Laneway Fever

Written by Christine Leow


Last February 2010, we were given an earful of what was to come when Chugg Entertainment flew in Florence & The Machine, The XX and Echo & the Bunnymen, and boy were they thrilled with the fantastic responses the bands garnered.

So thrilled were they that they heard our cries for more and gave us what has now become one of Australia and New Zealand’s most well regarded annual boutique festival since it started seven years ago in Melbourne – The St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival.

As all Indie followers would have known by now, slated to perform during the Festival’s Asian debut was a dazzling line-up boasting the likes of Beach House, Deerhunter, Foals, Ladyhawke, Warpaint, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Holy F***, Yeasayer and The Temper Trap.

When Saturday dawned sullen and sodden, we all knew that it wasn’t going to be all fun in the sun from the first downpour and unreliable grey skies early in the morning, but as Danny Rogers, co-founder of the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival put it, “We can’t control the weather, but we can control the music, and the music prevailed!”

What ensued then, from two in the afternoon on the 29th of January, was a staggering mélange of unbridled musical talent and an all-out, head-on battle between Music Vs Weather.

In the Media Tent, the bands were laid-back and unfazed, a sheepish smile here and an unpretentious laugh there, it was unbelievable the way that they took to the stage and plunged immediately into their element.

Warpaint kicked off the day, the hot all-girl band rocking the stage to the screams of eager Laneway souls and setting the electrifying atmosphere for hours on. And in between the urgent, bassy synth beats of Ladyhawke’s “My Delirium”, the unmistakable trills and electronic howls of Brian Borcherdt of Holy F*** on the synthesizer and the breathy crooning of Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, it poured.

The rest of the festival saw flocks of music-lovers scrambling under umbrellas and pulling over ponchos, slip-sliding all over the place while grooving to the sounds of !!! (Chk Chk Chk). The downpour, the people, the music all seemed to reach a sizzling point and frontman, Nic Offer himself, felt compelled to dive into the crowd, rain and all, to join in.

And the best part?

Nine hours after it all began, no one really cared about the rain anymore. Squelching around bare-footed in the inch-thick mud even felt good while screaming to the lyrics of “Science Of Fear” by The Temper Trap, the driving monsoonal rains intensifying with the surging rhythms. And it all climaxed as the festival ended with a collective gasp of awe as the blinding stage-lights pierced and lit up the torrential night sky to the final notes of “Sweet Disposition”.

All this may merely be prelude to more.

Fans will be thrilled to know that there are talks of expanding Laneway in Singapore, staging it over two nights in 2012 since its other shows back in Australia bring in a whopping 38 acts in contrast to the 9 that performed here.

There is, after all, no reason not to.

If all the ponchos and happy belly flopping in the mud even up till the end said anything, it’s that Laneway 2011 was an absolute hit with the growing Indie music scene in Singapore.