Gig review: St Jerome's Laneway Festival
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A new Auckland music festival showed promise but has room for improvement. Reviewer Chris Schulz checks out the first New Zealand leg of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival.
St Jerome's Laneway Festival
Where: Britomart Square, Auckland
When: Monday, February 1
A big day out for indie kids. A fashion statement for music snobs. The old fogies up against the young upstarts. Or - as one wit in the crowd harshly dubbed it after the bar was closed early - "Lameway".
Call the St Jerome's Laneway Festival whatever you like, but there's no denying that having a second major summer music festival in Auckland - a scene normally dominated by the Big Day Out - is a good thing.
And while the first New Zealand leg of the Aussie import - a sell out with more than 4500 people crammed into Britomart Square - had plenty of teething problems, it also showed some promise.
The acts at Laneway were as eclectic as the blustery Auckland weather, a fact proved early on as the rowdy shenanigans of Surf City and industrial rawk of The Naked and Famous clashed wildly with the moody bleep pop of Bachelorette and the enchanting smoky-voiced meloncholy of Aussie singer Sarah Blasko.
The older acts on the bill certainly seemed to have something to prove. The Dirty 3 provided a particularly rowdy set of wizened instrumentals that put the shouty pub rawk of the Black Lips to shame, while The 3D's could have given Sonic Youth a run for their money with their electric evening set.
With two stages running side by side there were inevitable clashes, with one of the worst happening when downbeat folky superstar Daniel Johnston was drowned out by the high-energy shenanigans of Kiwi rockers Cut Off Your Hands - a fact acknowledged by Johnston's fans with audible boos.
And there were other let downs too, like the ridiculous lengths drinkers had to go to just to get a beer. After navigating the various queues for beer tickets and entry into the designated bar area, they were rewarded with a terrible view of the stages.
Sure, this may have been caused by strict Auckland City Council bylaws rather than the festival's organisers, but at one point there were more people in the drinking area than in front of the stages. To make matters worse, the bar closed at 8.30pm.
But Laneway also needs to work on its atmosphere. Food options mostly ranged from hot chips to hotdogs, with the only variation being an hour-long queue for Hungarian pizza bread. The construction site neighbouring the venue did little for the view, and the no passout rule seemed unnecessary.
And last-minute timetable clashes meant hyped rockers Hockey didn't show and were replaced by Bachelorette, while many missed hip-hop whiz kids NASA when their early evening set was moved to a later slot that was evenutally cut short by the council-imposed curfew.
But there were two key highlights that proved Laneway won't have too much to do to become a mainstay on the Auckland festival calender, both of which came from two young British acts on the bill.
The sparse, gloomy indie-pop of The xx proved to be a completely addictive and unmissable afternoon thrill, while Florence and the Machine's soaring show-closer showed just why there's so much buzz around Florence Welch's brand of soaring banshee pop.
She proved that good things do indeed come in small packages. Laneway has a bit of work to do before the same thing can be said about it. Let's hope it gets the chance to improve next year.
* What did you think of Laneway? Post your comments below.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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I agree with the comments on teething troubles but frankly couldnt care less about the details when Laneways managed to bring this quality of line up to NZ. Florence and the XX were extraordinary and rarely do we get to enjoy such talent in their prime. Id defo go next year!
Crikey...talk about a boring lineup.
More ray bans dosnt = good times
can totally understand why an australian festival would prefer to start it's first attempt outside aussie in a city that is, well actually a city sized city...sorry wellington.
Brilliant lineup, all sets were awesome, a pity about the overlaps in sets, and that sounds awful about the lines for drinks and food situation...thankfully i didn't have to experience that part of the festival.
Having been to previous laneways (in Aussie) i thought it was a good first hit out for Auckland, and unlike bigger festivals, it was a chance to see great bands quite close whilst remaining comfortable...
Let's hope it's back next year!
Lineways more like it...
XX amazing...Florence...very happy with her to.
And whoever thinks MBV aren't alternative...ummm ok...so its pop hidden under 63 layers of guitar..then i get ya....i think..
and i thought i was strange.
Good to see a new festival emerge from the growing anti-BDO movement. There isn't the huge expectation of 'good' bands to play and usual disappointment when the line up is announced.. Great concept and such fantastic bands!
Many of the bands should have played separate shows, especially in Wellington! I would have glady paid more to see Florence and The XX play on their own.
everyone has life-changing moments, right? mine was seeing florence live. i stood in my place at the front for four hours, and then wept the entire way through the set. absolutely magnificent. i'm still numb. LONG LIVE THE FLOBOTS
Ha ha! geez my Wellington jibe was a bit of a piss take, but there ya go...
Sing Song, the Manics or MBV would be great, but honestly, I'd prefer they did their own headlining shows, especially MBV, their wall of noise sound is more suited to an enclosed space, it's a shame the St James hasn't been 'repaired', having seen Sigur Ros there, MBV would be ear shatteringly good there. How about the Jesus and Mary Chain?
I'm assuming the guy wanting Lady Gaga was taking the piss! He probably meant someone like Goldfrapp, I hope.
I was so amped to hear The XX got invited, I discovered them in the last half of 2009 and LOVE them, their melancholic attitude isn't an act either.
Of course the festival is going to have it's issues in it's first years...as for the bar closing at 8:30pm..fair enough! I'm sorry, but I'm not about getting drunk or even drinking at a festival, you're there for the music, if you want to consume alcohol and be an annoying pre-pubescent lump of coal, go to the pub.
I think Wellys and Aucks would be great venues to have it, Aucks doesn't 'need' Laneway, they have BDO, I think Welly would be more attractive for me (but maybe that's cos I'm moving there) but why not both cities?!
I look forward to attempting to attend Laneway next year, here is to hoping they have some wicked bands signed!
@ xx #52
Do you know who "My Bloody Valentine" are? Or are they not alternative enough for you? Loads of people will be stoked if they came here. Surf City fully ripped off one of MBV guitar effects....But yeah, they were cool.
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I will be at the Wellington Laneways tonight and am hoping for a good night out.
The Wellington performers list is a little cut down on the Auuckland list but still should be good. Pity Chk Chk Chk couldn't organise themselves to get on the plane though.