Live Review: St Jerome's Laneway Festival

It’s 2017 and St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival is back with another great line-up. The Brisbane crowd swarms around the front gates from the very get-go, thousands of people eagerly awaiting a full day of live performances from both old and up-and-coming favourite artists.

If first impressions are anything to go by, triple j Unearthed winners Confidence Man are here to stay. They open the Never Let It Rest stage with some seriously hypnotic beats from both drums and synth, getting the impressive swarm of early comers moving and grooving from the very first second. It’s infectious, it’s contagious, and there’s not a still body in sight as vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones dance their way across the stage and into our hearts. Despite their huge success in their first six months, they haven’t released a lot of content to the public, but that doesn’t stop everyone dancing like they know every single word. They finish off their hard-to-top performance with debut single Boyfriend (Repeat), and if it seemed like the crowd was already pumped up, the revitalised passion for this song ripples through everyone like a wave, and the mass disperses after the set, still dancing and shaking away.

Before we can even make our way to the Future Classic stage, we can hear the unmistakable sounds of jazz hip hop collective Koi Child already well under way. We could be mistaken, but did they just cover Prodigy’s Omen? The seven-member group expertly weave their words through their spine-tingling musical creations, their three-piece horn section never faltering. If it weren’t for a few die-hards in the back never missing a word, we’d assume that we were listening to a bunch of close friends jamming and experimenting, and it truly makes for an unforgettable experience.

The next group we wander over to already has a considerable fan base squishing together to get a spot, and have a reputation for themselves as a ‘safe space’ at shows and festivals. Melbourne trio Camp Cope have for some time been spearheading campaigns to stamp out harassment and sexual assault at gigs, and you can tell immediately from the atmosphere that it is appreciated and everyone here simply LOVES this band, not only for their phenomenal songwriting and performances, but for everything they give back to their audience. Although a little slow to watch compared with the first two artists, they emanate a sense of comfort and care, and the passion with which frontwoman Georgia Maq sings is humbling.

Over at the Spinning Top stage, we manage to catch the last half of Fremantle solo artist Nicholas Allbrook, who, while we were away falling in love again with Camp Cope, has teamed up with Koi Child’s horn section. Together, they’re a hypnotic, crazy good psychedelic trip. Lots of things are said about Allbrook — genius, crazy — and watching him perform, you’d almost believe them. His stage presence is reminiscent of the late (great) David Bowie, and it’s all we can do to just stand back and watch in awe.

After such an exhilarating set and an exhausting morning chasing some incredible acts (it’s only 1.30pm, can you believe?), we settle down for some lunch on a grassy patch not too far away. Totally absorbed, we barely notice the small crowd gathering for Canadian punk-rockers White Lung. Is this really everyone? Their set starts with an explosion of passion, and the crowd (dedicated though they may be) is criminally small. The band hardly seems to notice, however, performing with the energy and enthusiasm of someone who’s playing to a sold-out amphitheatre. They burn through number after number furiously, and honestly, are probably one of our favourite acts so far.

After lunch, we head back over to the main stages and this time check out what’s happening on the Good Better Best stage, and we’re greeted with even more ridiculous talent. St Jerome’s Laneway Festival has pulled out all the stops this year to provide us with not only the very best line-up of artists, but also an incredibly inclusive one. The amount of girl power is amazing: for example, every time Melbourne artist Tash Sultana graces us with her presence on stage (and we mean every time), she absolutely blows us away. She is phenomenal, building her songs piece after piece as she uses loop pedals; playing guitar, beatboxing, singing, all coming together to sound just as good (if not better) than if she had a whole outfit of other musicians joining her — at one point she even whips out a pan flute, and her act just gets even better.

Continuing the path of something extraordinary is Castlemaine soloist D.D Dumbo. He’s joined today with a backing band with a whole range of instruments to fill out his set with as much magic as he can muster — and he certainly delivers. Oliver Hugh Perry, the man behind D.D Dumbo, is an absolute god on his guitar, and switches it up every now and then to play any of the assortment of instruments he has set up around him. At one point, in between songs, he even stops and fiddles around with the wind chimes set up in front him, joking, "Thanks, windchimesaustralia.com," before picking up his guitar once more to play another amazing song. The whole thing is just an invigorating and fresh take on the disco scene.

To get anywhere close to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, you have to first push your way through thousands of fans that follow this band like a cult — at one point we nearly had to wrestle someone for our coveted spot on the barricade. It’s a testament to how hard these men have worked over the years, to have garnered such a powerful, widespread following, which has only skyrocketed following the release of Nonagon Infinity. They rip straight into their set with the ferocity of a dragon taking flight, and the mass of people surges forward with such force that people are literally having to choose between being crushed or being pulled out over the barricade and away from the band. It’s hard to hear which songs they announce next before the screaming fans overwhelm every other noise, nearly drowning out the band themselves. One highlight is Rattlesnake, which saw shoes and water bottles and other miscellaneous items soaring through the air to come crashing down onto the stage, somehow miraculously missing all seven members as if by God’s own will.

At first glance, Sydney band Gang Of Youths aren’t something that catches immediate attention, at least for this writer, and so seeing them perform live is actually a very new experience. Here at Laneway, that early indifference has been grabbed roughly by the roots and torn unforgivingly out of the ground, and replaced with a healthy respect for what these five men have set out and achieved in their four years as a band. At first, their stage presence is the most captivating aspect, but as we watch and listen, the lyrics are what speak the most (no pun intended). It’s an emotionally fuelled journey through marriage, divorce, mental illness and even physical illness and, honestly, how is everyone not bawling their eyes out?

If there’s anyone suited to playing a festival to thousands of rowdy adults (most of them obviously off their faces on one substance or another by this point in the afternoon), it’s local Brissy boys Dune Rats. By the time we make our way over to their stage, they’re well under way, and the throng of people surrounding the entry into the tents prevents us from getting anywhere close, so we take a seat just outside and try our best to enjoy what we can. It leaves us thinking that if you were truly to enjoy this band, you’d be best doing so at home with a bunch of mates drinking some beers, instead of surrounded by a crowd of drunk idiots trying their best to re-enact their film clip for hit single Bullshit.

Four-piece English indie-rock band Glass Animals are the next act we manage to push our way close enough to enjoy and, after the tumult of Dune Rats, their crowd is perfectly angelic. Hell, the band themselves are perfectly angelic, with frontman Dave Bayley singing with heavenly weight. While their set was beautiful and enjoyable, after a long day and so many bands, it's hard not to fade away, and it's hard to fully immerse in the experience. A band like Glass Animals would, in this opinion, be properly enjoyed earlier in the day, before the heat of the late Queensland sun had taken its toll on many unfortunate souls (such as this one).

As if in answer to unspoken prayers, we’ve wandered back over to the Spinning Top stage to rest up before Tame Impala and find ourselves sitting on the pavement a short way back from English electronica musician Floating Points. There’s a small crowd of people gathered listening intently, and it’s the perfect chance to sit back on the now-cool tiles under the stars and moon and just chill out. We’re so tired from the day — we’re so completely mesmerised by the slow, hypnotic beats — that his entire set is over before we know it and the crowd is already mostly departed by the time we realise it’s time to head back to the main stage.

When we get there, both the main stages are completely packed out and there are hundreds of people milling about the entry to the tents, watching intently as Tame Impala performs for one of the last times before their indefinite hiatus. As we get closer, we can hear the last of hit song The Less I Know The Better, and the light rain that has settled in finds itself a playground for the sun-baked bodies dancing through it.

It’s a magical way to end the night as we find ourselves dancing as well — with ourselves, with strangers, with other friends we’ve bumped into over the day and friends we’ve made along the way. Again, we’re so absorbed in the rain and the music and ourselves that when the confetti cannons go off, it’s only as if the rain has suddenly turned to strips of ribbon, and soon we’re all covered in glitter and light. It’s at this moment that it becomes obvious: the best thing about Laneway isn’t necessarily about who plays, but the sheer experience of it all.