maybe next year
yesterday was laneway festival. the lineup has just been plain shit for the past 2 years after the awesome first one back in 2011. when this year's lineup was announced a few months ago, i went to do some research on youtube and just as i had suspected and feared, the popular acts were the ones i disliked the most.
alt j! gotye! even of monsters and men, initially i thought they were ok but after i heard this song, i started to feel like the girl's singing was kinda like an annoying dog yelping randomly, after which i could never get over it. my friend was hyping up tame impala, but i listened to their coachella full set and i had might as well have been listening to white noise.
my friends were asking me to go and i was still considering. maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all? in 2011 i wasn't into most of the bands but i went with an open mind (i was only really interested in warpaint and they were the first to play, basically i had nothing to look forward to after them), and it was surprisingly entertaining and memorable.
then i thought of last year and i knew i wouldn't be going. at one point during m83, i standing near the front feeling so bored and i turned around only to see the entire crowd going wild, jumping up and down. what in the fuck? imagine that feeling and amplify it by all the bands i mentioned above, and my choice was obvious.
ultimately i still ended up there at night with 2 of my friends though, just to hang around and check out the new location and the million cute girls attending. we were approached by 2 indonesians who wanted to sell us tickets because their friends missed their flight. we managed to haggle it down to $20 each from the original $148 (awwww yissss, but 9 out of 14 bands had already played).
so we went in just in time to catch my favourite... ALT J. faced with no other alternative (lol pun), i tried my very best to enjoy their songs. in the end their songs were quite ok, up to the point where the fucker started singing, and then it became every bit as grating as they were in the goddamnawful youtube video. and the most disturbing thing was they had quite a lot of fans there.
after that there was i think yeasayer (zzz), bats for lashes (quite nice), tame impala (nothing special, i hate my friend for hyping them all week long), and lastly, GOTYE. they were alright and i didn't really have much expectations since my original bias stemmed from their stupid ass band name and not their music. by then it was already past 12 and many people were just waiting for them to play their one hit song so that they could go home.
they played their song and true enough, people started departing and so did we. all in all it was ok for $20, definitely nowhere near worth the $148 ticket price. the main problem for the past 2 years, shitty bands notwithstanding, is that in the evenings the organisers chose to put on these bands that are just nothing special and play some music that no one particularly gives a fuck about.
the bands need to be more powerful and catchy to bring up the energy level of the crowd, especially after such a long day in the hot sun. bands with music that is easily enjoyable even to those who are not fans of the bands, which is often the case for such festivals.
it just seems like such a shame that so much time and effort was put in, only to end up with a sub-par experience. sure, many people would say it was enjoyable, but was it fantastic or amazing? i don't think so.
alt j! gotye! even of monsters and men, initially i thought they were ok but after i heard this song, i started to feel like the girl's singing was kinda like an annoying dog yelping randomly, after which i could never get over it. my friend was hyping up tame impala, but i listened to their coachella full set and i had might as well have been listening to white noise.
my friends were asking me to go and i was still considering. maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all? in 2011 i wasn't into most of the bands but i went with an open mind (i was only really interested in warpaint and they were the first to play, basically i had nothing to look forward to after them), and it was surprisingly entertaining and memorable.
then i thought of last year and i knew i wouldn't be going. at one point during m83, i standing near the front feeling so bored and i turned around only to see the entire crowd going wild, jumping up and down. what in the fuck? imagine that feeling and amplify it by all the bands i mentioned above, and my choice was obvious.
ultimately i still ended up there at night with 2 of my friends though, just to hang around and check out the new location and the million cute girls attending. we were approached by 2 indonesians who wanted to sell us tickets because their friends missed their flight. we managed to haggle it down to $20 each from the original $148 (awwww yissss, but 9 out of 14 bands had already played).
so we went in just in time to catch my favourite... ALT J. faced with no other alternative (lol pun), i tried my very best to enjoy their songs. in the end their songs were quite ok, up to the point where the fucker started singing, and then it became every bit as grating as they were in the goddamnawful youtube video. and the most disturbing thing was they had quite a lot of fans there.
after that there was i think yeasayer (zzz), bats for lashes (quite nice), tame impala (nothing special, i hate my friend for hyping them all week long), and lastly, GOTYE. they were alright and i didn't really have much expectations since my original bias stemmed from their stupid ass band name and not their music. by then it was already past 12 and many people were just waiting for them to play their one hit song so that they could go home.
they played their song and true enough, people started departing and so did we. all in all it was ok for $20, definitely nowhere near worth the $148 ticket price. the main problem for the past 2 years, shitty bands notwithstanding, is that in the evenings the organisers chose to put on these bands that are just nothing special and play some music that no one particularly gives a fuck about.
the bands need to be more powerful and catchy to bring up the energy level of the crowd, especially after such a long day in the hot sun. bands with music that is easily enjoyable even to those who are not fans of the bands, which is often the case for such festivals.
it just seems like such a shame that so much time and effort was put in, only to end up with a sub-par experience. sure, many people would say it was enjoyable, but was it fantastic or amazing? i don't think so.
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