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Festival Review: St Jerome's Laneway Festival - Harts Mill, Port Adelaide (07.02.14)

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It's another blistering hot day in Adelaide and again, the festival lovers were out in force despite the sun beating down on us all. This time, the St Jerome's Laneway Festival was held down in Port Adelaide for the first time, a result of a much needed venue change from the UniSA campus site in previous years. Many were apprehensive, given the distance from the city, but I think the Harts Mill site is going to be a great venue to host the festival, with some small changes.

I begin the day between Drenge and Cass McCombs, both artists I'd heard heaps about but had never seen. The latter had a great crowd early on at the Dolphin View Stage - it was great to have some killer, rhythm-heavy rock songs play out over the river. Drenge were also tearing it up on the Lion Flour Stage, drawing a smaller, yet enthusiastic crowd. The brothers were referred to as a British DZ Deathrays by someone near me in the crowd, and I can understand why (drums and guitar duo, incredibly grungy-rock etc), though Drenge have more of a bluesy feel to their music that makes them slightly different. It was during their set that I began to regret wearing thongs, the amount of dirt and dust that began getting whipped up by punters only got worse as the temperatures continued to rise.

Kirin J Callinan is always a strange joy to watch, though I've never seen him perform a festival set before. He had people on the barrier of the Harts Mill Stage throwing their heads back and forth to the heavy beats of the Embracism record that brought him to the attention of more people last year. He wasn't backed by a band today, but Callinan still managed to command the crowd as if he was performing with his comrades in a small club venue. I ventured down the other end of the site and split between Youth Lagoon and Run The Jewels, who were both enjoying enthusiastic Laneway attendees. I'd seen Killer Mike and El-P's project at Laneway last year (I think?) when I was stuck inside Fowler's Live, but they were one of the highlights of the day. They've gone from strength to strength in the meantime and fucking nailed each and every delivery I managed to see today on the Future Classic Stage. Both group and solo tracks were delivered over their set, both rappers giving big props to each other as respective performers. What bros! For a change of pace, Youth Lagoon provided some great music to chill out and grab some food to - with some bizarre production and beats having the crowd entranced. Unfortunately by this stage, the heat was beginning to get to me and I opted to find shade instead of standing out in the glare.

I managed to catch a bit of Earl Sweatshirt's set before heading back to the main stages for Vance Joy and Frightened Rabbit - I don't know if this is the impression the OFWKTA member necessarily wants to give off, but I thought he was adorable! The 19 year old has a strong Aussie fan base, clearly, bringing the hip-hop strongly after Run The Jewels kicked things off. Of course, Vance Joy's mid-afternoon set brought a huge crowd, with the opening of "Riptide" bringing people running from the other stages just to see the singer perform. I caught Frightened Rabbit making a decent dent with their indie tunes, the Scots making the ladies and gents swoon.

XXYYXX had a good following the Future Classic Stage, though I'm not sure what had made him look so shitty over everything. Ripping his laptop away from the cables on the desk, Marcel Everett looked incredibly pissed off as he left the stage, heralding Cashmere Cat's set. I missed Cashmere Cat the last time he was in town, but his set today was easily one of the highlights of Laneway for me. The Norwegian producer/DJ mixed up different genres and had everyone dancing, climbing shoulders, making out...all the normal things people in their mid-20s do when they're deliriously drunk in the height of the summer.

The Harts Mill and Lion Flour stages began to whip out their run of 'headline' acts from about 5pm, with Kurt Vile cranking some great lo-fli indie rock that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did. Showcasing his latest record, Walking on a Daze, the crowd grew steadily once people cottoned on to his recent bout of popularity on triple j - it's funny how that level of familiarity can suddenly resonate with a crowd and bring the mood up. Daughter captured the attention of many despite performing in one of the hottest periods of the day, with their gorgeously melancholy music floating over what had now become a dusty haze of a festival site.

Bringing a clear standout set for the day for me was HAIM. I wasn't keen on their Days Are Gone record when I first heard it, but now hold it very highly after months of bashing it on my iPod. The sisters easily drew the biggest crowd of the day, smashing out hit after hit. Looking effortlessly glam even though they were dressed down in ripped up shorts and tee's (except for Este, who rocked a fitted floral dress and shades), the Haim sisters represented this badass LA vibe that was perfect to spend the dwindling hours of this hot afternoon dancing too. Guys were on shoulders making love heart signs with their hands, while the girls clearly vibed on the crowd being so responsive. "My Song 5" is one of my favourites of theirs, seeing Danielle rock out during their live performance was one of the best moments Laneway produced.

CHVRCHES unfortunately didn't get a chance to play, with the heat fucking up their gear. Though every effort was made to try and rectify the situation, it was clear that a set wasn't going to go ahead and you could tell the band was absolutely gutted. Lauren's voice was shaky with emotion as she told the crowd they couldn't play, but promised to come back to Adelaide on their next tour to make it up to us, before singing "The Mother We Share" acapella, before they decided to try it out with full instrumentation. The crowd clapped along encouragingly and thankfully, CHVRCHES managed to get through the song with no troubles.

Lorde had people hanging on the fences surrounding the site, filming and trying to jump the fence. The New Zealand songstress had some delicious beats filtering out as the sun went down, though I felt her backing track was too dominating and we didn't get the full experience I've read about. "Tennis Court" and "Royals", the big two people wanted, were rolled out surprisingly early, though I will say that hearing "400 Lux" was pretty cool as it was my favourite song off Pure Heroine. She commands her stage with a intensely gothic vibe, but I still feel there's way more potential to come from Lorde - she is only 17 so I imagine there is much more to come.

I cruised between Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Jamie xx and Cloud Control for my final sets of Laneway and found myself incredibly impressed with all three. Jamie xx in particular had conjured up this awesome club vibe despite having such a large space to deal with - the smoke machine behind him clouded him so you couldn't see anything but a smartly dressed guy behind a DJ table, but he was doing some fine work. Cloud Control had a huge crowd singing along at the Lion Flour Stage, with Dream Cave and Bliss Release both getting equal places in the spotlight. "Dojo Rising" especially brought a huge response and I couldn't help thinking how fucking awesome it was that we have a band like them representing for Australian music overseas.

This year's Laneway Festival harked back to the first few festivals I remember going to; I knew many of the artists' names on the bill, but I hadn't seen many of them perform, so the day was spent discovering some brilliant new artists. The festival and its Adelaide organisers need to be commended on bringing it together for the first time down in this area of Adelaide and once certain logistical wrinkles are smoothed out, it'll probably go up in terms of general vibe and experience tenfold.


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