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home » festivals » All Tomorrow's Parties » Ten Years Of ATP Festival 2009
Saturday reviewTen Years of All Tomorrow's Parties reviewWednesday 23rd December 2009 As the cold weather set in, the second day of the festival promised to keep the Christmas jumper clad audience members in good spirits, even though they were placed with one of the biggest clashes of the weekend, Kim Deal’s ‘The Breeders’, and a Jonny Marr-less ‘Modest Mouse’. Opening proceedings on the day for me, in the centre stage, were 1990s alternative rockers, hailing from Chicago, ‘Shellac’. The three-piece, fronted by underground hero Steve Albini, draw the plaudits from their brand of noise/math rock, and when performing live, they receive similar credit. Their show at on the Saturday, the first of time, attracted a large crowd, and when the band are as excellent as they are, it’s easy to see why. Racing through an energetic set, songs such as ‘Canada’ and the excellent ‘Copper’, with both showing off the band’s angular guitar sounds urgency. In a set that definitely impressed, it was also nice to see that Albini brought a brought over a bottle of Chicago based liquor for a fan that sent him an e-mail, showing that the Christmas spirit was definitely in the air. Following on from Shellac, were one of the most intriguing, and interesting bands of the weekend, the fantastically named ‘Porn’. With a music style as direct as their name, their brand of alternative metal/stoner rock, leaves nothing to the imagination, and complete with two drummers, they know exactly how to make a noise too. Their songs can be described almost as a ‘wall of noise’, often slow building, and this is shown no better than when they performed ‘Glory Will be Mine’, the highlight of their set. Hailing from San Francisco, the three piece toured with the Melvins in 2006 on their “Double-drumming for Peace” tour, with the latter band taking the same stage, just after their touring partners. The Melvins, hailing from Washington, America, formed in the early 1980s, taking their style from fellow American punk band, Black Flag, and it was the work that front man Buzz Osborne and his fellow members that went onto influence much of the Seattle punk scene, with bands such as Nirvana and Soundgarden both declaring how much of an influence the band had been. Now touring as a four-piece, with the two drummers adding to a fantastic live performance, the band treated the audience to a selection from their wealth of albums, with the songs ‘Kicking Machine’ and ‘Civilized Worm’, really going down well. Watching the band perform live for the first time, I was greatly impressed. Despite the fact that Buzz has a fantastic hair style, he’s a talented front man, with the ability to keep the audience captivated throughout their lengthy set, and with bass player Jared Warren in fancy dress, it became clear that the band were here to party, and that they did. Over on the main stage, were the New York 4 piece, Battles, who produced one of the best albums of 2007, ‘Mirrored’. The band, comprising of former members of Don Caballero, Helmet and Lynx, along with Tyondai Braxton, have become renowned for their experimental, math rock style, and have now become massively respected. Despite forming in 2003, the band only released their debut album 4 years later, in the meantime releasing 3 EPs, all to great critical acclaim, beginning to draw attention onto themselves, and it wasn’t long before the talent of the band was recognised and their drew masses of fans, reflecting in the big turn out for them for their set at ATP. A popular band at the ATP festivals, the band treated to fans to fantastic set, featuring songs such as ‘Trism’, ‘Tonto’ and the fantastic, ‘Atlas’, as well as debuting some new material, which I can’t wait to hear more of, such as ‘Sweetie and Shag’. Unfortunately, I only have one complaint of the band, and that is that when they perform live, the vocals don’t come across as prominently as they do on record, and don’t have the same effect on the music, but the music that the band offer is so spell bounding that you quickly forget all about that. Following on from Battles, were the main stage headliners, the Kim Deal fronted, ‘The Breeders’. Having formed in 1988, the 5 piece American alternative rockers have always been seen, almost, as the ‘side project’ to the Pixies, for who Kim Deal plays bass guitar for. However, ask any big fan of the band, and they’ll say it’s the other way round, and there’s no doubt, they are talented bunch. Only being able to catch half of the band’s set, due to the clash with Modest Mouse, what I was able to see definitely impressed, with the famous ‘Cannonball’ going down very well, and was definitely the highlight of what I was able to catch. Running over to the centre stage for my final act of the day, Modest Mouse were on stage to sizeable, but disgruntled bunch of fans. Unfortunately, lead singer Isaac Brock’s voice was suffering, and this meant that some vocal points in songs were disappointing, however, all credit to the band for continuing on, not wanting to disappoint any fans. Having formed in 1993, the band are no strangers to the live scene, and it’s clear that this experience definitely helped. With the former Smiths guitarist come and go in recent years, the band’s new line-up, musically were fantastic, and their song ‘Float On’, with all its beauty, was a complete spectacle to see live, ending up a definite highlight. review by Anthony Hetherington
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