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home » festivals » All Tomorrow's Parties » All Tomorrows Parties - Nightmare Before Christmas 2009
Sonic Youth give 100% drawing one the biggest audiences of the ATP weekendAll Tomorrows Parties - Nightmare Before Christmas 2010reviewFriday 11th December 2009 After a day of both firsts, and legendary, establish performers, day two promised to be a similar affair, with talent new and old on offer across the festival. The first act of the day for me was Le Volume Courbe, and for me, they offered the performance of the weekend, which is no easy feat when up against the likes of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Fronted by the French-born, London based singer, Charlotte Marionneau, who is both simply beautiful, and incredibly talented, and having only released one album nearly five years ago, sound incredibly fresh amongst a whole wealth of talent. Hand picked by My Bloody Valentine to play the festival after the band toured together last year and after Kevin Shield's contribution on the debut album, Marionneau and band delivered an equally impressive performance, with highlights including 'Sitting in your Head' and 'Freight Train'. After witnessing such a performance, I was left a tad underwhelmed by The Pastels, the recently reformed Glaswegian indie darlings, and unfortunately my view of the band was already slightly tainted. The band delivered a dull, twee performance, and ultimately, I felt that the simplicity of the songs resulted in a poor performance, with not much interaction from the band, and a poor delivery of their music. What they did perform, was clearly enjoyable by their devotees, but for a person new to the band I was left completely disappointed, and so it was up to the next act to offer something different, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Over on the Centre Stage, J Mascis & the Fog, another side project from Dinosaur Jr's frontman, who like Witch, provided another lesson in the art of American grunge rock. With the band playing both this weekend and the following weekend's All Tomorrows Parties festival, J Mascis has been stranded in Butlins, but with performances as good as this one, it's clear to see why the organisers were more than keen to have play as much as possible, as he clearly is flooding with talent. 'All the Girls' and the Iggy & the Stooges like 'Sameday', really demonstrated what the band were capable of, and for those audience members who came simply on the pretence that it was J Mascis playing, were left feeling a bit guilty of not coming on the reputation of the band as a whole, as they were very much enjoyable and talented. One of the most anticipated bands of the weekend however were London 5-piece, The Horrors, who after the release of their recent album 'Primary Colours' have received some great press coverage and deserved acclaim. Originally, I, like many others, just thought of them as another NME hyped indie band from London, who would disappear and quickly as they came onto the scene. However, with their new album they seem to have been able to come out of their shell and really show what a talented band they are, and live, this transcends into an excellent. With lead singer Faris lurching over the microphone, he looks almost like a dictator with one arm raised in the air and his demonic looks, and with songs such as 'Primary Colours' and the simply fantastic 'Sea Within a Sea', which is my personal song of the year, the band now show a level of maturity that I don’t think anyone imagined. Now, they sound like a completely different band, and live, they've really transformed into an act that can only be enjoyed, and this has resulted in the band being asked to support the likes of Placebo and Muse on their recent arena tours. After such a performance, I was once again sceptic of the next band I'd watch, however, I wasn't left disappointed, as I was earlier in the day. Back over on the centre of the stage, Peter Kember, aka the frontman of Spectrum, and founding member of seminal alternative band 'Spaceman 3', along with Jason Pierce, now of Spiritualized. Delivering another surprise set for me, he and his band really impressed as they delivered their brand of space-psychedelic alternative rock, with songs such 'How You Satisfy Me' and the new track 'War Sucks' from their new EP, really showing how the band are coming on in terms of sound, and their whole set really impressed a newcomer to the band. The final act of the day for me, and headliners on the main stage, were New York 5-piece, Sonic Youth, a band who continually impress in all of their work, and live, they were very impressive, with their experience definitely translating into an excellent performance. Following the release of their release of their new album 'The Eternal' earlier this year, the band has only played a handful of UK dates, and so it was perfect chance for many people to see their new material performed live. Opening with 'Sacred Trixter', the band then went through their extensive back catalogue and delivered a very tight performance, treating fans to a handful classics such as 'Kool Thing' and '100%', providing an excellent headline set to one of the biggest audiences of the weekend. review by Anthony Hetherington
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