PUBLISHED February 14th, 2012 09:49 am | UPDATED March 27th, 2016 11:43 pm
After the total ‘washout’ last year (thanks rain!), the long anticipated Laneway Festival finally arrived back in Singapore last Sunday….and the weather was sublime, if you don’t mind a little daytime roasting of course.
Taking place at Fort Canning Park, it was totally gorgeous and the perfect venue. Early on, the crowd was already starting to pour in and the place just kept getting busier and busier…
The lineup this year was pretty stellar and included:
The Cults, Yuck, Chairlift, Austra, The Girls, The Drums, Anna Calvi, Twin Shadow, Laura Marling, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Toro Y Moi, Feist, The Horrors & M83.
The first band up was the Cults. Honestly, before Laneway, I’d not heard of these New Yorkers but as soon as I saw them, I had a feeling they were going to be good…Arriving on stage, they simply exuded happiness. They were full of love for their art, and their performance was energetic with a touch of chillness. A great performance to start the day.
Having bumped into them later on in the night they were totally as true artists should be and super-down-to-earth. Needless to say I’m now a true convert and have already started downloading some of their songs – do check them out.
The next few sets didn’t quite have the same effect…apart from Chairlift and The Drums who were pretty cool.. Actually I’m listing to Chairlift’s album Something as I write this review.
Below is ‘Yuck’ – The second act to step up to the stage…
And Chairlift….whose music had an 80s/90s twist to it…they sounded like a cross between Aha and the Breeders…nice stuff.
After Chairlift came Austra….an interesting band who worked their own unique style to the joy of the audience…
Laura Marling – Unfortunatly I only caught the first few songs before taking some time out but she was off to a great start. Unlike her album music which is very soothing, modern folk, she actually rocked the stage pretty hard..pretty impressive for her 21 years of age…
Below is Chaz Bundick aka Toro Y Moi – a great performer whose music had a cool 80’s synthesizer edge to it…
It was Twin Shadow who really caught my attention later on. Having a chance to meet main man George Lewis Jnr before the performance I was anticipating a good performance. If you can imagine, think of a mix of Coldplay, David Bowie & The Smiths with a funky twist…that’s the kind of sound you can expect to hear. Check out the album Forget…it’s solid…a lot of really good tracks, personal faves: Shooting Holes, At My Heels, and Tyrant Destroyed.
Now it would be impossible not to mention Feist…probably the most well-known of the bands. The lead singer just has such a sexy voice and you could tell the crowd loved her! Opening with an extended My Moon My Man (my personal favourite – from the album The Remainder) she continued on to a great set winning the crowd over with resounding approval..
However in many ways M83 was my favourite….the final act of the night.
I’ve only really discovered him recently and it was somewhat of a shame that so many people left immediately after Feist. I can only describe the performance as a sensory-electro-psychedelic-out-of-body experience!
Opening with Intro from the Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming album, the strobes and the lights went haywire as they started and their haunting voices echoed across Fort Canning…pure, unadulterated energy exuded from the guys on stage bouncing around, totally in the zone as they performed. There on, it only got even better…total euphoria. From those who stayed to the end of the night, many agreed that they were their top pick of the festival…and I’m one to agree.
After being there all day, this little, and now slightly sunburnt Nomad went home and promptly fell asleep after a well-needed shower. An awesome, albeit long day of great people and great music. I hope next year will be even better.
I must give a massive shout-out to Fiji Water before I go, aside from keeping me (and pretty much everyone else at Laneway!) hydrated and able to stand the whole day, they were also bodacious enough to sort us out our passes for the day. Much appreciated guys!