I started the day catching an uber from my mates seedy Ponsonby flat after what felt like more than one can of lion brown. We made it just in time to get to the barriers to see one of my personal favourite bands, DIIV. The rattling bass lines of Devin Rubén Perez mixed with Zachary's dreamy vocals made an ideal setting for sipping $9 ciders in the sun. I heard someone next to me mutter "I thought it was pronounced DIVV" as the band introduced themselves, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept my mouth shut.
Next up was FIDLAR, a high energy stoner punk group with lyrics very relevant to my morning "I drink cheap beer, so what are you?". They churned out a pretty decent set on the MysteryX stage given a few issues with sound. After standing in the sun drinking in 30 degree whether we retreated to some shade and listened to Thundercat, the genius behind the production of Kendrick Lamar's to pimp a butterfly.
Craziest set of the day for sure was METZ. We made it right to the front for one of the loudest bands in the world, playing in the Red Bull Thunderdrome, which is essentially a giant barrel. I still don't think my hearing has completely recovered and I'm unsure of it ever will, I also left that set with a few bruises and almost got knocked out by this massive guy in a Hawaiian shirt trying to stage dive. Who the fuck wears a Hawaiian shirt in 2016 btw?
Next was the most heartbreaking clash of all 4 years I have been to Laneway. Grimes vs Beach House. I chose beach house as I love literally all of their albums and listen to them
almost every day. I couldn't help but feel the FOMO of Grimes being awesome. Beach House battled through sound issues, their set was over by the time everybody was getting into it, I feel like beach house is the kind of band you need to see play their own show rather than a festival set. By the time the sound issues were solved 'Myth' made it seem like it was almost worth missing dear Canadian princess Grimes.
To finish the day off, we checked out the log flume on the main stage. I felt like we hadn't had enough pingers to properly enjoy the Australian chill wave prodigy as much as everybody around us so clearly was. I'm not trying to hate on Flume, I like flume, but the set just didn't seem any different to the others I've seen him play here and at La De Da. We headed over to purity ring which was the highlight of the day for me, the unique light show percussion setup combined with the amazing vocals made for one of the best sets I have ever seen. Fineshrines by Purity Ring was song of the day for me followed by DIIV's Dopamine