It's finally time to write about Laneway. This is the festival I've been to a few times in Singapore. It's an Australian festival that travels around Australia and New Zealand, and they have a date in Singapore as well. The lineup when I was living there was fantastic, and the year after I went back for the show again. Then it wasn't so exciting last year, and this year it's on its way back. It wasn't amazing this year, but there were quite a few acts I was excited about. And luckily I had to be in Singapore the week before the show for work, so I went.
I ended up arriving earlier than I planned, and that was a stroke of luck because I walked in to Stars and Rabbit. This band may have actually been one of the best of the day for me. They were definitely the best new find of the day. It's a duo from Indonesia that seem to have gotten quite a bit of attention there, and they were the very first act at Laneway Singapore, where they brought a full band with them. And they were absolutely phenomenal live. The lead singer is this crazy little Indonesian woman who jumps and runs around stage and is kind of super weird (in a good way). And her voice is totally nuts. Kind of weird (also in a good way) and super powerful and unique. She is amazing and a gift and everyone should know who she is. They have an album out called Constellation, which I've now listened to a few times. It's ok recorded, but the real magic happens live. My favorite track is Man Upon The Hill.
Luckily there is a great live version on YouTube, so I'll also play you that and you can see how amazing she is. And as great as this live version is, they played it even better in Singapore.
The biggest surprise of the day was probably NAO. I really enjoyed her singles and EP before she put out an album last year, but then I found the album to be way too poppy and a bit repetitive. But live, she was super fun. Maybe one of the most fun shows of the day. Probably my favorite song by her is Inhale Exhale.
Then there were the two big acts of the day, the two closers, and the two bands that my friend Shuk-Wah and I were most looking forward to. Second to last was Glass Animals, whose album last year How To Be A Human Being was in my longlist for best albums of the year. I expected them to be amazing live, and actually they probably weren't amazing, but they were still very good. They closed with my favorite song by them, Pork Soda, which was also their best live performance.
And then was the big act of the day, Nick Murphy (formerly known as Chet Faker, though he's now decided to use his real name to make music, as he says the music he's making now is different from Chet Faker and he wants to separate them out). That didn't stop him, however, from playing a bunch of Chet Faker songs. He opened with Fear Less, his first single under his own name, but then he went right into my 3 favorite songs from his last album, Built on Glass: Gold, Cigarettes & Loneliness, and 1998. He also played really old ones off of Thinking in Textures (although he didn't play No Diggity. Sad face), and even The Trouble With Us off his Work EP with Marcus Marr, and even brought out Marcus Marr for it. Then for the closer, it was Stop Me (Stop You), his newest single, which was amazing and went on for about ten minutes. I already put it on the blog last year, but it is a great song, and by far the best of his two songs that he's released under the new moniker, so it's going back on the blog for this year.
I ended up arriving earlier than I planned, and that was a stroke of luck because I walked in to Stars and Rabbit. This band may have actually been one of the best of the day for me. They were definitely the best new find of the day. It's a duo from Indonesia that seem to have gotten quite a bit of attention there, and they were the very first act at Laneway Singapore, where they brought a full band with them. And they were absolutely phenomenal live. The lead singer is this crazy little Indonesian woman who jumps and runs around stage and is kind of super weird (in a good way). And her voice is totally nuts. Kind of weird (also in a good way) and super powerful and unique. She is amazing and a gift and everyone should know who she is. They have an album out called Constellation, which I've now listened to a few times. It's ok recorded, but the real magic happens live. My favorite track is Man Upon The Hill.
Luckily there is a great live version on YouTube, so I'll also play you that and you can see how amazing she is. And as great as this live version is, they played it even better in Singapore.
The biggest surprise of the day was probably NAO. I really enjoyed her singles and EP before she put out an album last year, but then I found the album to be way too poppy and a bit repetitive. But live, she was super fun. Maybe one of the most fun shows of the day. Probably my favorite song by her is Inhale Exhale.
Then there were the two big acts of the day, the two closers, and the two bands that my friend Shuk-Wah and I were most looking forward to. Second to last was Glass Animals, whose album last year How To Be A Human Being was in my longlist for best albums of the year. I expected them to be amazing live, and actually they probably weren't amazing, but they were still very good. They closed with my favorite song by them, Pork Soda, which was also their best live performance.
And then was the big act of the day, Nick Murphy (formerly known as Chet Faker, though he's now decided to use his real name to make music, as he says the music he's making now is different from Chet Faker and he wants to separate them out). That didn't stop him, however, from playing a bunch of Chet Faker songs. He opened with Fear Less, his first single under his own name, but then he went right into my 3 favorite songs from his last album, Built on Glass: Gold, Cigarettes & Loneliness, and 1998. He also played really old ones off of Thinking in Textures (although he didn't play No Diggity. Sad face), and even The Trouble With Us off his Work EP with Marcus Marr, and even brought out Marcus Marr for it. Then for the closer, it was Stop Me (Stop You), his newest single, which was amazing and went on for about ten minutes. I already put it on the blog last year, but it is a great song, and by far the best of his two songs that he's released under the new moniker, so it's going back on the blog for this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment