My return to laneway-ing last year at the current Footscray site, following a break after the first three (2005, 2006, 2007), made me think that the organisers had got it right with set-up and facilities, making for an enjoyable festival experience even though the music itself tended towards being merely good rather than in any way exciting. Anyhow, this year was another noticeably smooth operation and the music was overall a notch better, so a definite score.
Looking at the lineup beforehand was another reminder of how out of touch I am these days. It's been a long time since I had any idea what was going on in the pop charts or any real contact with the mainstream of triple j's playlist; it's really the pitchfork/internet music-writing stream that would be most relevant for laneway, but my travels only cross that particular stream from time to time. Still, the absence of any obvious monstrously huge acts was a drawcard in itself, and there was enough there to make me think it was worth a go.
We arrived reasonably early - C wanted to see Husky, who were on at 12 - but I lost a while to needing to organise some work stuff on the phone, so while I heard some of Geoffrey O'Connor (of Crayon Fields fame) from a distance (it sounded good), the first set I caught properly was one of the ones I was most keen on, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They were great - listening to Belong at home, it was always obvious that these were songs - anthems - that were made to be played live, and loud, and the band rocked convincingly, with the more subtle elements of the songs preserved too; also given a run were several from their first lp which were equally good in the early afternoon sunshine.
After that, saw a bit of a band called Austra that the booklet compared to Kate Bush and Bat For Lashes - didn't make much of an impression. Abandoned them for Neil Finn's Pajama Club - pleasant but also largely passed me by (though their cover of "Moonage Daydream" was good).
We'd intended to see Laura Marling, but changed our mind and went to see a band called Girls instead - turned out to be a great call. On yesterday's evidence, they're kind of a jangly guitar-rock/power pop band with maybe a few jagged edges, drawing on past greats (Big Star came to mind; also, at times, the cleaner end of the Replacements' repertoire) but contemporary-sounding. A good find.
After that, some r&r on the grass (I'm getting old, and it was a hot day) with Twin Shadow in the background. Then over to see Cults, about whom I was probably most excited, having listened lots to that album of theirs over the last few months. They put in a good set, and only having one album to draw on, played all of their good songs - it would've been better indoors, I suspect...although the late afternoon-ness and river/faux-tropical backdrop fitted their Spector-y vibes, the singer's voice wasn't the strongest and while they were deliberately mixing up the dynamics so that the choruses would hit harder (which worked), it meant the other bits got a bit lost at times. Still, it was fun to see them.
Then, a bit of Feist, who I would've wanted to see anyway (Metals is still getting plenty of spins) but particularly after everyone said how great her Palais show earlier in the week was - she was good, and willing to mix things up a bit from the recorded versions. And after that, over to Chairlift, of whom I didn't actually expect great things, but they delivered a good set. I didn't know most of what they played - it was nearly all new stuff, off a just released (seven days ago) second lp - but it sounded good, poppy and fun.
M83 closed it out - I haven't really listened to them before, but their widescreen shoegazey electro-rockisms were a perfect festival closer.
(w/ C and Rob - ran into Dale B, Julian H and Leana)
