It sucked it sucked it sucked it sucked. Though I'm sure your Laneways will be fine.

a tip though, If you aren't planning on seeing Ariel Pink I feel sorry for you and if you are planning on seeing Yeasayer I feel sorry for you.

 

It was mostly ruined for me because of Deerhunter having all of the problems.

 

here is my very informal review that i did for tumblr.

 

 

I was in the front row for the first 4 bands. cooooool. Ariel Pink were first. They were great. He was wearing a “christmas fairy costume”. Which is what you would expect from him…anyway, they played the best songs from the new album. Synths/harmonies were very similar to the way they sound recorded. Cool live band. Round & Round is the best song ever.

 

Beach House? They were pretty good. They were really nice. I felt like the drummer wasn’t doing much to their sound though, when they already had the synth drums.

 

Blonde Redhead? haha. They were such rockstars. It was awesome. Kinda sounded like a more sophisticated Metric. lol.

 

DEERHUNTER. One of my favourite bands. Great…but not great. Bradford was setting up in front of me!!!! except he looked very tired and was getting frustrated with the sound guy. This is where it all started going down. They soundchecked for 20-30 minutes, having a lot of problems. Then they finally started. Hoorah! It was a song I’ve never heard before, but I’m confident it was just a noise jam…

 

Now, ‘noise jam’. Deerhunter are great at controlling noise. But it was just too fucking loud. I couldn’t hear anything other than BCROE:IFME”REKGP”C>?RFTP”B>:RR and the rhythm section. Ugh. then Desire Lines! Lockett!!! But, I couldn’t hear anything. Seriously, you know the chord sequence? I couldn’t even fucking hear that. It was just noise. THEN, A really really really loud buzzing noise came from the left speaker, which just happened to be the speaker I was near (left ear is still ringing…) and Bradford just got really pissed off. They stopped playing. They were talking to eachother and bradford looked like he wanted to leave the stage. But the crowd were really great. They were cheering and shouting “BRAAADFOOOORRD!” so he said “I’m really sorry guys…lets play it again”. Then they must have played the punkiest version of Desire Lines…sound still fucked up though. Next was some other song I don’t remember. But it too had terrible sound. And guess what, near the end, THE BASS AMP STOPPED WORKING! woo! after a few minutes trying to get it to work, Bradford played a rather beautiful version of Sailing. I liked this. I could actually hear what was going on!

 

bradford talked to us!

 

“This is definitely the most fucked up show I’ve ever done…It’d be okay if it was in someones living room but…this is a nice place though. Does the governor live here or something?” lol.

 

Next was Memory Boy? I enjoyed it as much as I could. Still really couldn’t hear it though :( Then they played Nothing Ever Happened and Helicopter. My two favourite Deerhunter songs. ugh. I’m glad they played them but it was upsetting to SEE them playing riffs that i knew, but only hearing noise.Arghhhhh then came the worst part. Bradford started playing the riff for He Would Have Laughed but they had run out of time. The rest of the band had to stop bradford :( This got a pretty big reaction from the crowd. But they couldn’t play any more. “We didn’t make the cut…”

 

kind of upset, I went upstairs to see Ladyhawke. Who was really fucking terrible. I was expecting atleast boring indie music? Instead I got boring, loud 80’s Bon Jovi-ish rock music. It was awful.

 

THEN it was Yeasayer, who were also pretty terrible. Imagine Animal Collective but really dancy/poppy/mainstream/whatever. Booooring. left after 2-3 songs.

 

that’s the end of that. Really upsetting. Not worth the $90…

 

 

Sorry to hear that Eddie, that would've been really disappointing for you :(

 

I'm seeing Yeasayer, but only because I too want a good spot for Foals... I didn't last time I saw them and nearly died as a result :P

Also disappointed now that I'm not going to see Blonde Redhead! Sounds like they'd be a lot of fun. Still psyched!

Yeah Blonde Redhead were really really great.

I might go to Groovin in the Moo. The lineup isnt that bad and there are enough bands that I would like to go and see. Now I just need $100...

Hope you can make it, Bryce!

I think my sister's going to go to it as well.

 

In other news, LANEWAY. TODAY.

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

:awesome:

So the lineup (in alphabetical order):

 

AC Slater

Architecture In Helsinki

Art Vs Science

The Aston Shuffle

Birds of Tokyo

Bliss n Eso

Cut Copy SEEN

Darwin Deez YES

Datarock

Drapht

The Drums HELL YES

The Go! Team (UK)

Gotye

Gyroscope

The Holidays SEEN

Horrorshow,

House Of Pain

The Jezabels*

Nina Las Vegas (triple j)

Sampology (AV/ DJ Set),

Tim & Jean

UNKLE Live

Washington

The Wombats FUCK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

With more local and triple j unearthed artists to be announced.

 

It's funny, because it's almost the same as the Parklife lineup from last year, with Darwin Deez, cut Copy, The Wombats , Washington and The Dandy Warhols. Wouldn't mind seeing The Wombats and Deez if they do sideshows.

 

Wombats sideshows and drums sideshows methinks.

 

Sad to hear the white stripes officially split. At least they leave some sort of a legacy.

 

LANEWAY TOMORROW! SO EXCITED

 

I'm working full time atm so I'm on the forum less sorry!

Haha, it happens, eventually you get a life and have less time to waste on the internet :P

 

HAVE FUN TOMORROW!

 

Today was AMAZING, enjoyed every single act I saw. I'll report back tomorrow (hopefully) in a little more detail!

Ah, Laneway yesterday was truly a fun day out. We'd had about 100ml of rain the night before, and somehow the rain completely avoided melbourne and the festival went ahead yesterday afternoon (the weather was a far cry from the 38 degrees it was last year).

 

BUCHANAN were the local Triple J Unearthed band, decent music, nothing surprising. I missed them play songs I was familiar with, so I was disappointed about that.

 

THE HOLIDAYS really impress me every time I see them live. The songs are transformed live and you really get dancing to the extensive percussion from each track. They certainly brightened up what was a muggy day.

 

STORNOWAY exceeded my expectations. Their songs sounded more upbeat played live than on the album, and they put on a great show to a surprisingly larger-than-expected crowd for a band a lot of people don't know about. Really delivered.

 

CLOUD CONTROL were the first MASSIVE crowd of the day. This is my fourth time seeing them live, and I am getting the feeling that they're arrogant now. Their set was a but lackluster, they don't seem to be putting in like they used to when they had to get crowds, which was a bit sad. Half the crowd still lapped it up, the other half realised it was poor.

 

BEACH HOUSE were, to put it straight, boring. I'm not a fan. We just had a gap in our timetable so we checked it out, to get a great spot for two door. It was nice background music while we chatted amongst ourselves.

 

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB were always going to be my highlight of the day. Their set was delayed because the freight with their gear was still on it's way. 20mins later and the crowd was going mental to their indie disco-rock tunes. Biggest mosh of the day and craziest audience. Seeing them at their sideshow on Wed, very excited for that. These guys are putting on one of the most energetic live shows going around at the moment.

 

YEASAYER were playing while we had dinner, and I had never been a fan initially but I quite liked a couple of their tunes. Might have to check them out further.

 

FOALS were all class. They played the most detailed and well-delivered performances of the night, and got a huge crowd rocking and jumping along to new tunes as well as some of the favourites from their debut. Oh, how Spanish Sahara and Cassius WENT OFF!

 

CUT COPY were great closers for the night. All my other friends went off to watch Gotye and I was having none of that. I squeezed my way from the middle to the front, and was so glad I did. I was really excited to hear some of the new songs live, and we got 'Take Me Over', 'Pharaohs & Pyramids', 'Corner of the Sky', and yes, they played the 15-min epic tune 'Sun God'. All the singles from In Ghost Colours Were played and were moshed extensively hard to. The fact about Cut Copy closing just meant there was a massive dance party putting the icing on the cake that was Laneway 2011. Great stuff.

Damn alex you missed all the good bands

Damn alex you missed all the good bands

 

Not my taste, sadly.

haha

Good review, Alex

 

My day was somewhat similar, minus the rain... it was REALLY hot (I'm not exactly sure of the temperature) and extremely humid which made for a hot and sticky but nevertheless awesome day.

 

First band I was was Inland Sea, the triple J unearthed winners. I'd never heard of them before, but they have 10 members and were really good, I intend on having a look at some of their recordings. Next I saw Stornoway (whilst seated under the shade of a rather nice tree), who I agree were brilliant and very well received.

 

Next up were Local Natives, who blew me away with a high-energy set that I wasn't really expecting. Great live band. During this set I squeezed my way up to the front and managed to get a very good spot for Beach House.

 

I can understand why some people might find them boring, but being a huge fan of the album I really enjoyed their set, even though there was minimal crowd interaction. Plus the singer said some really weird things, which was amusing.

 

Next were Two Door Cinema Club, also my expected highlight of the day. They didn't disappoint, and I'd LOVE to see them one day at one of their own shows - they've only done festival slots up my way so far. For some reason the drummer looked like he was blown away at the response they were getting (not really sure why because they must get the same everywhere), but I thought it was great. He was laughing and shaking his head in disbelief at fans singing along to every word of every song (totally not like me...) They also had more time than they'd originally though so played us a new song that they'd written a couple of weeks ago ("Handshake") which was nice.

 

Yeasayer were next, and while I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their hit singles (the only Yeasayer songs I know) I wasn't particularly blown away by any of the other songs.

Foals were next, and AMAZING. I was at barrier by this point (still hadn't moved from the pit) and was right in front of Yannis, perfect spot. Apart from Yannis jumping onto a speaker and then falling after he jumped off the performance was flawless, energetic and all-round incredible. It was great to be able to see songs played from one of my favourite albums of the year without being completely crushed, haha. I'd also LOVE to see these guys in a show of their own one day. We also loved them because they were the only band to actually throw water over the crowd (security weren't even providing water despite the extremely hot conditions).

 

After Foals, much to my disappointment, a huge majority of the crowd just cleared out. Had I wanted to, I could have left my spot for a few minutes and gotten it back no troubles.

There were a few technical difficulties at the start but Cut Copy put on a great show and I thought the new songs translated really well live, but it was very disappointing to see such a lack of general crowd support (besides one girl behind me who was drugged off her face and kept screaming at the band). It showed that the band were disappointed too, but of course "Lights & Music" and "Hearts on Fire" were huge highs during the set nevertheless.

 

So after being in the same spot for about 7 hours, I was completely exhausted but it was really well worth it. It was such a unique festival and the vibe that came with it was probably the best of any festival (besides Splendour) that I've been to.

Looking forward to next year's already!

ok i'll read your reviews when im a bit more awake. but heres mine

 

The Holidays - very very impressive. i shall be getting the album and listening ASAP

 

Violent Soho- they stuck out like a sore thumb on the line up but in their own words "they didnt give a fuck" it was probably the most "fun" set of the day with the band encouraging the crowd to hurl beer cans at them.

 

Jenny and Johnny - was going to see local natives but one of my friends liked these guys so i saw this instead. i thought they were ok at best. the sound was horrendous and at times ear bleeding and it was very much a case of heard-it-all-before type music.

 

Beach House - we got a great spot for this long but my fears of them not living up to their quality on cd were instantly apparent. victorias singing sounded terrible and it was all over the place but then i realised her mic was malfunctioning and OMG victoria lost her shit! she was screaming at everyone and everything until it got fixed. she regained her composure and delivered one helluva performance. her stage presence was incredible and vocals bang on.

 

Two Door Cinema Club - things got seriously intense once beach house walked. there was sudden crush towards the barrier and people really started packing into that confined space. by the time they hit the stage it was completely packed and we were all squished in. the most amazing thing about their set was how each and every song got a huge reaction and moshing stretched from about the 5th row almost to the back of the area. i'm not sure if i have greater respect for their music after seeing them but if theyre ever at a festival i go to, i will be certain to see them.

 

Ariel Pink - only caught about 20mins of this set. dont have much to say about it except that the bass player was great.

 

Foals- WOW WOW WOW! WHAT AN AMAZING BAND. FREKEN AWESOME FROM BEGINNING TO END. NOT LONG ENOUGH. SHOULD'VE HEADLINED. SHOULD'VE PLAYED FOR 2 HOURS.

 

Cut Copy - almost ruined my day. they fuckers turned up 25mins late! i had always intended on leaving around 9-45 to escape the rush to leave. so i thought as i walk out i'll catch the last few moments of their set. but nooooo. the dickheads rock up at 9-20 which meant i hardly caught any of it. and they drew by far the smallest crowd on the main stage after the first 2 acts of the day. i was being crushed during foals despite being to the side and a fair way back. but cut copy it was spread out and barely half full with dozens of people leaving between.

 

oh yeah it was freeeezzzzziiingg. when we got there it was quite hot but by around 4pm things turned and it was suddenly cold, windy and rainy and remained that way for the rest of the day and night. and one final comment about Foals. they are probably one of the best bands i have ever had the pleasure of seeing. truly spectacular stuff!

Sounds like you all had a great time!

Foals- WOW WOW WOW! WHAT AN AMAZING BAND. FREKEN AWESOME FROM BEGINNING TO END. NOT LONG ENOUGH. SHOULD'VE HEADLINED. SHOULD'VE PLAYED FOR 2 HOURS.

 

Haha, THIS

i think i might make Laneway an annual thing. regardless of the quality of the line up. the food was ridiculously overpriced and the weather horrendously cold but i loved the atmosphere. i loved it how songs other than the radio friendly singles got great reactions. it was great spending the day with people to whom music is more than something they just listen to on the way to work. it felt like i was surrounded by thousands of people just like me and that was a wonderful feeling!

Ariel Pink - only caught about 20mins of this set. dont have much to say about it except that the bass player was great.

hahahahahahaha

Was ariel wearing a dress? I hope so.

hahahahahahaha

Was ariel wearing a dress? I hope so.

 

i was too far away and not wearing my glasses so i couldnt exactly tell. but it did look a little weird very pink and even more 80s inspired.

 

funnily enough even though Foals was my fave show of the day i had the worst view for it. to escape the cold and wind i hid next to the mixing desk/tent and ended up watching it through about 10 heads. but i still had a huge smile on my face the entire time. :D

i was too far away and not wearing my glasses so i couldnt exactly tell. but it did look a little weird very pink and even more 80s inspired.

 

haha. This is what he wore at my little laneways.

 

 

found a pic from yesterday.

 

 

 

that is so boring how dare he wear normal clothes

haha. This is what he wore at my little laneways.

 

 

LOLWHAT

Cut Copy got best new music on Pitchfork with an 8.6

they can get BNM 10 times over but they have lost my respect. i was considering buying the album physically but now i am more than happy to stick with my illegally downloaded copy.

Why is it they have lost your respect? For turning up late?

For turning up late (very late, relatively speaking) and not apologising then putting on a mediocre show.