After many summers dominated by the Big Day Out, which felt like it had become a little predictable over the years, the arrival of the St Jerome's Laneway Festival (to give its full, slightly cumbersome title) was cause for celebration.

The line-up was a perfect mix of iconic artists (Echo and the Bunnymen, The 3Ds, Daniel Johnston) and young upstarts (the xx, Florence and the Machine, Street Chant). For me it was the latter group who shone brightest on a day the weather seemed determined to ruin, but the whole event felt like the beginning of a long, fruitful relationship.

The event started for me with a sit-down interview with Daniel Johnston. For those unfamiliar with this living legend of alternative music, the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston is required viewing, a story both inspiring and tragic, and one which shows just why his unique talent is held so close by his fans.

He was extremely unnerving in conversation, but on stage, though the sound was partially marred by a joyous set from Cut Off Your Hands on the other side of the car-park, he was a total marvel. The clenched fist and ambivalence to the audience were entirely over-ridden by his wide open songwriting.

Good as he was the hghlight of the day had to be the xx (defiantly lower case, thanks). Their debut album of last year was utterly perfect in its slow-motion, rhythmic pulse, but it sounded like a decidedly difficult operation to take live. But from the first note they were sultry and uncomfortably close, the hottest band in the world right now, and deservedly so.

Later sets from The 3Ds and Chris Knox and the Nothing showed that New Zealand remains one of the best nations in the world at the fine art of noisy rock'n'roll, and that nothing so mundane as a stroke can keep a free man down.

Echo and the Bunnymen were apparently patchy, while Florence blew minds, but by then I'd succumbed to a very long weekend and the (allowable on the first time around) long waits for food and drink. But make no mistake, if you missed it this year, this event is a a keeper.

To close out, here's the xx, doing a song named Basic Space.