COLLAPSE BOARD

St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Brisbane 04.02.11

I went to St. Jerome’s Laneway in Brisbane on Friday.

“Really? I was there, I didn’t see you there…”

I was very disappointed.

“Why?”

Well, for one it was about 35 degrees…

“That’s not the festival’s fault”

… and the sound was terrible everywhere. Except perhaps the Alexandria Street Stage.

“Hrm, I might concede you that.”

I got there in time for Stornoway, turns out they’re from Oxford. I didn’t mind them.

“Yeah, they have a fiddle player. Everyone loves a fiddle player.”

I don’t actually give a fuck about fiddle players, but I did enjoy what little I saw. They played to only a handful of people who were daring enough to risk skin cancer.

“Did you see Local Natives?”

Yes, and despite being fond of ‘Gorilla Manor’, I didn’t particularly enjoy what I saw of their set.

“C’mon, the harmonies, man! The harmonies!”

Yeah, but this is shit I can listen to in my car. I want to see rock, man. I want to see intensity. That’s why I bailed on Local Natives and went and caught the end of Violent Soho. They played ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend’ and ‘Muscle Junkie’ back to back. Then at the end, front man James Tidswell threw his Telecaster off the side of the stage. Now, that, as The Jam would say, is entertainment. I went back and saw the end of Local Natives and they tried to get the crowd to clap along to ‘Sun Hands’ with this weak-arse hand clap. I think their singer might have Lobstein syndrome.

“Harsh. Warpaint were good though.”

From a heterosexual male point of view, they were very good… and easy to look at.

“That’s typical. I thought they were the best sounding band at the Carpark stage all day. I mean, that bass was incredible.”

Yeah, I enjoyed them, enough to stick around. ‘Undertow’ is quite an interesting song, though typical of this contemporary dream pop revival. Didn’t you think Beach House were a bit flat? They didn’t play ‘Lover Of Mine’.

“Victoria Legrande must have melted under that Stevie Nicks style white jacket.”

I think she did, actually. I liked them enough to stand and watch, but like a few other bands that played at the festival, Beach House should have been on later. Anyway, I sat around and listened to Two Door Cinema Club. What a shit name for a band. I was pretty far away, and just heard the constant bash of the hi-hats. They played what seemed to me to be a 40-minute disco song.

“Ariel Pink was disappointing.”

I disagree. I thought he was awesome. Many people have said that it was terrible and that he didn’t play ‘Round And Round’ and not enough from Before Today, but I’m not sure what they expected. I mean, have they listened to any of Pink’s eight other albums? They’re all almost indecipherable bedroom jam sessions. Sure he acted all crazy and started way too late, but at least it wasn’t something that you could have easily just sat at home and listened to on an iPod. It  was a talking point, opinion was divided, conflict was achieved. And for those reasons, I appreciated his set. Also, he wore a snake as a prop. Kudos, Ariel, kudos. And I loved his bass player.

“Did you see much else”

I was pretty exhausted by then. I stuck around and watched Deerhunter, who I thought were really something special. Better than The Zoo show I saw a few years back. ‘Nothing Ever Happened’ is such an epic tune, it makes the hairs rise on your forearms. The newer stuff also gives them a bit more of a mass appeal. I whizzed past Foals and Yeasayer, both which I’m not really that interested in, saw a bit of what was a great Holy Fuck set, and finished the day catching The Jezabels.

“That woman can sing.”

Well, you wouldn’t know it from this set. Despite standing next to an obviously aurally impaired sound guy, her vocals were turned way down… or were simply not carrying the eight of so metres to my eardrums. I dunno, it probably was the stage dynamics. Still, very frustrating.

“What did you do then”

I wasn’t arsed seeing Cut Copy, so I went home.

“Well, I had fun even if you didn’t. I guess that’s the thing about music.”

You’re an idiot.

[Photographs to follow in a couple of days, hopefully - Ed]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 8:50 am. It is filed under Brisbane, Live Reviews and tagged with Ariel Pink, Beach House, Brisbane, Cut Copy, Darragh Murray, Deerhunter, Foal, Holy Fuck, Laneway Festival, Local Natives, Stornoway, The Jezabels, Two Door Cinema Club, Violent Soho, Warpaint, Yeasayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.