All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 3 (Sunday & Wrap-Up): I Think I’m Gonna Need A Bigger Set Of Earplugs
All Photos by Abbey Braden courtesy of ATP.
Saturday night we got back very late to our hotel so I proceeded to order vodka and cranberries by the handful and shoot as many as possible before the looming last call at the bar. I clearly overshot my target and ended up waking up Sunday with a ludicrously painful hangover to start off the day. Most of the afternoon consisted of me trying recover. It finally subsided and I was able to make it to the very end of the Mercury Rev show. As soon a I walked in the backdoor of the venue, there was like a sonic boom blast of sound from a particularly epic part of their set, and you could tell they had this soundsystem at full blast in anticipation of My Bloody Valentine. I wish I could have seen more of Mercury Rev, because the last few minutes I caught were amazing. I’m about to dig deep into their new CD and their old stuff because i wasn’t familiar with them until now.
We stuck around up front to wait for Yo La Tengo, a favourite for all of our ATP crew. The guards or somebody decided starting on Sunday that they would make everyone leave the venue between each performance and have everyone wait outside, which really seemed rather purposeless. At one point a security guard unsuccessfully tried to get the massive crowd filling an entire room to form two lines to go in and it was hilarious. The guards never cleared out the venue area again after that.
We still managed to get front row, and enjoy their top notch set. I was hoping for a full on noise jam set from Ira Kaplan, and while it ended up being a rather balanced sort of set, full of soft, pretty parts and loud, psychedelic stuff, Ira still shredded plenty enough for me. Yo La Tengo is just one of the best bands of alltime in my opinion, to still be writing relevant, amazing music and playing such impressive live shows after 24 years. Here’s video from their set:
After that, we literally ran across Kutcher’s to the second stage to catch …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. We missed only a little bit of their great set, and I’m glad I finally caught these guys. In comparison to the rest of the mindblowing shows of Sunday, Trail Of Dead might have seemed a bit less enjoyable, but still could have been the highlight of lesser festival.
Starting before Mogwai’s set, they started giving away ear plugs to everyone, because the rest of this night would feature the loudest line-up I’ve ever seen. Mogwai ended up playing the best set of the three times I’ve seen them, and I think a lot of it had to do with how much I’m digging the new material from The Hawk Is Howling. Unfortunately one of them had troubles with their pacemaker after the show and had to cancel the rest of their tour.
When they rolled J Mascis’s mutliple full stacks onto the stage, one of them had the setlist taped on it in big writing, and it revealed pretty much a perfect set from Dinosaur Jr. This is either the 4th or 5th time I’ve caught them since they reunited, and they seem even better and tighter each time. I loved how Lou Barlow made sure to tell everyone how excited he was to finally see My Bloody Valentine because he was kicked out of the band before they toured with them. Then J Mascis just shrugged like “oh well”. These two guys are such amazing musicians in such completely different ways, and their volatile combination sure creates some great work. Here is a song from their set:
After a long time standing at the front beseiged on all sides by a crowd growing ever denser, it was time for My Bloody Valentine. They were loud, but the shows were loud all day so it maybe seemed a bit underwhelming solely based on the massive, probably unfair expectations I had. But it was a great show, and the very long extended noise jam to end the set is something I am always a huge fan of. It wasn’t quite a religious experience for me, but it was pretty incredible.
Overall, this was one of the best festival experiences I’ve ever had. It is just so nice to have a festival that isn’t wasting line-up spots on garbage or big, overrated acts. Even the house music they played between sets sounded like a greatest hits of mp3 I’ve posted on here over the last year. The weirdness of the venue was intended to make the experience unique, and it was quite successful in that regard. I have to say that the soundsystems were flawless and proof that a small scale festival doesn’t have to be miffed with sound problems. They even had small, flat PA speakers on the floor in the middle for the people up in front of the main racks, and I wish some venues around here would look into getting some of those (I’m looking at you Variety Playhouse). The vibe and the crowd were chill as hell, and the weather was perfect for the weekend.
The only complaints I had were minor. There were small logistics issues that are to be expected in a festival venue’s first year. The lack of food options were probably the worst. The “24 Hour Cafe” at the Raleigh where we were staying had the most minuscule of options and was already closed down by the time I woke up on Sunday, forcing us to drive and find a Wal-mart at the end of the night to grab dinner. And the DJ at our nightclub was terrible.
All Tomorrow’s Parties has already announced they will return to Kutchers next year for ATP NY going down September 4-6, 2009 (Labor Day Weekend), and tickets are already on sale. My faith in ATP line-ups is such that I’m contemplating getting tickets already without one. In my book, All Tomorrow’s Parties is one of the premiere festivals in the world, and I can’t wait for the other festivals of today to catch up.
Previous ATP NY 2008 Coverage:
Day 1 Review
Day 1 Photos
Day 2 Review
Day 2 Photos
Day 2 Lightning Bolt Bonus
- Posted by Davy Minor on October 7, 2008 at 2:46 am
