album of the week

st. jerome's laneway - brisbane

John Steel Singers – The local up-and-comers kicked off the Alexandria St Stage with a joyous, cacophonous performance of sixties-tinged pop akin to The Beach Boys meets Broken Social Scene meets a magnum of champagne. Admittedly, we only caught the end of their set (which started at 11.25am – criminal), but the energetic finale included a percussion cameo from fellow Brisbane tour-buddies Yves Klein Blue and more horn fanfares than a winter fox hunt. It’s a shame the early start meant a smaller audience than they deserved, but the thirty-strong crowd made the most of the extra space by executing some 21st century dance moves that couldn’t have been acheived in under three square metres.

Tame Impala – Modular’s favourite trippers and buzz band of the moment, Tame Impala, sweat it out in old t-shirts and (what appear to be) boxer shorts. But no matter about the casual costuming, because they sound really quite good. Their floating psychedelic rock grooves make me want to put on a paisley shirt and lie in a field of flowering canola plants and tune in to an immersive experience with the rest of the universe. But alas – the day must go on!

Still Flyin’ – Despite frontman Sean Rawls proclaiming that they were all hungover from a show the night before, it didn’t stop San Fransisco multi-membered troupe, Still Flyin’, from putting on one of the most entertaining and fun shows of the day. The 11-piece ensemble brought a hand-clapping singalong vibe to the Car Park Stage with their ska- and reggae-style pop jams. A gigantic bearded man (also known as Architecture in Helsinki’s Jamie Mildren) joined them onstage for a number, and crowd favourite ‘Good Thing It’s A Ghost Town Around Here’ kicked the party atmosphere into full swing. Highlight was definitely the jogging shorts-clad band member who looked like a cross between Screech from Saved By The Bell and tennis player Novak Djokovich, whose sole purpose appeared to be dancing like a hopped up praying mantis.

Yves Klein Blue – The Brisbane youngsters confirmed their rising popularity drawing a large crowd of super-enthusiastic fans. The tight foursome delivered an extremely punchy set of their indie rock n roll meets garage-pop meets cigar lounge jazz. Dressed like a 1950s greaser (a look that I cannot praise enough), vocalist Michael Tomlinson charmed the crowd with his enthusiastic ‘it’s-good-to-be-back’ chitter chat, ridiculously animated facial expressions and his reckless use of the F word. Thrilling. Yves Klein Blue have evolved from nerdish schoolboys with a catchy sound, to bonafide rock n roll showmen – they worked the crowd and entertained, building the set nicely with songs from their E.P. (‘Find Our Feet’ was a highlight) and some promising new tracks from their upcoming debut longplayer. It was also nice to see some red heads - other than Josh Homme – totally rock out.

Born Ruffians – Without fanfare, the three band members walked onstage barefoot and eased into album-opener ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ - thereby commencing our favourite set of the day. The band’s rowdy, youthful, off-kilter pop songs sounded excellent live and the performance was both tight and infectiously animated. Lead singer Luke LaLonde (who looks about twelve) self-consciously delivered his trademark vocal squeaks, scats, howls and yodels over syncopated instrumental rhythms and the charming backup vocals (or yelps, woos and heys) by bassist Mitch and drummer Steven. Highlights from the set included ‘Foxes Mate For Life’ and ‘Hummingbird’ – but the entire performance was great. You know you’ve seen a good show when you go home and want to rediscover their album all over again. (On that note – check out the Album of The Week)

No Age – Although they have gained a worldwide cult following, it was obvious that there weren’t many cult members partaking in the Laneway merriment when art-punk duo No Age took to the stage to a disrespectfully small crowd. Despite the modest turnout, guitarist (and radly named) Randy Randall and drummer (and unfortunately named) Dean Allen Spunt ripped through a short set of material from their two studio albums.

Cut Off Your Hands – After our interview with Cut Off Your Hands singer, Nick Johnston, we walked away with a sense that he was the shy and retiring type – polite and modest as all get out. However, after Album of The Week’s photographer was just about knocked unconscious by the airbourne front man as he leapt into the crowd, we began to suspect that he may not be quite as retiring as he seemed. Throughout the course of the set, Nick threw a bass drum across the stage, let fly with the mic cord, hand-clapped maniacally, and pogo’d around the stage like Ritalin personified. Musical highlights included ‘Oh Girl’, but the singer’s tireless energy and reckless disregard for workplace health and safety regulations is what made the show memorable.

Pivot - Critic favourites, Pivot, kicked into their set with stunning instrumental jam ‘Nothing Hurts Machine’ warming the crowd up with their distinctive art-rock style. The electronic sounds and layers combined with the moody reverb of Richard Pike’s wailing guitar and brother Laurence’s thundering percussion to create a relentless sonic wall – and earning Pivot the title of the Loudest Set of the Day. Although we had to bail early, Pivot played a show that was musical, confronting and thrilling - reminiscent of ‘The Walk’-era sounds of The Cure. Impressive.

Jay Reatard – Garage-Punk lovers’ wet dream is Jay Reatard. For a 28 year old man-child he has ripped out a pretty prolific catalogue of 45s and is definitely in the category of being “a musicians musician”. This might help explain why the majority of the crowd got a bit bored about fifteen minutes into the set – there was nary a pause between tracks and with each song having the same tempo (i.e. very fast) there wasn’t a lot of dynamics and melody to keep people interested. However, I couldn’t take my eyes of Jay’s bass player, Stephen Pope. His face conveyed the breadth of drama usually confined to opera singers, and the crazed aggression of thrash metal stalwarts. He also looks like one hell of a good cuddler.

Port O’Brien – Alaskan fishermen and friends hit the stage in the early afternoon with a generous crowd waiting to hear their catchy pop tunes and folk ballads. Australia has been receptive to this band off their understated release last year, mainly because of the stand out track ‘I woke up today’. And judging from the crowd’s reaction this is the song they came to hear. The band took advantage of this, inviting several excited punters on stage to sing along. This also triggered an obvious security breach providing one of the few moments of the day when the security guards actually had something to do.

Hold Steady – High expectations were quickly put at ease when The Hold Steady burst onto the stage and ripped into a rocking set of tunes, mostly from their two most recent albums ‘Stay Positive’ and ‘Boys and Girls in America’. Lead singer Craig Finn stormed the stage singing tales of love, loss, crime and faith with sweat and spit flying off his body into the deliriously happy crowd. Perhaps our favourite performer of the day, however, was keyboardist Franz - appearing miraculously sweat-free in a dapper mauve suit, delicately necking a bottle of red throughout the show, and chewing a toothpick with expert-like panache. Unfortunately halfway through the set sound issues impacted proceedings. Like true professionals they jammed throughout the problem but the interruption totally jarred my buzz.

The Drones – As the sun set on laneway and everyone kicked into night mode I was looking forward to starting it off with a beautifully brutal drones live show. It wasn’t a classic show where you tend to forget everyone around you mainly due to a few interruptions due to ‘stage’ issues but they still played loud and full of fervour. Which was exactly what was needed to start the night.

Girl Talk – Like straw fedoras and high-waisted jean shorts, Girl Talk has been quite the accessory for many young upstarts in the past 6 months. And it comes as no surprise – mixing killer hip hop tunes with pop favourites, old classics and then some is a definite recipe for a good old dancing bash. Judging from the huge crowd, it was obvious the majority of the Laneway festival shared the sentiment, and were packed into the Alexandria St Stage in anticipation. Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) started strong and wound up the crowd - running around the stage, diving into the front row, and then unleashing a bunch of stage crew and the odd Born Ruffians lead singer from the wings to fill the stage with their own hyperactive dance party. The show stayed in gear for the length of the set and had most of the crowd at least bopping their head (and a few lunatics dancing on the flimsy upper branches of a tree). Some people can roll their eyes at the mash-up style of beats but Girl Talk does it very well and in the end the show was exactly as expected: extremely fun.

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