First off, lemme assure y’all that I love Laneway Festival Singapore through thick and thin, heavy rain or unbearable shine, regardless of its trashy grounds and Gen Y scenesters.
With this morning’s surprisingly meh announcement of their 2017 line-up though, they’re verging close on being — for lack of a better term — Lameway.
Distinctly absent were the big names and sure-fire indie music acts that would outrightly justify the pricey cost of admission to the festival grounds. What folks got instead was a hodgepodge of Tier-B (and lower) outfits that you’d just be okay about catching.
I’m sure the likes of Norwegian Lorde Aurora, stadium rockers Gang Of Youths, alternative Alt-J Glass Animals and many others are pretty alright… but it’s not as if they’ve really been outstanding up-and-comers, nah mean? All filler, no killer so far — a rather unremarkable way to kick off hype for the indie music fest to attend.
Let’s talk about the ones that rank higher on the familiarity list. Jagwar Ma? Sure, they still owe us a proper Laneway set after abruptly pulling out of the same festival back in 2014. Tycho? Yeah he’s chill but we already saw him play last year and he only released one new song since his last record in 2014. Nick Murphy? Dude’s still the same Chet Faker sans the fake(r) name, and he already played Laneway last year (his new tune’s pretty good, though).
You can’t really say much about getting hyped for next year’s Laneway, but at least they’ve shown that they’re willing to diversify further beyond standard Middle Class White Boy Indie. Hip hop gets some proper love with the likes of Clams Casino, Mick Jenkins, Mr. Carmack and Sampa The Great. For those in need of noisier stuff, there’s Riot grrrl pioneer Katheen Hanna with her art punk outfit The Julie Ruin and Canadian post-punks White Lung.
Personally, the only acts I’m actually excited to catch would be White Lung (Paradise for AOTY ’16!) and electronic neuroscientist Floating Points. Big ups as always to the folks behind Laneway for including the regional likes of Indonesia’s Bottlesmoker and Stars and Rabbit, as well as our own prog supergroup T-Rex and new PBR&B darling Sam Rui.
All that said, it would be rudely unfair to determine that next year’s Laneway outing will be shite based solely on this line-up announcement. Chin up guvs, there’ll be more acts announced in the near future, and surely they’ve still got plenty of salacious surprises up their sleeves. Let’s be honest — you’d still go to Laneway regardless of who’s coming. You’re way too precious and hip to miss out on the biggest indie music festival in the country. #FOMO, after all.
Stay updated on the next wave of (hopefully more exciting) lineups on the Laneway Festival Singapore Facebook page. Ticketing details on their website.
PS: Stop asking why Foals aren’t in the lineup — they’re freaking playing this November in Neon Lights.
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