By Madeleine Smith
With the departure of the Big Day Out, Laneway has become Auckland's first big festival of the year, and it's the perfect way to spend the long Auckland anniversary weekend after developing those return-to-work blues.
After an overcast start to the day, the weather cleared up – no cloud, no rain, just clear blue sky and blistering temperatures.
Sticking with tradition, this year's Laneway line-up was an eclectic mix of indie newcomers and established international acts, spread across the venue's four stages.
Photo gallery: Auckland Laneway Festival 2015
Kiwi band Bespin kicked things off on the Hey Seuss Stage, playing to an audience that looked barely awake, still looking forward to that second or third flat white of the day.
But this didn't deter the band; they seemed quite content to float along with their performance, even when technical difficulties entered the equation.
Another local act that drew quite a gathering early on in the day, Princess Chelsea, had the crowd bobbing along. If you think you've heard her fairy-tale melodies before, you're probably right. The Auckland-based singer's 'The Cigarette Duet' has more than 17 million views on YouTube, something she mentioned at Laneway about before performing it.
"It's got heaps of views of YouTube," she stated modestly.
Tiny Ruins, winners at the 2014 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards for Best Alternative Album, performed to a full crowd. Lead singer-songwriter Hollie Fullbrook's gentle voice had the packed crowd mesmerised – it even tempted the stage security guards into swaying along.
It really wouldn't be a typically spectacular performance from Connan Mockasin and the rest of his band without the attempted seduction of the audience, psychically and instrumentally. Seduction, in fact, would be an understatement – with lyrics such as "please take it off" accompanied by matching take-it-off hand gestures, do you think the ladies in the front stayed fully clothed? No.
'Retro-future funk' group Jungle delivered a performance that no one was expecting. For many, the UK group were unheard of, but when the best-friend duo Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland took the stage, everyone watching could feel their collective energy.
Many who knew nothing about them left wanting to know everything.
As the day progressed the beating sun began punishing those ill-prepared, perhaps also having an effect on American artist Ariel Pink. Due to a fault with the sound, his performance was pushed back by a few minutes, which he didn't appear to take kindly to.
After muttering under his breath for a short time, he turned on the audience, calling the crowd "f**king bogans". You have to commend him for his ability to walk across the stage in spiky high heels.
On a lighter note, Angus & Julia Stone, a favourite for many in this year's line-up, couldn't have been closer to perfection. The Australian brother/sister duo flawlessly performed their crowd favourites.
Future Islands, a band known to many for their curious performance on the Late Show with David Letterman last year, proved to be one of the biggest highlights. Frontman Samuel T Herring had the crowd completely entranced with his on-stage presence.
From his theatrical swaying from one side of the stage to the other, to the seven different emotions that would dance across his face during a single verse, Herring is either a breath-taking performer or a very emotional adult.
Belle and Sebastian, currently hot on the heels of their new album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance, brought with them a following of loyal listeners who have enjoyed their indie-pop tunes since 1996.
A real sense of achievement was felt when lead singer Stuart Murdoch yelled out "this song is from 15 years ago", the crowd erupting with joy.
As moonlight began to fill the festival, so too did the vibes of the festival's final few acts, which included a mix of experimental electronic, trip-hop and IDM.
The much-anticipated performance of American artist Banks proved worth the wait for her Kiwi fans. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter practiced what she preached with a stunning performance to go with her vocals – what can only be described as delicate array of clean-cut hand ballet. Something so simple puts Banks into a league of her own.
Towards the end the night on the Hey Seuss stage, British sensation FKA Twigs invited the audience into a smoky fantasy with an extra serving of leather. Boy, this girl has a set of lungs on her, belting out every word of her 45-minute set, all the while twisting and twirling her body into mysterious frames.
Finally, ending the night on the Mysterex Stage, Flying Lotus brought cosmic craziness with a hallucinatory light and projection show. An interesting way to end the night for some, but it hit the spot for Laneway punters who wanted the night to go out with a bang, and a very loud one at that.
While the Laneway crew and everyone musically involved did an outstanding job, a few things must be said about the general festival organisation.
Unlike last year's 10,000-strong crowd, organisers decided to increase the capacity to 12,000, which made things uncomfortable. Sure, nothing screams festival like barging your way through a sweaty, clumsy crowd, but when the line to the portaloo is meeting up with a mosh pit, there's a problem – especially when half of them don't work and the horrific stench of human waste is only heightened by the extreme heat of summer.
An earlier predicted shortcoming of the festival was the cancellation of the much-anticipated performance of illustrious, yet elusive, Swedish performer Lykke Li. Having never been to New Zealand, performances by Li are a rare sight to behold – so when the pop dream pulled out less than a month beforehand, it was a very bitter pill to swallow.
But at the end of the day, no one was really thinking about Li; they still had the images of Future Islands frontman Samuel T Herring sweeping across the stage, Ariel Pink's spiky heels and Connan Mockasin's take-it-off hand gestures, all etched in their minds to remember until next year.
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source: newshub archive