Live Review: St Jerome’s Laneway Festival
11 February 2019 | 2:57 pm
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Bryget Chrisfield
"They're so good it's kind of annoying."
Waking up on festival day and hearing the sound of rain falling with some regularity on your roof is not ideal. For starters, outfits need to be reconsidered and bags repacked to accommodate the stuffing in of an emergency poncho.
Approaching Footscray Park from the direction of St Jerome's Laneway Festival's old site at Footscray Community Arts Centre we find a park in a nearby street in a jiffy, but then have a false start after walking away from the car without taking note of the name of the street we parked in. D'oh! Backtrack and type street address into phone; better to be safe than sorry later on while wandering the streets in the dark in search of a very common car model and colour. In these windy conditions we’re also already questioning our decision to wear a hat.
At the festival entrance, a dude on a megaphone directs the festival's 16- to 18-year-old contingent to a separate entrance. This is the first year underage ragers have been granted access to this festival and although we were dreading being restricted to separate bar sections to scull drinks while watching the onstage action from afar, this is not the case and drinks can be consumed anywhere. We notice more punters actually running - usually holding hands - from stage to stage this year and reckon these excited fans are probably first-time festivalgoers, but the 16- to 18-year old attendees certainly don't cramp our style.
While wandering down the garden path toward the stages we spot a large crew sporting those $30 striped “Festival Shirts” from Cotton On in the most popular yellow-and-navy colourway and wish they'd go away. Glancing down at the Dean Turner and LNWY.CO stages, we’re super-stoked to note that there's no longer a stage we need to completely boycott due to inaccessibility at this picturesque site. So much grassy area! Footscray Park is so expansive that there's plenty of room for all and excellent visibility at all stages.
Recently named Young Australian Of the Year, Baker Boy (the unstoppable Danzal Baker) holds court on the LNWY.CO Stage, conducting the crowd's arms and rocking a shiny gold jacket that would easily be visible from the moon. With its appealing, suave, King Kunta-esque beat, Mr La Di Da Di raises a sea of bouncing arms in the front section and we pick up what he puts down: "In a world full of greed/Music everything that I need!" Baker and co's B-boy moves always up the ante, especially the dance breaks during which they get to show off their individual tricks that should definitely not be tried at home by novices. Closer Marryuna is dedicated to the late rapper JJay De Melo, who tragically drowned, and the song's didge undercurrent rouses the festival masses. The title of this track means to dance with sheer elation, which we do to each and every one of The Fresh Prince Of Arnhem Land's tunes. (We later hear an innocent bystander is spewed on - down the legs - by an overindulger in the crowd during Baker Boy's set. Come on, now! Ever heard of pacing yo'self? It's not even 3pm!)
Baker Boy
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Both pairs of stages (LNWY.CO and Dean Turner; Future Classic and Dr Martens) are positioned together - a la Big Day Out’s Orange and Blue stages of yonder year - at opposite sides of the festival site, which works brilliantly. The two sets of stages are also close enough together to be able to buzz around and catch half-sets, which wasn't humanly possible at the Community Arts Centre site. Plus there's a handy shortcut between these stages by Maribyrnong River.
The PIP (Pretty Important Person) section looks so damn fabulous that acts are bound to be sacrificed by some (not us). Mates recline by the water under pre-erected umbrellas while listening to tunes since speakers on stands are spread around the area. Colourful fringed decorations blow in the breeze and it’s an influencer’s paradise.
Over on Dr Martens Stage, Smino (pronounced Smee-no) leads the crowd in a chant of, "Fuck with me, Jeremy!", which is directed toward his sound guy since Smino claims he "can't hear shit" up there. A lot of young ladies in this section sport leggings - sometimes flared - and bras in matching fabric and Smino's pelvic gyrations are greeted by enthusiastic "woo"s. Smino's five-piece backing band supply a gorgeous, smooth undercurrent for his flow and anyone who can sneak "cunnilinguistics" into a rap gets the thumbs-up from us. Props to the backing vocalist whose concurrent parts are as seamless as her feature spots.
The Jameson activation, JJ's Place, updates set times via their Insta - props to their marketing team for that one. They also serve delicious cocktails containing Jameson Irish Whisky, cold press coffee and vanilla syrup so we're fully sold. As soon as Charlie Collins hits the stage, we're obsessed not only with her musical prowess but also her outfit: a brocade suit with black crop top underneath accessorised with Sheriff's badge on guitar strap - she's already a shoo-in for festival outfit of the day. This band rocks, silencing most in this pub within a festival. During Wish You Were Here, Collins' voice washes over us like sweet nothings whispered in our ears and shimmering guitars and jaunty drums complete the picture.
At 3.30pm the Girls Rock! Stage is the place to be and those in the know get in there early and allow time to score a patch of grass to sit on. Here Courtney Barnett appears solo, beaming up there on stage and wielding a shiny red guitar. She tunes for a bit. “This is my favourite corner of the festival now," she shares before praising Girls Rock! as an organisation: "You should support it in any way you can." Barnett opens with Avant Gardener, which is apt given that security are having some trouble stopping punters from trampling over garden beds while attempting to get a good posi. After singing, "I was never good at smoking bongs,” Barnett commends, "Oh, you know every word! That's impressive!” The poeticism of her lyrics really shines in this setting and Barnett’s guitar playing is instinctive. "It’s just like watching your mate,” a nearby punter observes. Barnett's generosity of spirit is endless. Remember when she donated her The Age Music Victoria Award winnings ($10,000) to Girls Rock!? Hearing the crowd unselfconsciously singing along with the chorus to Nameless, Faceless ("I wanna walk through the park in the dark/Men are scared that women will laugh at them/I wanna walk through the park in the dark/Women are scared that men will kill them") as confidently as they would if they wrote it themselves is a moment - Barnett is such an important voice. Barnett tells us she started writing Sunday Roast when she was just 13 and the number of young girls she inspires on the reg is emphasised while she performs on this Girls Rock! Stage.
Courtney Barnett
We hightail it across to Dean Turner Stage for Japanese-American singer-songwriter, Mitski. She paces to and fro across the width of the stage throughout the opening song's entirety before launching into more specific chorey, including some Cabaret-style moves on a chair. In her crisp white shirt, knee-length black skirt and with her hair in a low bun, Mitski looks like a school girl. But as amazing as her movement is, Mitski's performance feels detached somehow. Maybe the choreography could be simplified a tad, or restricted to certain songs, to help with audience engagement.
On Future Classic Stage, Masego’s call and responses go down a treat and, man! Live bands backing rappers who can also sing and play sax is the bomb! There’s a lotta pogoing going on in the front section during Shawty Fishin' (Blame The Net), with its complex drum pattern and clever lyricism: "Crazy for the green just like (Cee-Lo, Cee-Lo)." Masego instructs all to raise their hands in the air to make the universal heart symbol above their heads before launching into Navajo. The "I love you/I love you/I love you” sections, plus other parts borrowed from Michelle by The Beatles, add lustre to this number and then when Masego closes out with some blazing sax we're in bits. Bookmark this artist for further investigation.
It's now Methyl Ethel o'clock on the LNWY.CO Stage. Modelling a natural, beige colour palette, the Perth band open with Scream Whole, which features powerful drumming that calls to mind T Rex in a live setting (and ushered in their soon-to-be-released new album Triage as lead single). It’s nice and mellow to start, which is well played since it’s not the witching hour quite yet, and Methyl Ethel's return to a five-piece configuration delivers on every nuance. Ubu gets the masses going ("Why'd ya have to go and cut your hair/Why'd ya cut your hair") and we reckon if they'd opened with this one it would've prevented some punters from being lured elsewhere. Jake Webb is an extraordinary songwriter and Methyl Ethel are always a pleasure, although this set could've shed a few new songs considering Triage is yet to be released and festival crowds tend to lap up opportunities to show off their lyrical knowledge by 'singing the hits'.
Methyl Ethel
One organised reveller is overheard stating, "l’m gonna be on my brother's shoulders so I can be a bit further back for that one," and we're hoping she doesn't intend to stay up there for the entirety of whichever set she's on about.
Curiosity leads us to Future Classic Stage for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, whose Hoodie SZN album held the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart for two consecutive weeks this year. Well, guess what? He ain't wearin' no hoodie! His flow is riddled with vocal effects and backed by just a DJ, which sees him suffering by comparison with other hip hop artists we've witnessed today such as Baker Boy and Masego. We hope not many 16-year-olds are watching when it comes to Love Drugs And Sex ("All I want from you is drug sex"). A Festival Shirt-sporting dude up on shoulders is quickly lowered to safely as A Boogie encourages the crowd to separate and make a gap in the middle for some kind of hip hop wall of death. "Turn it up!" A Boogie demands and then it's mass pogoing for his biggest hit, the melancholic Drowning. It's not exactly shit, but A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie live doesn't deliver much more enjoyment than just listening to his inspired recorded output through quality headphones.
We grab the opportunity to take up prime real estate in front of the adjacent Dr Martens Stage for Parquet Courts and the PA loudly strikes up Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game while A Boogie is still finishing up - he must be running overtime and the contrast between Isaak's crooning and A Boogie's irate delivery could not be more stark. From the millisecond they hit the stage, these New Yorkers astound us with their virtuosity, which is always performed with maximum insouciance. Sweet Jesus! The rehearsal hours these guys must've racked up! Perfection. Co-lead vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Austin Brown's vocal tone calls to mind David Byrne during Violence. The Andrew Savage-led Almost Had To Start A Fight / In & Out Of Patience ("I want/I want/I want/I want/Not to feel numb about death”) with all those twists and turns in arrangement and time signature changes on a dime is just showing off. Parquet Courts don't even need to exchange glances or nonverbal cues. "I'm in the chaos dimension" - no, WE are! Even the way their amps of various makes are set up on stage looks stylish. Savage casually brings out the omnichord to open Before The Water Gets Too High. He wears the best shirt we’ve ever seen - multi-coloured but mainly bright yellow with swirls that call to mind Miro paintings - and Thomas Dolby-style round sunglasses perched on his nose.
Parquet Courts
Even the Parquet Courts roadies standing sidestage look smug - oh, no, wait! That's the extra percussionist they flew out all the way from Queens, New York just for one song, Wide Awake!. The opening of this song reminds us of The Rapture's House Of Jealous Lovers. Brown blows a coach's whistle that hangs around his neck and flexes his biceps in exaggerated bodybuilder fashion. When three axes are played it's as if with programmed cloned hands and fingers. Punters get involved shouting, "For-get about it!" on cue during Master Of My Craft and this track morphs straight into BorrowedTime - are they actually robots? The only banter is when Savage says something along the lines of, "Melbourne. Parquet Courts," at set's close. After the band walk off we're left standing, staring at the stage they once graced with wide eyes and mouths agape. They're so good it's kind of annoying.
Parquet Courts
But we can always rely on Barnett and co to bring the goods so return to Dean Turner Stage for the tail end of their set after queuing for an age at the PIP dunnies. Damn you, people taking forever in there snorting nose beers! London's Ministry Of Sound are onto something with their completely separate 'Powder Rooms' for the purpose.
Hearing punters as far back as the sound desk singing along with Barnett's verses as well as choruses is heartwarming. The way Small Poppies escalates until Barnett furiously screeches, "An eye for an eye for an eye for an eye for an eeeeeeeeeeeye!" at song's close - with so much more passion than on the recorded version - gets us every time. The rhythm section combo of bassist Bones Sloane and drummer Dave Mudie is testament to the number of gigs they've played together the world over; they probably have complete muscle memory of all of these songs, but yet it always sounds so vibrant. Elevator Operator gets us bopping along while singing, "Don't jump little boy, don't jump off that roof..." as if we were singing about rainbows and unicorns.
Courtney Barnett
Within the crowd we notice a lot of kids passing around and sharing tailor-made darts, which is unsurprising given they cost about $30 a deck these days. An impressive number of crowd members wave their arms from side to side in unison singing, "If you’ve got a/Spare half a million/You could knock it down/And start rebuilding," during Depreston. Barnett has really fine-tuned her singing over the years; her vocal is wonderfully husky and so true to her speaking voice. Closer Pedestrian At Best is thrashing brilliance and we'll never tire of catching Barnett live. Is she playing at the after-party?
Courtney Barnett
As we approach the Future Classic Stage, virtual red curtains draw back on the giant screen to reveal it's time for "Act II" of Denzel Curry (wit da hoodie, he must've nicked A Boogie’s to try on for size). It’s a theatrical presentation divided into three acts with arresting visuals including a close-up of Curry's clown-painted face (as it is in the CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N video). Curry's "everybody say, 'Fuck you!'" call and response goes down a treat and the tone of Act III gets darker still. We can feel the bass vibration rising up through the soles of our feet and CLOUT COBAIN | CLOUT CO13A1N is just about as harrowing as it gets. Gunshot sound effects and trap drums punctuate this Florida rapper's rapid-fire flow and it's an intense vibe.
Now it's time for the genius sonic creations of Jon Hopkins and a barrier position is secured in front of the Dr Martens Stage. He wanders out, smiles and waves before taking his position behind the console. Visuals kick off in sync with the sounds: a single green horizontal line like a flatlined heartbeat pulsing to life, which perfectly suits the title track from his stunning Singularity album. Hopkins' latest masterpiece is up for a Grammy in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category this year, but he's skipping the ceremony in favour of his Australian touring commitments - what a legend! The music Hopkins plays is transcendent and there are a lot of eyes-closed moments. At times the barrier comes in handy to clutch onto for comfort. What is it about techno that makes you wanna cry while dancing sometimes? It’s cathartic, but also confronting, like some kind of aural ayahuasca. Someone nearby yells out “amyl nitrate" a lot. No thanks, our noodles are smoked enough already thanks to the Hopkins touch. There are breaks between tracks, during which we cheer and then Hopkins smiles and waves appreciatively. He seems so humble! Some beautiful anime-style footage on the screens gives us something to gaze at while we soul search and bust moves. Towards the end of Hopkins' set, we glance around and notice that the 'dancefloor' resembles what would best be described as 'The Walking Dead Ball'.
With both the Dean Turner and Dr Martens stages wrapping up at the same time, there's a bit of pandemonium as revellers push and shove towards the single exit. Some don't stick to the paths, instead emerging from garden beds and bushes - STOP! We want this site to agree to host next year's Laneway festival, don't we!? And many scale fences to get back out onto Ballarat Road. There's also a lot of jaywalking going on and a happy chappy holding a stop sign attempting to direct traffic laughs helplessly, "It's descended into chaos!"
Once our car's been located, we hit the road and take a left turn into Hopkins Street, Footscray secretly hoping the English producer/synth wizard of the same name got a chance to pose for a souvenir selfie underneath this street sign.
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