laneway festival

Sunday last, I was a lucky ducky and scored a freebie to the sold out, happy vibe of the Laneway Festival (BIG cheers jas!). Who says no to ‘we have a spare ticket to the laneway festival, are you free?’

From humble beginnings at St Jerome’s in Caledonian Lane four years ago, the festival now spills out onto Lonsdale Street with crushing people traffic to and from multiple stages. Most folks are pretty friendly and cruisey: hang on tight and go with the flow.

We caught Okkervil River, The Panics, a bit of local doo-wop-sters Little Red, Broken Social Scene, CYHSY! and Feist. We found ourselves wanting more from all of these bands – the organisers were pretty keen to stick to the tight schedule.

The Panics and CYHSY were favourites – The Panics are a great band to see on a sunny afternoon (finally got to see them – yay!); and though the vocal stylings of Alec Ounsworth of CYHSY can be difficult to listen to on record, on stage, the band was compelling and exciting.

Feist was clearly a highlight for many in the crowd: her short set had such a fun, sing-a-long vibe, even a hardened cynical heart like mine could not hold sway. When fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene and Stars were invited to join Feist on stage for the finale, the kids went nuts and all the tallest-men-in-the-world sighed (they follow me around at gigs those tall guys, I swear. Damnit being a shortie).

A chill out area –somewhere- anywhere- would have been good to just get out of the crowd and rest the legs (very overwhelming for someone who has been solidly working on the phud with a laptop for company ;p). An exhausting but fantastic day!