Live Review: Laneway Festival Brisbane

It's a bright and muggy Saturday afternoon that sees thousands of local music fans walking the northern streets of Fortitude Valley, all headed to Brisbane Showgrounds for St Jerome's Laneway Festival 2018. 

There's a large police presence as we wait in line for our wristbands, but the line moves fairly quickly and soon enough we're through the entry and excitedly wandering around the site. You can find friends quickly here and before long there's a sizeable crowd of us all looking for stages, and familiarising ourselves with this year's layout.

As we wander around, we find our first stage and the first act of the afternoon Rolling Blackouts Coast Fever performing at the first of two main stages, Never Let It Rest Stage. We get there in time to see them perform triple j-favourite French Press, but by the time we wait in line for a photo and grab something to eat, they're packing up, and we wait to see who's up next.

Sixteen-year-old American trap-hop artist Billie Eilish takes the Good Better Best Stage out of nowhere, pumping out fan-favourite Bellyache straight off the bat. She's enigmatic and powerful, moving about the space like she needs it, owns it, throwing herself into every word. Her keyboardist and brother Finneas O'Connell doesn't miss a beat, sometimes jumping out from behind his keys to dance perfectly alongside Eilish before jumping straight back to his position. Eilish belts out singles Ocean Eyes and Copycat, even doing a stripped-back rendition of Drake's Hotline Bling.

I OH YOU's block party is a welcome rest from the crowded sun-soaked grounds, with its central features including a large leafy tree that throws heaps of shade over the mob of dancing bodies. Brisbane local Jesswar takes the small stage and immediately commands the attention of everybody with her tricky rhythms and hypnotic flow. What was once a shady sanctuary suddenly becomes a writhing, grinding mass of bodies all getting down and dancing together.

Wandering back to the main stages, we're thrown straight into the deep end with Wolf Alice tearing apart Never Let It Rest Stage. Frontwoman Ellie Rowsell is like a shrieking banshee in every glory-filled way, tearing across the stage and belting out songs right into punters' faces. It's powerful and attention-grabbing, and we can't get anywhere near close enough. We mill about on the outskirts of the tent and jump and scream along with the rest of them. Wandering back towards the grandstand after a few songs and running into all kinds of friends, new and old, we're content to sit and watch for a bit while we all chat and recuperate out of the harsh sun.

It's not long before Californian band The Internet grab our attention from the nearby Good Better Best Stage to get our feet tapping along and our hips swaying. It's a nice set to relax to, frontwoman Syd serenading us with her soulful voice as the sky gets a little darker and the weather gets a little cooler.

After our much-needed sit down, we regroup and push our way into the crowded main stage, finding it surprisingly easy to get a decent position for the vocally blessed and fashionably dressed Father John Misty. He starts out with I Love You, Honeybear, and you can hear the whole audience singing and crooning along with him. His set is beautiful and inspiring, but he's barely three songs in before we're dragged away back to the block party to find more friends and catch another act. We find our friends and buy another drink, but we've just missed the last of Wiki and instead we dance along under the cool shade of the tree and vibe out to some electronic hip hop DJ.

We wander back to the main stages slowly, enjoying the cool drizzle of rain that's sprinkling down around us. Taking a seat up on the grandstand to watch the next act on the big screens in front of the tents, we take shelter from the drizzle and it's good to take a seat somewhere other than on the ground. It's not long before Canadian cigarette-obsessed sweetheart Mac DeMarco is greeted on Good Better Best Stage by thousands and screaming fans who have all anxiously awaited his arrival. He throws some cheeky banter at the crowd and belts out a fantastic set as the sun slips below the horizon. Even with the rain and disappearance of the sun, it's visibly hot onstage and so it's not long before DeMarco strips his shirt off (much to the audible pleasure of the crowd) and continues performing, with beer and cigarette in hand.

We're crammed right into the thick of it after DeMarco leaves the stage and try and shuffle along with the crowd of people simultaneously pushing to get in and out of the tent to get closer to Never Let It Rest Stage. The rain outside has brought many people under the tent, and the air is damp and humid. After what feels like a lifetime crammed between sweaty bodies, there's a surge of energy in the crowd and screams echo everywhere as the first tasty beats of Anderson .Paak's cult favourite Come Down reach our ears. It's too crowded to move in the tent so many brave the rain, and there's people dancing in the bars and the walkways.

The heat of the day and the infectious bouts of dancing have us beat, though, so this writer retires to the grandstand for the rest of this set and, shortly after, we see ourselves out. Laneway Festival once again stacks talent with talent and provides one helluva festival that isn't for the faint-hearted since you'll be dancing and grooving the whole time you're here.