[Live Review] LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2016 (Sydney)

Chvrches - Laneway 16 - 139

Sydney College of The Arts, Rozelle
Sunday February 7, 2016 :

An extremely balmy Sunday set the scene for a sweaty, slightly smelly but completely high and free spirited festival.

A smaller and awkwardly shaped venue, Laneway 2016 was filled just below the brim with happy hipsters in their crop topped, and converse footed thousands. The cute recycled clothing stalls, slow juiced lemonade stand and an appearance by Newtown’s famous Mary’s burger bar (which really hit the spot by about 3pm), really solidified the crowds commitment to hipster-ness – no KFC truck insight.

While all I really want to re-live (over and over and over again) was Grimes later afternoon set, there were a few highlights coming just before. DMA’s in typical IDGAF fashion, rocked the stage in ill-fitting dad jeans and tartan button-downs. They can make any setting feel like a grimy beer garden with their pub-rock vibe, and Tommy’s nonchalant attitude gives a nice middle-finger to the Aussie larrikin typecast.

The Internet, in all their shirtless glory, brought serous attitude to their smooth sound. Making for a sway-worthy dance sesh, they brought a sense of chill over the crowd pre-Violent Soho.

Like Soda, Violent Soho exploded on to the stage – catching most people in their days first circle pit (if you hadn’t already checked out Fidlar), the band was on point delivering their rock hardcore tunes to life.

Getting as far amongst it as I could handle in what felt like 1000% humidity, I was glad I snagged a spot for Grimes stage show. Bringing the whole jam, two bad ass dancers managed to rock the stage for the entire set – running from end to end whilst popping, locking and imitating the psycho-techno screams of Grimes more hardcore tunes. Grimes herself, somewhat slightly subdued by her ailment (a cold), was apologetic, but still killed it (I wouldn’t have known she was ill). Her naughty girl K-pop signature sound exploded off the stage into one of the biggest crowds that gathered all day. ‘Flesh Without Blood’ got the entire crowd pulsing, and ‘Kill V.Maim’ was an intense sing-along.

Making a beeline for the neighbouring stage, I stuck close to the front for CHVRCHES musical, come stand-up comedy performance. Between tracks, Lauren cracked jokes in her elf-like Scottish accent (mostly why I laughed), and threw herself all over the stage for ‘Gun’. The sound seemed a little off, with Lauren’s vocals hard to hear over the bass on a few tracks, but overall it was a solid hour of singing alongs, squealing and hip jerking.

I headed for the after party to catch Fidlar post CHVRCHES – so glad I did. Fidlar, again causing some epic moshing, was off charts. In all the sweaty, headachy goodness of a nice headbang, they surprised me with how smooth and articulated they played.

A DJ set by CHVRCHES was the soundtrack to my bidding adieu, rather hilariously, this entailed a sing-along to Taylor Swift and Paramore, just as my feet gave up on life and I jumped in a cab to bed.

Reviewer: Marley Tinnock
Photographer: Kevin Bull

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