Prosaist & Co.: November 2012

The past couple of weeks have been a time of great suspense and anticipation for indie music-lovers across this tiny island. Girls (and guys too, of course) who have screamed their lungs out for the likes of Two Door Cinema Club, The Whitest Boy Alive, MGMT, The Vaccines, Bombay Bicycle Club - and, naturally, the entire lineups for the previous two Laneway Festivals - have been speculating, impatiently waiting for and even arguing over the quality of the dozen-or-so names that are to grace the festival's set list, and it goes without saying that people pledged their attendance in the hundreds the moment the date was announced.

The wait is finally over for those who find themselves forever explaining to (the not-so-likeminded) others a reasonable jutification for the inarticulate phrases of excitement and high-pitched hyperventilation when a band that isn't Maroon 5 comes to town.

Of course this isn't the first we have heard for laneway artists this year; a list of all artists doing the rounds at this festival have been common knowledge for some time, whereas the line-up of the Singapore leg of the festival has been a point of speculation.

I have several points to make that should begin with phrases synonymous to the words "Admittedly, I..."

Admittedly, I was initially disappointed - not even skeptical, just disappointed - with the first announcement of the line-up (that is, when the list encompassing all artists in the festival was released). My immediate reaction stemmed purely from the fact that it was clearly not as great (to me) as the line-up last year, I seemed to dwell on that outlook for a while. The myriad of headliners seemed to chiefly be people that I had either heard of or never heard of, though I did know how revered they were by some of my friends. The line-up of 2012 contained a lot of artists that immediately settled with me, or that already resided comfortably on my list of favourite artists.

Oddly enough, the narrowing down of artists for the Singapore festival made me more appreciative of them, and the fact that it's a saturday this year is an absolute godsend. The venue, however, is a matter of slight skepticism; for all it's simplicity I love going to concerts in Fort Canning, and it really helped amplify the festival vibe last year.

I must confess that I know very little of the artists that I am genuinely looking forward to seeing. Without sounding like the biggest mindless poser ever, I really do think that it can be enough to know of the acclaim that band have received to want to go to a concert.

The bottom line is, I can't get my ticket soon enough.

Most looking forward to [in no particular order]; Of Monsters and Men, Kings of Convenience, Gotye, Cloud Nothings, Tame Impala, Bat For Lashes

Most curious about; Alt-J (I find it shameful to admit that I haven't listened to these Mercury Prize winners!), Yeasayer, Kimbra, Divine Fits