Hadn't been to a Laneway for a few years, but was lured back by the solid line up and positive buzz about last year's, at the new venue at Footscray. Heavy rain was forecast, and we arrived beneath grey skies, expecting at any minute to be drenched, just in time for Stornoway, a bunch of Oxonians purveying bouncing, folksy, rather twee guitar-pop who'd been highly recommended by Penny, and they were good - both music and band charming and charismatic in a slightly dorky way.
Following them were Jenny and Johnny, who were nice, taking the stage in matching sunglasses (and rounded out to a four piece by a drummer and another guitarist - Jenny played bass) and selling the songs from I'm Having Fun Now in style. Unsurprisingly, the catchier, rockier numbers tended to come to the fore ("Committed", "My Pet Snakes", "Big Wave"), but they brought the other cuts out well too - and absolutely killed with the epic version of Acid Tongue's "The Last Messiah" that closed the set.
Next up (all of this was on the same stage) was Beach House, whose woodsy, sometimes clangorous dream-pop actually sounded really good in a live setting - I haven't really listened to them before, but this set made me think I should check them out more. (And the crowd was super into them.)
We were meant to be seeing Blonde Redhead next, but an on the day reschedule led to us catching Local Natives instead. They were pretty good, though I suspect that the festival setting flattened out some aspects of their sound that might have distinguished them more on record, most notably the harmonising - but they were tight, loud and anthemic, so not too bad at all.
After that, we intended to check out Yeasayer but went to the wrong stage and found ourselves at Les Savy Fav, which was just as much crazy as the last couple of times I incidentally saw them (once at an earlier laneway festival, and the other time as part of a double header with Pretty Girls Make Graves), complete with fence climb, river swim, river-water-drink-from-shoe, wriggle-into-unsuspecting-audience-member's-tee-shirt (said tee still occupied by audience member), marauding runs through centre of crowd, etc.
...and then, finally, Blonde Redhead, having picked them over Deerhunter, and unfortunately they were only so-so - solid enough, but there wasn't much engagement from the crowd, and when it was over, I had a definite 'was that it?' feeling...well, it happens sometimes.
Anyway, by that point, we weren't super excited about any of the closers (Cut Copy, Gotye, !!!), so we left and headed out in search of a cold drink, which brought us to the Footscray Hotel, quiet and patronised only by a handful of locals when we arrived, but soon (and amusingly) completely overrun by other festival-goers who'd had the same idea as us.
(w/ Meribah)
> 2005
> 2006
> 2007
