Posted by kluster on February 5, 2010
For the last few years running St Jeromes Laneway Festival organisers have proven that they know how to successfully curate an independent music festival. Thankfully 2010’s efforts allowed them to maintain their unsoiled reputation. We use the word thankfully because we all know how ugly a festival line-up fall from grace can be. Yes, Big Day Out, we are looking at you.
We managed to squeeze in quite a few bands during the course of the day and not one disappointed. The new venue provided ticket holders with more room to move - in space imparting a rather 20th-century-institutional vibe - and the fact that all stages were completely removed from one another meant that they each ended up developing a vibe of their own.
Speaking of institutions, Whitley, post beginning their set with sounds twinged with musical grandiosity, admitted there could think of no better place to play than somewhere reminiscent of an insane asylum. Over on the Clock Tower stage (Playschool imagery, anyone?) Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit were warming up with a spot of ethereal guitar-driven indie rock. ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ rounded up what proved, for us, a pleasing first-time FR experience.
Wild Beasts win Kluster’s non-existent award for Most Pleasant Surprise of The Day in The Form of a Band. Stepping out onto the stage to the sounds of an extended si-fi-esque voiceover they won over the audience with their delightfully discombobulated sound – encapsulating theatrical vocal lines, pulsating beats and windswept hair served on a bed of singer swapping, with a side of Jamaican undertones.More...
laneway festival, giveaway, florence & the machine, the xx, whitley, frightened rabbit, wild beasts, mumford & sons, daniel johnston, black lips, radioclit, eddie current suppression ring