Laneway: anything but a lame day.

So, I experienced the Laneway Festival for the first time yesterday.  Set in the middle of Perth City, the familiar old façades of buildings adjoining the stages made for a spectacular sight. The music wasn't half bad either. I am the queen of understatement (possible oxymoron?).

After going through the most stringent security check of any festival I’ve been to (I literally had to empty my entire bag, dirty socks and all) I was finally in and sitting on the grass with friends listening to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  I wasn’t really that fussed with seeing them but it was so pleasant sitting down in the shade next to the Museum Stage drinking a cider and thinking about the day ahead...

Next up was Ana Calvi on the same stage. I had heard her when her debut album was featured on Triple J. Non-Australians, this is a nationwide government funded radio station that is constantly broadcasting and supporting amazing music from Australia and around the world.  A lot of wonderful music that doesn’t see the light of day on commercial radio is celebrated there.  Seriously cool. Ana Calvi had the beautiful, sultry voice that featured on her album and I could see her very quickly winning over the audience. You can’t really go past a beautiful woman playing guitar.The song below was a surprise stand out in her set. She has such power in her voice...it's incredible 

I met up with another friend and decided to go see a local talent Cow Parade Cow in the Speigeltent.

Let me say something first about this beautiful stage. Translated from Dutch, Speigeltent means mirror tent. It has wooden base, its walls are adorned with mirrors and stained glass and its roof is made of draped red and yellow canvas. There were many of these beautiful tents were built in Belgium  in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century however only a few still remain as travelling performance venues around the world. This particular Speigeltent was erected for the Perth Fringe Festival and Laneway. It has been travelling around Australia and I will dearly miss its presence in the city once it has gone.

I saw Meow Meow in the same venue last week so it was bizarre being in such a distinctive performance space twice and seeing comedy cabaret one week and then flipping over to the other side of the spectrum and dipping into some rocking lo-fi.  

There was an enormous queue to get into the tent as they had reached capacity however we managed to get in relatively early on in their set. The atmosphere was electric. People were dancing like crazy and the band loved it, as it seemed. Love a local band. Have a listen below if you'd like. It picks up into this awesome groove about 45 seconds in if you're an impatient sort of person. I doubt you'll regret it. They are an eclectic mix of people from other bands around Perth including Tusk but this is the best I've heard of them so far... 

After pulling ourselves away from that joyous place, we went to see one of the bands that I was genuinely excited for already: Chairlift. After moving through the chattier parts of the crowd that always manage to pop up no matter who's playing, we found a nice place on the far right. We bopped around, enthralled by Caroline Polachek’s pitch perfect voice. It sounded as good, if not better than their records. They are also cute to boot. I was pleasantly surprised and my respect for them as a band increased tenfold by the second song. The power of live music will never cease to amaze me. 

If you haven't heard of Chairlift, you've probably at least heard this song as it was shoved down everyones throats for about a year by Apple. The wounds have healed now it seems and it was definitely the highlight of the set for me.

Apporaching the meat of the whole matter, Laura Marling graced us with beautiful songs and poignant stories. Just by her stage presence, she forcibly reminded me of a young Sarah Blasko with her blonde hair and angelic face and her graceful, meek and thoughtful movements. I say forcibly because I hate comparing artists and Sarah Blasko is tethered very close to my heart...both their voices and music generally have different and distinctive styles that I thought I could draw my tenuous link without too much guilt.See how beautiful she and the surrounds are? If you can't, I'm sorry. I regret not bringing my camera SO much. 

If you haven't heard any of Laura Marling's work before, I suggest  this beauty:

Let me just say now that I have adored Feist all the way through highschool and beyond into university. I consider her new album “Metals” to be a triumphant and glorious development to her ongoing story.

That night was no exception to my opinion.

Flanked by six other musicians including three backup vocalists, she looked to be as self-assured as her band was. They were a force to be reckoned with, I tell you.  There were two violins clamped to a table and a man (forgive me, I have no idea what his name is but I’d love to know) was playing them BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. I had not seen anything like it. Amazing.

Feist stuck mostly to her new tracks, slipping some old ones in here and there that had been very obviously reworked. Mushaboom had been jazzed up and was a lot more instrumental. This is the best audio I could find...

Even admitting Undiscovered First was a risk to play at a festival as it starts off so slowly and quietly, it completely caught the audience’s admiration. The build-up on this track is phenomenal and I’m infinitely grateful that she took the risk to play it live.

She finished with one of my favourite songs I Feel it All from her record The Reminder. It included some piano antics.  I felt like I was in a dream.

(credit to Feist's Facebook page)

The final group that I saw which I’d like to mention was Neil Finn’s new collaborative effort with his wife Sharon and a few other friends, Pajama Club.  As I said in my last post, I saw Tim Finn at Southbound and was blown away with how together and brilliant he still was 30-40 years after he initially broke into the Australian music scene. His brother is the same, I am happy to say. I guess that feel for art and performance never leaves some people.

Did I mention the band did their own sound check? There Neil was just walking around joking and getting ready, completely at ease. I swear, there is no pretence to this man. I was almost brought to tears by some what some of the small gathering of people told him at this time before the performance. One young man yelled out “Neil, you’re the reason I’m a musician today” and the moment of mixed adoration and humble thanks that was shared the moment Neil acknowledged it was perfect. Although the lack of a large crowd was very obvious as they followed a packed in, crazy M83 audience, it was a warm and loving one. I’m glad he’s still rocking around and doing what he loves with the people he loves for the people who love him.

I think that is all I can write for the time being. So much happened that I could say but I seem to have a serious content control problem and I must be up and awake 4 hours from now. I seriously recommend you have a listen to the links I have posted. Who knows, you might fall in love like I once did.

LOVE x