiance which is cool. Do you guys also think it’s different?

We definitely agree with you. Fine For Now was an album strongly influenced by British music, we tried to do an LP full of singles, catchy tunes, short and fast tracks, jingle jungle guitars, we still think it was a great record. She’s Lost is different; it’s a space song, a psychedelic dream made of delays and echoes with surrealistic vocals. After Fine For Now we decided to take more time to produce the songs, we experimented new sounds and we approached the songs in a different way.

For Andrea, since you wrote She’s Lost. What’s the story behind that song? what inspired you when you wrote it?

She’s Lost is inspired by a person very near to me. She uses to tell me her childhood memories. Those kind of images showed me a lost and far time that unfortunately will not return causing a deep conflict between past and present. So I wrote the song trying to describe the feelings of those tales and after we produced the track like it was a dream.

Since you guys are from Italy, how’s the music scene in there?

The scene in Italy could be more and more better. There are a lot of talented bands suffering the difficult of Italian music situation. We should need people who believe in music like promoters, labels, journalists..Someone is trying but is not enough. At the moment the good and real music is not on TV, radio, there are no important summer music festivals in Italy, and this is horrible.

What do you want to show to the music listeners when they listen to your song for the first time?

We write and play music cause is our passion and we’ll do it for the rest of our life. We hope that people enjoy our songs and we hope that our music makes they feel good! This is the role of The Vickers!

You can get their ‘She’s Lost’ single on bandcamp for €2 EUR  or you can buy their limited edition 7” vinyl here. You won’t regret it. I promise.

Their first debut, ‘Shelter Song’, is an experimental song which turns into a genius work with an amazing influence of west coast pop. You’ll hear this kaleidoscopic effect on their songs which is a result of the vintage equipments that they used to the songs. As we quote from Guardian on Temples’ Shelter Song “The singer gets the vocals just right, sounding appropriately intoxicated, dazed and suffused with surreal daydreams, with his invocations to “take me away to the twilight zone”. Temples have performed with bands like Mystery Jets, Stealing Sheep, and Moon Duo in Leeds. The newbies of Heavenly Recording which is a label for TOY, really good at things that they do, their experimental work with sounds or effects doesn’t lose a sight of their songs, we are pretty much sure Temples need to get the recognitizion (they deserve).

Temples have this infectious melodies which will linger on your mind once you listen to their music,  If you are a die-hard fans of psychedelic music, you’ll have this higher expectation for the original psychedelic tunes on their music, but Temples are a fabulous new band that will give you a nonstop hallucinogenic experience.

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!

There are few things people do at January 26th this year, for people around East Asia they went for St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, but for Australian, not only the day they celebrate their Australia day but also the time for Hottest 100 day!

What’s about this Hottest 100? This is an annual music poll conducted by one of the biggest radio station in Australia, Triple J, in which to determine their favourite song of the year by votes two weeks prior to Australia Day and will be played on the weekend of the big day. The radio itself  has recently released their compilation double – CD featuring selection of songs from the countdown. From Joy Division to Nirvana, Powderfinger to Foo Fighters, The Cure to Crystal Castles, there are lots of good music and bands being chosen on the list, which proved that Ozzie have some taste in music, and believe me, if it counted inside the list, it must’ve been a good music to listened to.

So, this year we took part at this annual vote, lots of bands we wanted to win, but nevertheless with the result Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have lived up to everyone’s expectations as this super independent hip hop crowned on the top of the list, with their hit Thrift Shop.

It wasn’t surprising when we knew that Number 2 on the list was six-pieces Keflavik’s band Of Monsters and Men, with Little Talks, their single which taken from their debut studio album, My Head Is an Animal. As we saw them yesterday at Laneway, we couldn’t doubt more that they deserve that position.

Followed on the third place, was this Cambridge young indie rock quartet form  ∆ (alt-J) with their Breezeblocks which taken from their debut album, An Awesome Wave. With the catchy, eclectic sound no wonder, beside receiving gold in the UK, they also won UK Mercury Prize this year.

And the list goes on to Flume with Holdin On, Mumford & Sons with I Will Wait, Major Lazer feat. Amber Coffman with Get Free, Tame Impala with Elephant, Frank Ocean with Lost, and another Tame Impala‘s song Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, and The Rubens with My Gun.

Check out all the complete list on Triple J’ website or listen to their spotify list.