So let’s recap with my faith with festivals having returned from Reading Festival:
“And while the real music fans have been edged out of larger festivals, and turn towards the smaller festivals for their fix of remotely interesting music, such as the ATP festivals, something tells me that the larger festival bubble will surely sometime in the next couple of years burst – while I’m not hoping for collapse of an icon such as Reading and Leeds festivals, maybe it’s for the best interests of real music fans.”
Five months on from the debacle that was Reading Festival, I must say, ATP’s December installment of their Butlins festivals had high expectations for the future of festivals for me. While Reading had the advantage of being able to spend a weekend in the summer with all of my friends sitting around waiting for a good band to stumble on stage, it missed what festivals really need which is a) a variety of music, b) for that variety to be good and c) a good atmosphere to appreciate the variety of said good bands. ATP festivals are renowned for these three points, so it was with much relish we travelled the odd 200 miles to get to Minehead – and while Butlins may seem like a surreal backdrop to the madness handpicked by Melvins and Mike Patton, I can honestly say that this event was one of the highlights of my gigging lifetime (2 or so years, then).
FRIDAY
Melvins (1983 line up)
To start the weekend, the ‘original’ line up of the Melvins performing tracks from the Mangled Demos From 1983 album released a while back. King Buzzo introduces drummer for the set Mike Dillard and bassist “Matt Lukin”, who rather curiously enough is a dead cert for full time Melvins drummer Dale Crover. Hmm. While the crowd don’t whip up into a frenzy, the hardcore side of Melvins is an apt opening act, being an influence for many of the bands to come. Houdini number Set Me Straight was a crowd favorite from the set of otherwise stock-hardcore songs, and there was the general feeling of the set being there for the sense of nostalgia as opposed to music. Regardless, an intriguing look into Melvins history.
Tweak Bird
If I was to be honest, I can’t remember much of Tweak Bird’s set; although what I remember was definately worth chasing up. The White Stripes-esque (in line up, not sound) set up of guitar and drum duo was definately unique in the grand scheme of sludgy duos – the frilly high voice of one of the brothers somehow complimented by the other brother’s beat-perfect drumming and his own guitar work. The merch stand didn’t have any of their CDs. Boo.
Dirtbombs
This band have been described on the internet as one of the best live bands around – curious enough to beat tiredness from the journey, I was, simply put, blown away. Dirtbombs are best described as soul-meets-garage-rock, with two drummers and two bassists. Intense stuff, especially the memorable ending where the instruments and drums were taken off the stage bit by bit while the band were still playing, right up until the drummers had one tom drum and a whistle between them, at which point launching themselves into the crowd. A must see.
The Locust
Having been disappointed by the opening of Torche’s set, The Locust filled in the space admirably. I say “filled”, I mean a more brutal verb like “pounded their way into” – I had expected them to play the standard 1, 2 minute songs, yet while they did do this, they created soundscapes that could probably make glass break, the bass making my spine shake. Their stage personalities also added to the effect, whilst not playing their instruments they remained completely static, eireely twitching like puppets when playing their parts.
Zu
It’s hard to describe Zu to someone not familiar with them – hardcore meets metal meets jazz? Maybe, but that doesn’t really matter; to hear the band is to realise what they’re on about, and while mixing jazz with metal doesn’t exactly seem to be on the top of the pile of great ideas, in practice it is a sight to behold. Filled with energy, the chunky, driving bassline and the saxophone’s booming melody work together perfectly. Who would have thought it?
SATURDAY
Bohren & Der Club of Gore
“Doomjazz”, apparantly, before you ask. While I do appreciate their music, their placement as first thing on the saturday wasn’t exactly inspired; a late night spot would have fit their gloomy, atmospheric jazz happenings much better. Not a very memorable set, but potential is definately there for an excellent show.
Mastodon
While they were a guitarist down, they still managed to make do with a fantastic set that covered all their albums – and although Colony of Birchmen was missing backing vocals, they seemed to sound pretty similar to the four-piece version of Mastodon we all know and love. Blood and Thunder was still the whalecore classic it was the day it was concieved, and the Blood Mountain-heavy set displayed their progressive talents. Now if only they would actually drum the opening to Crystal Skull, then we’d have something to write home about.
Melvins
Pretty much the Brighton show (read review below) but sans Boris, Honey Bucket and My Generation amongst others. Still, a fantastic show from one of the best live shows around, running through some oldies such as Tipping the Lion and Eye Flys, but mostly keeping to (A) Senile Animal and Nude With Boots material. The dual drummers set-up was as tight as ever, while Buzz and Joady kept the guitars and vocals the classic chunky, brooding Melvins style. Ending the set was Star Spangled Banner, met with general confusion by the crowd, yet was still as bone-crunchingly apocolyptic as it’s been previously. The best set was to come on sunday…
Butthole Surfers
Gibby was spectacuarly drunk. Meandering on stage with a bottle of whisky in one hand and beer in the other, the vocal style that ensued actually fit the music very well – opening with 22 Going On 23, the newly-reunited original-lineup of the Buttholes (how’s that for marketable) were one of the highlights of the festival – this is coming from someone who previously was not a massive fan. Tinkering with various electronics, the singer, Gibby, manipluated his voice into a snarling (albiet wasted) monster of a frontman. Another must see.
Fantomas
This marked Mike Patton’s sole contribution to the performance side of the festival (well, alongside Fantomas’ sunday set), and while I did hope for some impromptu collaborations with the likes of Zu or Rahzel, this set billed as a performance of their most ‘conventional’ album, The Director’s Cut, was an incredible sight to behold. Although oh so slightly out of the original order, Patton’s well oiled machine bulldozed it’s way though, ramping up the intensity of the original record sevenfold. Dale Crover replaced Dave Lombardo on drums, however the difference was not noticable on the grand scheme of things. One way to look at it was half Melvins, half Mr Bungle. And I like that view. A lot.
Neil Hamburger
Words cannot simply describe how funny this man is. This man is so unfunny, he’s funny – it’s a taste which is somewhat aquirred. He stumbles around stage with glasses of bourbon, insults the audience repeatedly (“why don’t you go to another stage and watch someone shit on a plate?”) and lacks a certain amount of taste (“Q: WHY did god let Smash Mouth have three top 5 hits? A: It was a clerical error. They were meant to get AIDS”), yet it strangely fits together. Definately watch him if you get the chance.
SUNDAY
Vocal Sampling
Essentially, an acapella group from Cuba that sings both cuban classics and modern hits such as Hotel California and Every Breath You Take. This is how you start a morning – the stage was sparse with only the 5 members of the group and their microphones on stage, but they whipped up the crowd a frenzy – at one point getting the crowd to actually dance, which doesn’t happen enough at gigs in my opinion. It certainly is an experience to hear the Hotel California solo, complete with effects, with no guitar on stage.
Leila
Something went very wrong here. Plagued with technical difficulties, the sound kept of cutting out, and oddly enough one of the singers shuffled on stage before introducing himself with “I want to die”. Enough said really. Probably would have been better if it worked properly.
Monotonix
There’s a reason that this Israeli “freak rock” band are hailed amongst the greatest live bands of our time – choosing to set up on the floor instead of the stage, as soon as the first bangs of the drum hammered in, the lead singer had already gone across the crowd and back again. Although I can see why on record they can be a bit shoddy, they are strictly a live band – hanging from pipes on the ceiling, drinking people’s beer and spitting it around the crowd, crowd surfing the drum kit whilst crowd surfing themselves and playing it… ask anyone who went to go see Monotonix a story about them and they’ll reel out something different every time. At the end of the set, the drum kit was whisked outside, where the gig continued outside (until the security told them to stop). Basically, brilliance.
Melvins (again)
Essentially the same as the saturday set, with the inclusion of My Generation and Boris; maybe Jared was inspired by Monotonix, but the crowd interaction in this show was incredible – during Eye Flys, the lumbering frame of Jared leant into the crowd whilst playing the bass line, a vacant, chilling facade etched into his face, fitting the mood of the song perfectly and giving the song extra creep factor. Then, during Boris, he ditched his istrument in favor of running amok in the crowd; at one point he charged towards my lady friend whilst having the shirt of someone streched over his face while the person still had the shirt on. Doubtless it’s somewhere on Youtube, but his haunting cries during Boris summed up the whole “Nightmare Before Christmas” aesthetic excellently.
Kool Keith
While rap/hip-hop stars always have a sense of ego, I’m sure “Black Elvis” is a bit far for this man. Not much else to say, wasn’t paying much attention. Kutmasta Kurt was good, though.
Squarepusher
So it’s about ten to 3 AM when Squarepusher gets on stage – The Damned apparantly took ages to get on – and we’re all pretty tired and dreading getting up by 10AM. Of course, once he gets into the thick of things, time is no longer a restraint, exhaustion disappeared, and gone to be replaced by frantic dancing to his jazz-IDM frenzies. The first few songs of the set were from his latest couple of releases, Just a Souvenir and Hello Everything, Hello Meow in particular getting crowd attention (the bemused-amused face of Tom Jenkinson when people started to crowd surf was priceless), and by the time he was pulling out the dancier stuff like Come on my Selector half the crowd had surrendered for the night, leaving a small pulse of a crowd lapping up whatever he was pushing at us. Was it worth being up until half 4 for? Yes, yes it was.
And on that note, a Mike Patton quote from the Fantomas set: “I’ve seen more awesome bands in the last 1 and a half days than I have in the last 10 and a half years” – and this rings true. In one place, in 3 days, I was proven that some festivals aren’t souless holes. Here’s to ATP festivals. Shame I can’t make the Jesus Lizard one, though.
