Salad Days – along with being a song by the talented Demarco – is a term coined by Shakespeare, referring to ‘a youthful time, accompanied by inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism and innocence’. Mac nailed his set with a youthful exuberance, and was joined on stage by cavalcade of guests sitting at a dinner table and an appearance from Sydney’s own Kirin J Callinan. His fuzzy lo-fi tunes and on stage antics sat just right with the mid-afternoon sunshine.
Confession: we were one of the very few people that weren’t totally boarding the FKA-Twigs-hype-machine-express… But we now 100 per cent are. The back-bending braided starlet smashed out an impressive set that will have people saying for the next few weeks “Did you see FKA at Laneway?”.
The drink queues were short, the bathrooms were clean (by festival standards), and the sound was pretty on point. There was room to hang back and sit on the grassy hills or get right into the thick of it. And there was lots of free water and sunscreen. Win!
Anybody who made the quick sprint post-Caribou to the Park stage was rewarded with a stellar set from the Flight Facilities boys. Brooke Adamo joined the pair on stage to elevate the set to a real show, working her way through ‘Stand Still’ mashed up with Toto’s ‘Africa’ and ‘Get Free’. Shame that they got cut off at 10pm on-the-dot though.
Tossing up between Porteno, Nighthawk Diner and Mary’s was the second hardest decision of the day (behind the Caribou, St Vincent and Flight Facilities clash). We opted for a quick dinner at the Nighthawk Diner and were rewarded with mac‘n’cheese burger and juicy Philly cheese steak. Excellent festival fuel, indeed.
The muted ascension in the first minute of Caribou’s ‘Can’t Do Without You’ is pretty magic – even when you’re just listening to it with headphones – so it was no surprise that it was even more striking live. The slow burn and thumping middle hit even harder when Dan Snaith and his three-piece live band stretched out the three-minute track into a six-minute sonic extravaganza. Festival season highlight, for sure.f
If you managed to find any time in between the jam-packed timetable to check out the markets stall you would’ve been rewarded with vintages threads from Hello Pluto, mini fruity manicures from Cutie Coolz and a Red Eye Records vinyl pop-up.
When Mac Demarco joined that Laneway line-up, he did so on one condition – that his mum would get to come along for the tour. Agnes Demarco joined in on the fun MCing the main stages with some serious swagger. Like mother, like son.
The electronic, genre-dodging three-piece have been lighting up Sydney stages for over seven years now, and their Laneway appearance was yet another triumphant. If you still haven’t seen these guys live, put them on your to-see-list ASAP.
Flo-Lo capped off the day with blissed-out hour-long set that ensured anyone who hung around late enough to catch him, would be comforted by the memories as they nurse the Monday hangover.
Photos By: Jack Bennett / Mikki Gomez
