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Ok, here's my review. Brace yourself.
I have never been to a festival with a line up like this ATP, I mean, dear God on the Saturday there was 12 hours of music I could have just watched. I had to take a break for Books though, great as they are they were too chilled out and I needed food.
I’m just going to give a mini review of each band rather than a big write up.
First act on Friday was Daniel Johnston, I’m not a big fan but decided to check him out, I only lasted 3 songs. What can I say; I have a fear of people playing acoustic guitars so I legged it to Yo La Tengo. Who sucked. They started off with a cool enough version of Nuclear War but turned it into a 15 minute jam, on the first song! So we buggered off to see the Notwist.
The Notwist were amazing! All the quiet glitch pop of Neon Golden was beefed you with some huge dub bass and some really loud guitars. The best combo of both genres since I saw the Boo Radley’s.
Then it was off to see Mogwai. Now, I love Mogwai, they are without a doubt one of my favourite bands ever, so I tromp into the giant food court that the main stage is in, and brace myself. To my delight they started off with Superheroes of BMX, something I’d never heard live before. They kept it show kind of low key for a while and even played Kids will be Skeletons then the rock arrived! Dear God, it was like standing in front of a 747 powered by guitars. I was dizzy from the sheer volume but the gig was god damn amazing. I just needed a beer and a sit down to recover; I was actually shaking when I got back to the apartment.
After a break we went and checked out Akron Family who were very, very shit. Almost Kings of Leon shit.
So I went to bed.
Saturday
Dragging myself out of bed and making breakfast we found ourselves watching Come out of the Closet, the R Kelly Soap Opera. Dear god it’s funny stuff and really helps with a hangover.
But on to Shellac who were first band of the day and who were an hour late on stage and were now clashing with Current 93. The pain, which would I watch? Never having heard much of C93 I decided to stay with Shellac but they were so bad I left after 2 songs, it really hurt to see them fuck up My Black Ass. But Shellac being crap paid off for me with a quick trip upstairs to see C93.
Now, I’ve only heard Black Ships and I was afraid of one man and his acoustic guitar turning up, thank god he had a full band, Grand Piano, keyboards, electric guitars, harp and violin and cello. And such a great set, the Black Ships turned up as expected but the song that caught my attention seemed to be called Lucifer over London, great song. There was a minute where it looked like they were going to cover Paranoid, but didn’t. The only cover was “Under the Moon of Love” which weirded me the hell out.
Then I went to see Annuals, I first saw them supporting the Flaming Lips and they were just lost but on their own they were one of the best bands of the weekend. Art rock with 2 drum kits, a shed load of percussion and some great pop hooks make an amazing live show. The track Brother is well worth hunting down.
Ok, I can’t keep this detail up, so here’s the quick blast. Les Savy Fav were amazing with the most nuts front man I’ve ever seen. It took him about 30 seconds to get into the crowd and he only seemed to jump out for weird costume changes. Good catchy punk that had me in the pit for the first time in the weekend.
Battles are fucking brilliant, no fucking amazing live. I find the album so so but live you’ll pogo your shoes flat.
Do I even have to say Cornelius were amazing? Jumping from the chill out of Drop to full on Melt Banana rock and back. Wonderful stuff.
Then Books came on and started to suck the life out of us, not that they were bad but too chilled out so it was off for a quick shower and some more booze.
On the way back to see Why? I caught Patti Smith play Gloria, which was fantastic and all I needed to see of her.
Why? Were odd, not really my kind of thing but enjoyable enough, left them and caught the end of Trans Am who were far more rocking that I would have expected from the stuff of there’s I’d heard before. Leaving 65daysofstatic to finish you the evening and oh how they did. Huge Aphexesque beats with some shredding guitars at ear splitting volume. It was sweet as a nut, god bless ‘em.
Then bands over the parties started and then things got silly. One party was so full you couldn’t get in the door so people we climbing in the window.
So very little sleep and Sunday.
Started with Shellac again (got locked out of my apartment so couldn’t get my shorts to go on the water slides) who were much better in a smaller venue and some of the new stuff sounds great.
So a quick mood change for Slint, who were playing in the huge food court in daylight, it was an odd choice but for the first few songs the place was packed but that crowd quickly dropped off, I don’t know why, they were fantastic, Good Morning, Captain almost had me in tears.
Off upstairs again for Architecture In Helsinki who bored us so we regrouped and got ready (i.e. drunk) for Modest Mouse. I came late to the MM party. I had an album or two kicking round but never bothered till a ‘Lither put 3rd planet on a CD compo and I decided to check em out properly. Boy am I glad I did. I dunno what I was expecting from MM but I wasn’t expecting, well rock action. There was something really, really weird about watching Johnny Marr making that much noise. They played a mix of old and new that kept people from whining and finished with Spitting Venom, which well, was great! MM were one of the bands of the weekend for me. We then a quick sprint upstairs for Isis, who seemed a bit subdued after the volume for the Mouse. Says a lot.
At this point I hit a wall after all the bands and lack of sleep I decided I didn’t to see another band for the rest of the weekend. I was just broken. We went and got some more beer and went back to the apartment to recharge the batteries.
I got dragged to see Built to Spill and didn’t care much for them (everyone else loved them) but we decided to check out Capricorns, knowing nothing about them other than they’re a metal band. And Metal they are! None of your Post Metal either, it was Thrash Metal and kick ass for it. I have the CD on order as we speak.
Then I caught some of Subtle (not really my thing but I got talking to him a party later, he’s a good guy.) Grizzly Bear were very good, they turned it up a good bit and came across very well. I had to leave Do Make Say Think, they sounded great but again too tired to see at that point so I went back and started looking for a party.
That was a great weekend. Jesus, that is the longest post I’ve ever sent. |
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