Live4MusiC

My first Laneway ever and boy was I glad I had the opportunity! Close to 12hrs of non-stop music, good food and great beer! And to top it up, great weather! Looking at the huge 2-in-1 stage and the crazy setup, you just know it's going to be a great Sunday. But before I start let me put a disclaimer by saying I haven't been really connected with the Indie Rock scene a lot so do spare me. 

Getting the whole festival off to a start is Cults! You usually expect things to slowly start falling into place especially in terms of the sound and the energy from both the band and the crowd. However, that wasn't the case. The whole festival really started with a big bang as the frontwoman Madeline Follin got the attention of the venue with her very powerful and distinctly raw vocals and got the crowd moving!





There was no slowing down as Yuck took the stage and bringing the rock-level up a notch. 





The first band that really caught my ear was Chairlift, who weren't in the initial line-up but replaced Wu Lyf due to unforeseen circumstances. The atmospheric sound in their music coupled with Caroline Polachek's mesmerizing voice was definitely one of the highlights of the festival for me. 









Austra then came on bringing their immediately apparent unique on-stage vibe and following Austra came another epic highlight of the event. Christopher Owens' tribute to the diva, Whitney Houston with his impromptu rendition of "I Will Always Love You". A very touching moment indeed. After which, bringing to the crowd their trademark lovelorn songs.





The next band that took things up a notch and whom I really enjoyed was The Drums. The only band in the festival that had their own backdrop! You could tell from the sea of people that almost everyone knew the words to their songs. Simple, catchy and full of feelings. 





Anna Calvi was definitely one of the crowd favourites as the little bit of fatigue that set in was suddenly forgotten. She definitely got the crowd excited!





With the 1st half of the festival gone just like that and with the setting of the sun, the stage lights became more apparent with Twin Shadow taking the stage. The guitar playing and sound, in my opinion, the best of the festival. And guess what? The frontman just gave his guitar away to the crowd...yes FOR REAL!





This was followed by Laura Marling and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.









As the crowd was getting pumped for the final few acts of the night, Toro Y Moi with a very electronic sound accompanied by melodious vocals brought the groove to the crowd and you could just see everyone moving, grooving and dancing!















There was no looking back from there as Heist and The Horrors finally managed to bring the whole crowd to their feet before the almighty M83 took the stage. The music was powerful to say the least with the duo's vocals matching the music. With such great vocals, I'm actually quite surprised they were employed minimally and let the instrumentals speak for themselves! The superb lighting during their set really did top the whole festival and ended Laneway Festival Singapore 2012 on a high!







Festivals of this scale don't come here very often and I have to say it's extremely well done!

Big thanks to Sammy Shirra-Moore and Chugg Entertainment for the invite! 



For the rest of the videos, please click here.

For the rest of the photos, please click here.

All photos courtesy of :  Glenn Yong

RockOn!
Yuda