ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL

Saturday, February 11, 2012
Perth Cultural Centre

While there were no bone fide superstars or big name drawcards on the line-up (organisers surely blew that card with Florence + The Machine, Mumford & Sons and The XX in 2010), an afternoon of consistently fine sets from moderately known local and international artists helped this year’s local incarnation of the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival to be one of the most enjoyable yet.
For some unfathomable reason, organisers put some of the better bands on early in the day, yet although it would seem an injustice to have Yuck playing the first set of the day, the bright weather did suit their indie pop smarts. The front row of the band may be petit but drummer Jonny Rogoff has the best afro outside of hip-hop, and with chiming guitar and a solid if-unspectacular-rhythm section they are a far from timid experience. Top class songwriting that harks back to early Teenage Fanclub with a hint of Sonic Youth makes up for the fact they are not the best musicians in the world, but are exactly the type that inspire people to run home and form their own bands (for better or for worse). Songs like Get Away and The Wall made this a cracking and standout set.
As a relatively new outfit that success found before they went hunting for it, Cults had the task of bringing their delicious bedroom recordings to life in the festival setting. Any apprehensions about whether or not the Brooklyn-based duo could turn their amiable recordings into a successful live set were hastily put to rest, as they exuberantly bought a slew of their much-loved sugar-powdered pop tunes, Go Outside and You Know What I Mean, to life. The charming duo has pulled a full band into the equation with the only criteria for admission appearing to be the cultivation of a mass of long black hair. Vocalist Madeline Follin clung to her dress like a security blanket as she shimmied from side to side when delivering the ‘60s-tinged melodies. It was up to her partner-in-rhyme Brian Oblivion to lead the band, taking on the role of musical director whether behind keyboard or guitar. Cults excelled at cutsie pop with handclaps and glockenspiel thrown in for good measure.
Chairlift were another that had the task of putting their bedroom chic into the live setting and the expanded line up served them well. Frontwoman Caroline Polachek stood not much taller than her keyboard and although having to bail out of a semi-windmill rock move, was a more than competent front person. There were plenty of bands pushing a similar genre to Chairlift and although they may not have stood up to some of the heavyweights, a large following through their appearance on an iPod ad and stellar new single Amanaemonesia had a sizeable crowd singing and dancing along.
Local Path To Laneway winners Cow Parade Cow almost proved they deserved their mid-afternoon billing – their songs are so catchy and, even beneath their more experimental contours, the band sticks close to the Kinks-via-Wes-Anderson guitar-pop it does best – however shaky girl-boy vocals and a few stretches of almost unlistenable harmonising caused their set to fall rather flat. Disappointing.
By embracing immediacy and toning down the navel-gazing, ‘80s-indebted hipster George Lewis Jr (aka Twin Shadow) pulled off a neat trick during his live performance as he trotted out summery, new wave numbers from his much-hyped 2010 debut Forget with a harder, rockier tinge. It was much less ambitious than his recorded work, but more impactful, with songs like Castles In The Snow and Forget coming across throbbing yet elegiac.
The nu-folk of British Songsters Laura Marling drew the crowd in to the more sizeable Museum Stage area. With three albums to her name in almost as many years, the wee blonde lass with the large voice charmed her way through a set that was never going to be long enough. Known mostly as a solo troubadour, Marling gave her songs full arrangements with a band that had double bass and keys into the mix. Radio staples were prevalent with highlights being I Speak Because I Can and Sophia the latter announcing Marling as quite the talent.
Former member of the Children Of God cult Christopher Owens was sporting a bob with ugly green regrowth and a soccer strip when he fronted his melody heavy quintet Girls. Honey Bunny was a hit of pure sugar from a band that delivered a ripping set from the first chord. Owens’ collection of Rickenbackers ensured that clean guitar sounds were present around meandering riffs as the Californians gave us chunks of last year’s Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Girls also delved into their debut for rousing renditions of foot stompers Laura and Lust For Life to deliver clever pop from start to finish.
Some bands are not your usual configuration, yet just have a way of making things work. The notion of a choir boy with harp backed with electronica support may not be the road most travelled, but Active Child aren’t average in any sense of the word. With his long face and illuminating red hair, frontman Pat Grossi looks like he should be a leading man in the latest American sitcom. It is when he opens his mouth that a different spell is cast as he leads his band mates through a set that sounds like Bronski Beat on downers. Grossi moved to the keyboards to beef up the sound with crowd favourites like Hanging On, but it is when he unleashed his vibrato from behind the harp on tunes like You Are All I See that Active Child were at their most exceptional.
With its emphasis on waves of synths that build to theatrical crescendos, French synth-popsters M83 expertly balanced the airy and the dense, making for a fantastically fun set of great pop music with its big heart in the right place. Despite front-loading the set, they kept plenty in reserve, with new single Reunion winning the prize for most joyous sing-a-long, at least until Midnight City kicked off second from the end and sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Meanwhile, US singer EMA (aka Erika M. Anderson) showcased her unique sound (a mix of country, goth, electro pop, post-punk and grunge) to a significantly smaller, although no less enthusiastic, crowd in the Spiegeltent. More than proving she has a huge talent for drama – when to build, when to break, when to whisper or howl or yell, when to camp a while in a looping melody and when to move on – her 45-minute set veered between catchy and patchy, but there was a definite talent hidden underneath the orchestrated mess and it was an absolute shame than only a handful of local punters were on hand to witness her controlled desolation.
A parallel to much of the “buried clean, bright, familiar melodies under sheaves of noise” indie rock purported by various other bands on the line-up, Georgian chillwave purveyors Washed Out recreated the synthesized funk and pop of the early ‘80s and hide it beneath layers of obfuscation. For the most part, the band concentrated on producing lithe, percussion-heavy grooves, finding a funky core in songs such as Echoes and Far Away that’s easy to miss on record. Although choosing to omit their best known tune, Feel It All Around (better known as the theme song to hipster sketch show Portlandia), was a gamble, the fact that the large audience hung around until the very end more than proved their popularity regardless.
Although worst case scenario reports from the daily’s prompted whispers regarding a possible cancellation of next year’s Perth leg, this year’s sold out success proved that it’s now an essential, recurring destination on the calendar. Viva Laneway!

_CHRIS HAVERCROFT &
JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD