Love indie music or interested to know more? Dougal Tsakalos-Stewart has got you covered, recapping the latest from the Laneway indie music festival.
The highly anticipated indie music festival, Laneway, returned to Australia in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic. There were a plethora of artists at the festival both new and established to the musical scene. [1] The festival was hosted in five cities, including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, all within a frantic eight day span.
The festival was stocked with local homegrown gems whose talent had not yet been unearthed. These diamonds in the rough included Mallrat, a
soft pop/indie artist from Brisbane who had been delivering heartfelt and wholesome tunes for the better part of five years. [2] Sycco and Abby Bella May were exciting newcomers onto the indie music festiva
l scene, both making their names from winning the Triple J Unearthed artist of the year, with the latter winning this year. [3] While there were many other Australian artists, the marquee one was most certainly Jungle Giants, an indie rock band well known both domestically and globally. [4]
On the international side of the artist list there was a stack of talent ranging from fairly undiscovered to well known performers. Stages were packed like sardines to have a peek at the famed Phoebe Bridgers, HAIM and Fred again. [5] Turnstile was also among the hits but had to miss the Brisbane and Sydney show due to their Grammy nominations. [6] The big performance however was Joji, otherwise known as FilthyFrank. The Japanese artist had audiences chanting, carrying their voices and feelings up to him with the emotional “Glimpse of Us” and melancholic “Slow Dancing In the Dark”.
This festival acted as a giant spotlight focusing on the power of music. Its ability to bring mass quantities of people with different values, ideas and experiences together is truly spectacular. [7] The shared experience of emotions and feelings that the artists can produce live makes this a worthwhile experience for anyone.
[1] Gallagher, Alex. “Laneway Festival Reveal Set Times for 2023 Edition and Line-up Changes.” NME, 17th Jan. 2023, https://www.nme.com/en_au/news/ music/laneway-festival-2023-set-times-lineup-changes-turnstile-hockey-dad-julia-jacklin-3381651.
[2] Staff Writers. “Laneway Festival 2023 Line-Up.” Scenestr, 22 Jan. 2023, https://scenestr.com.au/music/laneway-festival-2023-line-up-20220921.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Varvaris, Mary. “Laneway Festival Reveals Set Times.” The Music, 17 Jan. 2023, https://themusic.com.au/news/laneway-festival-reveals-set-times/ bLF0fmFgY2I/17-01-23.
[7] Heshmat, Sharam. “How Music Brings People Together.” Psychology Today, 30 Nov. 2021, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/202111/how-music-brings-people-together.
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