Capture: Laneway 2015
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Great work, Jackson -- and so speedy! I think that Samuel Herring pic particularly stands out.
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Perhaps liberated by the knowledge that Jackson was taking all the pictures, I took exactly one, all day.
Highlights? Courtney Barnett, then Jakob (who were awesome for three or four songs, then seemed a bit punishing in the hot sun), Royal Blood (total surprise -- what fun! -- although I'm not sure I'd have wanted to hear more than their 45 minutes), Jon Hopkins, Banks, FKA Twigs and the amazing St Vincent, who really should have been on the big stage.
As predicted, the sound at CactusCat was way better than previous years, and the access was a bit better too. I'm struck by how much this current festival music relies on powerful modern PA systems. Quite a lot of it wouldn't have made sense without bass sounds that could blow your hair back.
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Fantastico.
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Here’s one from the middle of the crowd at the hottest part of the day: watching Courtney Barnett, who was excellent. Highlight for me: St Vincent, with Belle and Sebastian as shambolic runners-up. I’ve been to all five Laneways and do think the festival is a great thing for Auckland, and very well run.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I’ve been to all five Laneways and do think the festival is a great thing for Auckland, and very well run.
It stepped up a level again this year with the new PA and staging at Cactus Cat, the constant flow of free water and nice touches like the video game zone inside the silos, which was a treat (shady and cool, great sightlines out the windows) most people didn't seem to find.
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JacksonP, in reply to
Samuel Herring
He was quite outstanding really. Here’s a couple more. I’m having second thoughts about which pictures I should have chosen for the lead post. That’s what happens when you have 1000+ to look through, and bang out a post before 9am. :-)
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Meanwhile, the Instagram account Man Buns of Laneway is a highly-focused labour of love. So many buns, so little time.
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a Dunedin double take...
I noticed in other coverage that the Dunedin song homages also extended to a misspelt 'Hey Suess' stage - what's the point of 'honouring' something if ya don't take the time to make sure it is spelt correctly...
...especially such a gem as that 3Ds threeway pun
(the trinity of Hey Zeus, Jesus & Theodor 'Dr Seuss' Geisel
- The Father, the son and the Holey Gosh!) -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
…especially such a gem as that 3Ds threeway pun
(the trinity of Hey Zeus, Jesus & Theodor ‘Dr Seuss’ Geisel
- The Father, the son and the Holey Gosh!)Oh very nice, thanks for that.
Here's an old fave from the Good Doctor's foray into feature filmmaking. While he kind of exited trousers on fire from what turned out to be an overblown debacle, the good bits are very good indeed: -
I had an odd day, wandered as much as possible to see as many acts as possible, then began to feel rather disconnected when I struggled to hear what people were getting all excited by.
did enjoy Jungle's two hits but and would vote St Vincent as act of the day by several straights, even if my body was nearing collapse by 10pm.
I thought that Future Islands guy was hilarious with his "let's rip this shit up'' intros to what sounded like early Human League out-takes - not to mention his depression advisory - almost felt like he was fronting the wrong band.
enjoyed Heavy early on, they were having a fine ol' time and the heat was yet to kick in. bits of Royal Blood were fun and they get full credit for giving it a good college try, but I left with the impression of an event made up of acts that would largely fill the early to mid-afternoon BDO slots.
very fetching crowd though. top marks there. -
A few crowd shots.
The top one, they asked if I could take their photo. So I did. Hope they find this somehow.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
they asked if I could take their photo
Would've been rude to refuse, right?
Looks like you had a great day, some great shots.
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Last year I had a great time roaming outside, the site was photogenic, the sound was good out there.
This year, the organisers had done a great job of reducing the photogenictiy. I hung out to listen to Royal Blood. Sound was OK at this little spot. But better in the blazing heat around the back of the site. -
I did get to see some star mobbing going on round the back. No idea who these peeps were mobbing, but it went on for nearly an hour. (the world was black and white before the stars emerged, and technicolour afterwards)
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Jackson, I think you’d agree, it was way too hot a day to be carting a lens of that size around!
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As you can see, the playground spot was well obscured this year.
And the view from the carpark, just a bit bland. -
Spooky re-run of last year, first person I spotted by the main gate was Jeremy from Rackets and a crew.
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Time on my hands in the hot sun let me indulge in cropping the hoardings around Wynyard Quarter.
Auckland, city of wheels? -
JacksonP, in reply to
carting a lens of that size around!
Yeah, I saw the lens being carried, but not being used. I'll live the puns to others. :-)
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Some more St. Vincent.
There was some discussion earlier that she was channeling Prince, or David Bowie.
While I also got a Prince vibe, I think after the few songs I saw, she can claim her own icon status.
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And a couple of black & whites for the monochrome set.
On that note, I saw a few people carrying 120 roll film cameras, along with their other gear, including the photographer friend of an award winning artist from North Shore. I admire their commitment to the craft.
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Jackson kindly asked me to post my little Facebook Laneway summary, so here it is.
We arrived at about 1.30pm after a lengthy parking odyssey which wound up with us in the casual lot of a megachurch. The house of the Lord charges more per hour than I imagine its patron would be comfortable with. Still, on with the show!
Angel Olsen - appealing country-goth, probably on the wrong stage in the wrong time slot. Loved the female bassist, who clearly did not give one single fuck.
Courtney Barnett - Speaking of women who don't give a fuck, this was unexpectedly badass! Fun songs with a reasonably grunty band. She kinda reminded me of Liz Phair, which can only be a good thing.
Mac DeMarco - I found this band quite hard to place: they were clearly influenced by a lot of disparate things and I couldn't work out if the "summer jamz" vibe was totally enjoyable or had looped all the way around to 90s "brah". I was also kinda distracted by the fact that one of them looked a bit like Wooderson in Dazed and Confused.
Royal Blood - ROCKIN' power duo, boiling down bogan ridiculousness into its finest essence. Clearly heavily influenced by QotSA (and then back to Zep). I laughed out loud with delight several times during their set, so (oddly enough) this was in my top few acts of the day.
Jungle - I wanted to like this band. I really wanted to like this band. I only lasted four songs before realising that they clearly thought they were much funkier than they actually were. Once my husband said they reminded him of Level 42 it was all over rover.
Jon Hopkins - I have a pleasant feeling about this but it may have been associated with moving to the much smaller, cooler, harbourside Cactus Cat stage and eating an ice cream. I give him props for such heavy bass that he vibrated my sunhat right off my head.
(Eagulls) - I place this band in brackets because I saw one song before realising that a) I had to sit down for a minute and b) they were boring me. Loudly.
Future Islands - This was a fun way to pass the time from the crush in front of the Belle & Sebastian stage. Lead dude does, indeed, give it his all, even if I couldn't see very much from my shorty shortass vantage point. I noticed enough to realise that he looks kinda like Kevin Spacey (if Kevin Spacey was the middle manager at your office job and was a sweaty raver at karaoke parties).
Belle & Sebastian - 19 years without a NZ tour, ever, and we had to make do with 45 minutes. Tantalisingly brief (8 songs?) but really great. I could probably have done without their "people dancing on stage" bit, although the woman who tried to hump Stuart Murdoch gets props for Most Pointless Act of the Festival.
(FKA Twigs) - I heard and saw a bit of this from where I was nursing my horribly sore feet at the back of the crowd. She looked amazing but I was left cold. Possibly thanks to my feet.
St. Vincent - I am very, very glad I broke on through to the other side and made the effort to see this, because more women who don't give a fuck are key to my feminist satisfaction at music festivals! She is extraordinarily compelling and composed, and I loved her material live. I was, oddly, reminded of Prince (has the Purple One ever worn a leather cheongsam?). At the time I tweeted "OH DAMN SON" and I see no reason to take back that assessment. Fantastic way to end the day.
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JacksonP, in reply to
At the time I tweeted “OH DAMN SON” and I see no reason to take back that assessment. Fantastic way to end the day.
Thanks for posting this here. You've written much of what I would have said, only with much more musical knowledge on the acts than I possess. :-)
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Royal Blood – ROCKIN’ power duo, boiling down bogan ridiculousness into its finest essence. Clearly heavily influenced by QotSA (and then back to Zep). I laughed out loud with delight several times during their set, so (oddly enough) this was in my top few acts of the day.
Me too, and that was quite a surprise to me. My buddy noted the QotSA vibe, while I was hearing glam rock at times. Fun band.
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Royal Blood. Quite liked their back drop.
Spare a thought for the drummers.
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