From The Straits Times    |
Laneway Festival 2013 highlights

How long would you hold on to see your favourite acts live? It was over 30 degrees celsius, with almost no shelter in sight and a thirteen hour-long music festival that went on from noon to 1am.

The sun was unforgiving at last weekend’s Laneway Festival 2013 but most of the festival-goers persisted. The music festival that took place on January 26 saw nearly 10,000 attendees braving the heat at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay, with its largest lineup in Singapore so far.

Laneway Festival 2013 at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay

With performances alternating between two stages, there was at least one act playing at every hour like clockwork.

All 14 performances started promptly at the scheduled times, with an almost seamless transition between acts, save for Alt-J. The British band had to restart their set after some sound problems in the first 10 minutes.

One of the festival’s highlights happened towards the end but it was definitely worth the wait, when New Zealand songstress Kimbra strode on stage at the Gotye set.

“Usually I’ll get the audience to sing it with me, but tonight I don’t have to,” teased Gotye. Then the familiar riffs of “Somebody I Used to Know” started, with the Laneway crowds bursting with applause.

Here, we pick seven of the highs at Laneway Festival 2013:

Kings of Convenience at Laneway Festival 2013
Image: Photo by Glenn Yong, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Kings of Convenience
Opening the festival was this Norwegian indie folk-pop duo, who despite the heat, kept the crowd cool and calm with their chill-out tunes. Being the very first act, The Meadow wasn’t as packed as we had expected. Most of the concert-goers were still stuck in the lines outside but it was nice to see the people who were already in gather in front of the stage and swaying to the band’s delicate voices and soothing guitar melodies.

 

Of Monsters and Men
Of Monsters and Men at Laneway. Photo by Nina Sandejas, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Of Monsters and Men
Their set was held in the middle of the afternoon with the sun still blazing; yet this Icelandic band still got fans dancing, clapping and singing along. Performing hits like “King and Lionheart” and more, Of Monsters and Men’s top 20 hit “Little Talks” had the loudest sing-along at Laneway, even sans music during the chorus. While most bands stuck to strictly eight songs, the band rewarded their enthusiastic fans with encore track, “Numbers”.

 

Kimbra at Laneway Festival 2013
Photo by Dawn Chua, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Kimbra
With wigs on her shoulders, a confetti-skirted dress and tall booties; Kimbra’s definitely not one to shy from the dramatic costumes. This New Zealand songstress definitely gets an A for effort for a lively performance that got the crowds as revved up as she was. All wide-eyed and dancing almost like an erratic puppet, the star came bursting with energy on stage, her energy levels never once dipped throughout her performance. She even performed a special remix of her hit track “Settle Down”, starting with a looping opening, with Daft Punk’s “Technologic” mixed into the chorus.

 

Alt-J at Laneway Festival 2013
Photo by Glenn Yong, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Alt-J
The band had to stop their set when they were racked with sound issues but they kept their cool, playing an incredible performance on stage. The crowd lapped up their songs lively and energetic songs, but special mention goes to guitarist/bassist Gwil Sainsbury, who mesmerised the audience with his unbelievably deft — wait for it — castanet solos. Whoever said the drummer gets all the girls clearly hasn’t seen Sainsbury work that wood percussion.

After the set, Alt-J headed straight to the media tent, just as laid-back. At the media call, the indie rock group was playfully taking snaps of the photographers, putting together a “panorama” of the media session.

 

Bat for Lashes at Laneway Festival 2013
Photo by Dawn Chua, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Bat for Lashes
Almost siren-like, Natasha Khan (better known as Bat for Lashes) performed an entrancing set, with her bat-wing sleeves floating in the breeze as she sang “Laura” and more tracks from her The Haunted Man album. Khan’s alluring voice, matched with the melancholic lyrics and the slow piano ballads were haunting, just the perfect set for a cool evening.

 

Yeasayer at Laneway Festival 2013
Photo by Dawn Chua, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Yeasayer
Those who have been listening to this psychedelic pop band since they started out would know that their recent offerings are starkly different from their early music. But the four-man group played a good sampling of songs from all their albums, including the wildly popular “Ambling Alp” that got the audience clapping and singing along to the chorus. You could tell everyone was having a blast, including front man Chris Keating, who went wild with a tambourine at one point.

 

Kimbra and Gotye at Laneway Festival 2013
Photo by Nina Sandejas, courtesy of Chugg Entertainment

Gotye
This isn’t a competition, but if it were, Gotye would take the award for Best Multitasker. Holding onto a single drumstick, he moved around the stage hitting on everything from drums and a xylophone to a tambourine and gongs at exactly the right time in whatever song he was crooning at the moment. His set was also the most visually-stimulating thanks to his use of animation in the background — the colourful retro video used in “Thanks for Your Time” was our personal favourite. We were also particularly taken by how friendly he was; taking his time to teach the audience how to do a three-part harmony and just chatting with them like old friends.

Needless to say, the crowd went wild for his duet with Kimbra in “Somebody That I Used to Know”, singing along to every word. It was definitely surreal watching the hit song of 2012 performed live, and you could tell everyone in the audience felt the same by the number of phones held up in the air to record the moment for posterity.

The St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2013 took place on January 26, 2013 at The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay.

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