St. Jerome's Laneway Festival 2012

St. Jerome's Laneway Festival 2012

January 30th: Silo Park, Auckland City

For the third time in as many years, the St Jerome's Laneway Festival returned to Auckland and celebrated the city's Anniversary Day in style.
Silo Park was a new venue for the festival, following 2010 at Britomart and 2011 at Aotea Square. With 22 acts performing across three stages, food stalls and a small market, the location seemed ideal for this kind of show.

In fairness, there did seem to be a couple of teething problems with the new location. In an attempt to reduce queues when buying beer, only special tokens could be used to purchase the alcohol. The queue's to buy tokens were insanely long with many missing out on band's they wanted to see play. Hopefully some sort of pre-pay system can be implemented for the event next year. The only other gripe would be the hot carpark tarseal in front of the two main stages, especially as there didn't seem to be too many places to sit.

However, now that the few negatives are out of the way, all in all the festival was a huge success and the event just got better and better as the day went on. There was a fantastic vibe and didn't seem to be any problems from the 6,500 odd people who attended.  Let's take a look at some of the highlights from the day.

Opossom: Opossom had the unenviable task of opening the festival. Never the most ideal time as the majority of the crowd is yet to arrive and many that are there are exploring the venue or buying a drink. Opossom consists of Bic Runga and ex-Mint Chicks Kody Nielson and Michael Logie. Runga starts the set behind the drums and quickly displays she has skills with the sticks. A very interesting a catchy band, one to keep an eye out for in the future.

EMA: Hailing from South Dakota, it's not hard to see why EMA won The Guardian's 'New Band Of The Year' award. Frontwoman Erika M. Anderson asked the crowd "Is anyone here from Gore?" Apparently she use to live there. A very experimental band with lots of different instruments.  One song in particular had one of the loudest bass parts I've ever heard during a live performance! Just pure power.

Austra: The haunting electronic act from Canada, Austra had a stage presence that grabbed you from the start. They have almost world feel in parts, helped by the hypnotising backing dancers / singers twins Sari and Romy Lightman.

Cults: It took a little while for Manhattan band Cults to sort out some sound issues, but once that was behind them Cults were away and fans satisfied. The duo, consisting of Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin, tour with a full band when playing live which helps showcase their form of retro indie pop.

Girls: Girls took to the stage 20 minutes later than expected. While they were setting up stage TV3's John Campbell, who was there with his family, was heard saying "Girls gets played a lot in our household". With perfectly positioned flowers on the mic stand, and keyboard player Dan Eisenberg looking relaxed while using his amplifier as a seat, the crowd were well rewarded for their patience.

Laura Marling: This was folk singer Laura Marling's first visit to New Zealand. During her set she remarked to the crowd how hot it was and wondered why she was wearing a jumper (to which there was lots of cries of "Take it off!"). Marling had a fantastic backing band with her, playing a variety of instruments including the banjo, cello and double bass. Although Marling's vocals could have been up a bit more in the sound mix, her performance was superb and her set worked well in the late afternoon slot.

The Pajama Club: The Pajama Club is the baby of Neil and wife Sharon Finn. Some solid grooves and interesting harmonies featured within the set. There was a slightly awkward moment when a Te Awamutu native (Finn's home town) was invited on stage to dance. Following the song Finn commented she had no idea what to do when she got up there and had to hide. Finn said she gave him the finger, but it all seemed to be in fun and jest.

Feist: Canadian Feist was arguably the biggest name on the bill yesterday. A huge crowd turned out for her as she played a variety of songs from her first three albums. Sound problems plagued her performance a little early in the set, but the crowd loved it all with Feist leaving them wanting more.

M83: When M83 hit the stage it was like the party had started. You couldn't help but bop along to beats from the French act. Their catchy indietronica beats had the whole audience paying attention to every move they made. The crowd was arguably at its peak by this point. With a mix of electronic beats, synths and live instruments, M83 offered a fair bit to everyone.

Gotye:  Gotye closed the show for Laneway and was the perfect fit for that role. Standing up to play a specially designed drum kit, electronic drum pads and a variety of other percussion styled toys at his disposal, it seems very hard to pigeonhole Gotye into one specific style. He manages to through elements of rock, indie and funk together with ease. Backed by a very tight band, Gotye entertained the crowd and finished Laneway with bang.

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Tagged as : St. Jerome's Laneway | Bic Runga | Kody Nielson | Michael Logie | EMA | Erika M. Anderson | Austra | Sari Lightman | Romy Lightman | Cults | Brian Oblivion | Madeline Follin | Girls | Dan Eisenberg | Laura Marling | The Pajama Club | Neil Finn | Sharon Finn | Feist | M83 | Gotye | concert review | Opossom |