A quick picture blitz through our third magical trip to All Tomorrow’s Parties.
Friday:
Mono: Waaaaa, waaaa, waaaa. So-so.
Dinosaur Jnr: J the legend has let himself go, but his guitars are sure still meaty. And LOUD.
Smiley people.
Sunset Rubdown: Slightly lost on the huge Pavilion Stage.
Explosions in the Sky: Seen them do better; almost going through the motions at times.
The Paper Chase: Just didn’t do it.
Saturday:
Ghostface Killah: Incredible. GREEDY BITCHES, GREEDY, GREEDY BITCHES.
Giant butterflies.
Okkervil River: Groovy.
Iron & Wine: Bit of a letdown, meandering into his own beard.
The National: Epic, but sometimes straying to close to mediocre.
Adem: Complete pap. And his cover of Yo La Tengo raped the original. Very disappointing.
Eluvium: Cyclical post-rock grooves but he sure looked lonely.
Battles: Owned the weekend. The sprung-loaded floor was tested to the max, Centre Stage was bursting with sweaty bodies. AND THAT DRUMMER! Seriously special.
The 6.30am gang.
Sunday:
Jens Lekman: Twee. Very European.
Polvo: Dated and bland.
Beach House: Glowing but indifference kicked in after 15 minutes.
Atlas Sound: Incredible. Perfect Sunday evening music.
Animal Collective: Loadest keyboards ever. Full-on ravealicious.
100% Pure Satisfaction.
Raekwon: Absolute nutcase. Hugged me then threatened to kill me. Still every bit a G. Played Built For Cuban Linx back-to-back with Ghostface.
Battles: Equally as impressive second time round.
Honorable mentions to The Drift (great orchestrated post-rock), The Field (more hot dancing), Four Tet (utterly wasted but remember thinking it was superb), Stars of the Lid (simply beautiful), Constantines (grand kick off to the weekend) and Manish & Pickles DJ-ing in Crazy Horse (Prince‘s When You Were Mine and LCD Soundsystem remixes).
*Pictures of Battles reproduced from Pitchfork’s Shannon McClean.
