ATP!

[juliet]

ATP was splendid. Highlights, in no particular order, included (er, further details to be added when I go home & have another look at the programme):

• TurboNegro, who did a large number of things that should have been wrong (e.g. guitar solos), but wound up being utterly ace. boyofbadgers had "I Got Erection" in his head for the rest of the weekend. Pete found himself unable to resist doing that rock hand thing with the fingers sticking up, you know (which was pretty damn amusing in itself). They had a bucket of fake blood. Top stuff.
  
• Phillip Roebuck, a one-man-band (with the drum on his back & a banjo & everything) perhaps best described as 'techno bluegrass'. Fantastic.
  
• Lovely John Peel DJing for a couple of hours, although admittedly his style of DJing isn't best suited to dancing lots, as he changes around too much.
  
• Mclusky - bouncy bouncy Welshmen who slag off Tories in between songs.
  
• The Boredoms
  
• The Dishes - shouty stuff, requires jumping up & down to.
  
• A Whisper In The Noise
  
• Botnledja - Icelandic, bouncy, much fun.
  
• Doing lots of knitting whilst sitting at the back of upstairs/downstairs.
  
• Staying up Far Too Late in the chalet on Saturday night.
  
• The fact that the steps at the back of upstairs were open again (which they weren't last year) & thus could be sat on. Hurrah.
  
• Spending 3 days escaping from London by the beach with very splendid people. Hurrah some more.
  

Lowlights included:

• Converge - this is the noise that comes from next door's garage when their 15-yr-old is going through a disaffected phase. Bad.
  
• Sun City Girls - random wibbling, followed by offkey singing, followed by hasty exit before my ears started bleeding.
  
• Nobuyzaku Takemura + Aki Tsuyuko (at least I think it was them) - more offkeyness. Ouch.
  
• Kid 606 committing one of the Ultimate DJ Sins by stopping Peelie's last record as soon as he came on. Boo. Especially as the last record in question was, of course, Teenage Kicks.
  
• Lightning Bolt declining to play on the stage & instead setting up in the corner of downstairs. With the PA on the floor. Thus ensuring that the noise went through a large number of human bodies & came out of the other side approximately nonexistent. Apparently, not playing on stages is a 'thing' of theirs. I have no patience for that sort of self-indulgence.
  
• Unicum. Actually, in some ways this may have been a highlight, in terms of memorableness (& entertainment value gained). I am unsure. Unicum is the most unpleasant drink you will, or can, ever experience. I am not kidding. It tastes a bit like bile mixed with Camp coffee, except that I would, for preference, drink bile rather than Unicum. Apparently, they like it in Hungary. I have no idea *how* - maybe your tastebuds grow differently in Hungary. It smells a bit herbal, then the initial half-second of sipping it you think 'oh, that's just a bit minging', then it hits the back of your throat & you realise the full horror. And *then* it develops a bit further, revealing the *full* full horror. Experimentation revealed that nice whisky, beer, and vodka all failed to rid you of the flavour; cigarettes worked a *bit*, and plum brandy was most successful. But it's not the sort of taste you forget, like, *ever*. [shudders in recollection]
  
• The inexplicable decision to close off one of the entrances/exits to upstairs, thus making it twice as hard to get in & out. Bizarre.
  
• The similarly inexplicable decision not to switch the (very low) lights on at the back of upstairs till Sunday, thus leading to much intense darkness & falling over & spilling of people's drinks, whoops.
  
• The hotness of upstairs by late evening.
  
• The fact that the onsite shop doesn't sell veg, like, at all. Other than potato, onion, & cucumber. Also they ran out of orange juice by Friday late afternoon.
  
• Shellac on Sunday night - bit tedious, sadly (not as good as 2 years ago). Also very hot. So we all buggered off back to the chalet for a couple of hours.

Things to bear in mind for next year (mostly for my own benefit):

• Take a torch, in case they leave the lights off upstairs again.
  
• Take more vegetables. Nice vegetables.
  
• And a toaster (er, this may be getting excessive, granted)
  
• Take nice warm jumper - it gets cold, brr.
  
• If there's enough people going from London again, it may be worth hiring a minibus rather than going by train/bus

Am back at work now, boo. However, the insurance have finally delivered my New Bike, which is currently at the bike shop getting checked over (brakes slightly misaligned & I couldn't get them right, dubious noise from right pedal). And I have a Bigger and Heavier lock now, as well. [sigh]

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

So... ATP is obviously a festival of some sort; that much I can gather from your post. Apart from that, what is it? Because a lot of people wittered about it and asked who was going without actually explaining!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It is a little odd-end-of-indie-postrock-electronicy-stuff-and-anything-you-might-read-about-in-The-Wire festival held annually at Pontin's Holiday Camp. Two stages, about 40 bands, and 3000 extremely drunk and somewhat aging indiekids. Lots of fun if you like that sort of thing (and I do).

[juliet]

What boyofbadgers said, & also try their website. Top fun, that's what it is!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Yeah man, but JP plays Teenage Kicks all the f#cking time, good one for Kid606 calling him on it, is what I say. Sometimes I think 606 the only facking pank left in the southwest! And why can't anyone EVER play another Undertones song? HELLO, Mars Bars, You've Got My Number Why Don't You Use It, a best-of is like 4.99 from HMV, ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It's still a fucking rude thing to do.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It's probably worth pointing out I tht Peelie was rub - there are just some things you don't do.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he is weeping into his car boot full of demo tapes because of the mean Mr 606. I admit I might fade out quickly if I had a smashing mix lined up but I wouldnae just jerk the needle off (snurk) abruptly, like.

[juliet]

Well, that was the thing - he just came on & stuck his hand on the record. Not nice. (& although I enjoyed seeing him DJ, boyofbadgers is right that he was not v good for the dancing purposes. What works on the radio with lots of talking inbetween does not work so well at 0230 when you want to JUMP UP AND DOWN & there is no talking & thus things just keep switching around between different sorts of stuff. On the other hand, he started off with Hit The North so Rich Mc was happy.)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Well, if you say so, I just don't think it's something I'd weep about, but I wasnae there, like. I approve of Hit the North though.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Apparently this is actually the nastiest drink in the world: "Pruno, a prison wine created from fruit, sugar and ketchup... Pruno is vile. Perhaps it's the vilest beverage ever concocted."

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

Peelie's just admitted on his radio show that he thought he DJing didn;t quite cut it with the crowd - he's playing bits from the festival on the show though, if anyone's out there in real time...

lightning bolt or mogwai?

[the23.livejournal.com]

being something of a veteran of the no wave scene (or whatever you want to call it) here, i can tell that you are correct about it being lightning bolt's thing. this does have two advantages though - no seemingly interminable wait between sets because lb are ready to go as soon as the previous band on stage has finished (similar less well known bands do the same thing as groups from the same scene often play short sets, and this allows six or so bands to play in an evening), and increased audience participation (as they are not on stage people can view them from closer and more interesting vantage pts, such as leaning against the window four floors above forbes ave in pittsburgh while being less than a metre form the bass player and facing the drummer).

the answer to the question raised is obviously lightning bolt since mogwai are tedious.

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad someone finally asked this. I'd been meaning to for weeks :/

Re: lightning bolt or mogwai?

[juliet]

If the venue's suitable, & the PA & stuff is appropriately placed, that would work fine. The trouble here was that you're talking about a fairly large venue (capacity of maybe 1000, if packed?), and it just *didn't work* soundwise. You couldn't hear anything of the middle at all, & barely anything of the top - just a very muffled bass. I'd certainly rather have a longer wait between bands & actually be able to *hear* stuff once they start.

[juliet]

Hmm. From the description, it sounds like it's going to be a close thing. Maybe Unicum is made like that, but with herbal stuff instead of fruit & ketchup. The bile thing appears to be a constant, but at least Unicum smells quite nice.

Sadly, I don't think I can face investigating...

Re: lightning bolt or mogwai?

[the23.livejournal.com]

hmmm....it's hardly supposed to be hi-fidelity is it?