All Tomorrows Parties - The Fans Strike Back 2009 Review
Thursday 14th May 2009
The final day of the festival is filled with excitement with the prospect of the Spiritualized headline performance later that evening.
Leading up to that are performances from alternative folk band, Shearwater; post-punk Welsh super group Future of the Left, young American four-piece Parts And Labor, along with New York electronic-funk act !!! (Chk Chk Chk), and 80’s electronic metal act Killing Joke.
Fresh from their highly acclaimed performances as American festival SXSW, Texas natives Shearwater open the main stage with songs from their equally acclaimed debut album, Rook, including On the Death of the Waters. Following on from Shearwater are Future of the Left, comprised of two former members of punk act Mclusky and one member from electro-punk act Jarcrew, resulting in an all Welsh super group. Future of the Left, fresh from a full UK tour go down very well with the audience up early enough to catch, really starting to get the crowd dancing. Screaming vocals and intelligent guitar parts along with songs such as Manchasm really show that this band has huge promise; catch them in small venues whilst you can!
Over on the centre stage New Yorkers !!! continue from where Future of the Left finished and start a frenzy of mass dancing inside the small and dark venue under the guidance of lead singer Nic Jammer, who isn’t satisfied until he has achieved this mass of dancing. Debuting songs from their new album along with popular songs such as Must Be the Moon the band achieve what they set out to do.
Killing Joke offer a stale performance, with lead singer, who clearly shares the same make-up artist as Alice Cooper, needing the use of a lyric sheet to help him through several songs. The crowd feed off this, with only the die-hard fans really managing to find the better aspects from their performances.
Back over on the main stage, young Americans Parts & Labor warm up the crowd for the headline performance of Spiritualized with their experimental rock, with songs such as The Gold We're Digging managing to get the crowd throughout excited for the arrival of Jason Pierce & Co.
Spiritualized take to the stage just before 9pm as the five-piece band accompanied by two Gospel singers that have now become a staple part of their live performances. From the off, their set is anthemic, with the audience singing along to nearly every word with few unwilling, or almost unable, to take their eyes of Jason Pierce. He manages to hold the audience to his every lyric without much interaction, and that's why Spiritualized have become the worthy festival headliners that they are. With songs such as Here It Comes sounding fresher than ever, this band certainly haven't lost what they had in their biggest stage in the 1990s. With Spiritualized coming to an end, the festival ends on a high note.
Another successful All Tomorrow's Parties festival from the organiser's point of view and from the fans also. On a personal note the festival proved to be an educational and enlightening event, with the bands I saw reminding me that there is still really undiscovered talent that only a festival such as All Tomorrow's Parties will be willing to book to perform.
review by Anthony Hetherington photos by Anthony Hetherington
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