my inner geekdom: atp pt 1.

finally, an all tomorrow's parties post.

so, first of all, a few minor complaints. and i say minor, although one was certainly a major hassle, because all in all they were not a big deal. the biggest being that, for some reason, at least on the two main days (so not the "don't look back" day) the had this weird notion of kicking EVERYONE out of the room where the bands were playing, ostensibly for setup and soundcheck, though there was some speculation that it was also so everyone could get a chance to get up front... they mostly gave this up by the time dinosaur jr went on on the MBV curated day, but still. also, they really should have had a bigger, more open (ie not a sealed off little room, that smelled of BO, and also... well... actually open during the operating hours of the show). also, letting us know things... such as when the first performances were, at least approximately, and about the whole room clearing thing, etc... would have been nice.

anyway... the lineup (wow, that's largely illegible).

so day 1 was the "don't look back" day, where bands played the entirety of "Classic Albums." we skipped Bardo Pond performing "lapsed" (honestly, i've never been a huge fan. they're good enough, and the album if i recall it isn't awful but...). in the process, i did have my first geeky moment where thurston moore walked by to take stuff to the merch booth (more on this later...). we did walk around the facility, where we had chosen not to stay but i think if we go next year, we will (tickets are already on sale, though i think it's worth waiting to see who's curating, just in case...). then we went to stage 1 for a few of the performances (no pictures ahead, i neglected to bring my camera).

meat puppets performed meat puppets 2. odd how grizzled and old they really look. also, forgot how good that album really was. a large portion of the crowd seemed to be mostly familiar with "plateau" and "lake of fire" (though the harder, faster version from MPII seemed to confuse those who largely knew it from the nirvana unplugged performance). they also played a couple of covers (neither if which i recall the name of right now... ) thankfully, nothing newer (such as backwater... meh... or anything else from too high to die, which is probably the only other meat puppets album people know), as it would have been unnecessary.

tortoise were next and very... spacey, as one would expect. i don't think i've ever heard an entire toroise album, as a few songs in, it seems redundant. not that i dont like tortoise, i just find them to ber very run on and samey. someone compared them to "isis, without words," though i have always kind of felt that... well... no. isis are some scary shit, tortoise are much more chill out music. not necessarily something you'd rock out to. i still don't feel like i need to own "millions now living will never die," and likely never will. i wouldn't mind a few tortoise tracks on my mp3 player, for long drives and the like.

then came the tall, gangly, certainly not youthful but definitely sonic, thurston moore playing"psychic hearts." kim gordon was there, as was kevin shields (and a really dancey, slightly annoying woman, who may or may not have been a VIP but was certainly not bilinda butcher, who we did see throughout the weekend with her lovely family). and so on this, despite being in proximity to many people from several bands - we must have passed members of silver mt zion quite a few times, especially on the day of their performance i'm not really the person who's going to make a scene, and bother them. if i see a lot of people doing so, eh,maybe, or if that's the reason they are there - yeah, i have met members of bands at shows and talked to them in non-fanboyish ways but as a rule, i don't. so i didn't (i did feel really embarassed pointing out that low were walking through the door at one point on day 3, as well as apologized to gemma hayes for almost running into her, but otherwise...) there were a lot of familiarly famous faces there -though a lot i couldn't quite place... but really, i felt it would be rude to bother them. anyway... anyway.so thurston played the album, and did seem to do an encore (or forgot a song from the album. he was using notes and lyric sheets on a music stand throughout the performance, so it is possible he forgot...). we left before built to spill - not a big enough fan of "perfect from now on" to hear it in it's entirety.

day 2. after taking it easy in the daytime, we got there to watch sonic youth's "1991 the year punk broke" at the criterion cinema room (they were playing other movies too, but out of the ones showing when bands we didn't want to see play, this was the only one worth it).

i own it on vhs but it was cool seeing it on a larger screen. there was also a q and a with the director, which was filled with lame questions about courtney love, and nostlagia. dave markey didn't seem to have a lot to say in response to questions, and was sort of annoyed by some. he did seem to indicate a possible dvd release someday (maybe with criterion... hmmm...) it was really entertaining seeing kurt cobain just before stardom (man was funny), and just how... goofy and fun thurston moore is.

then we made our way to stage two, after a dissappointing visit to the food court (the food there was another minor complaint. from the undercooked and underseasoned vegetarian on a pita, to the sort of boring ratattoullie... meh... the sweet potato fries were decent enough, but we ended up eating more at the liberty diner, near our hotel, which had a weird coen brothers movie feel to it...

after they finally let us in (this is where we learned about the room clearing rule)... we saw low. mostly newer stuff, plus a new and sort of creepy new christmas song about santa coming.
setlist (i assume complete, i found it online here):
Candy girl
Murderer
Pretty people
??? (creepy santa song, i think)
Always fade

awesome performance, though lacking my favorite song by them. maybe it was because we were right up front, but it felt like a low performance should feel - very intimate and direct. the really cool chandelier in the room they played helped, as did the stage setup (as we were basically at the same level as the stage, rather than having it raised above us). then, they kicked us out again to wait for silver mt zion...

no setlist, sorry, but it was... possibly my 3rd or 4th favorite performance of the weekend, mbv not inclusive. there's something about seeing silver mt zion live which just blows me away completely. there was a lot of... was it heckling? not really, though a little. banter, mostly people saying dumb things and efrim not hearing them, causing some confusion. the intimacy of the stage setting made it all the more intense, and beautiful. yeah, i can't even do it justice here...

we then made our way to stage one, to catch Shellac, before we called it a night. we got a decent spot in one of the tiered sections of the floor, to the right of the stage. they were just loud enough to not need earplugs, but definitely fast, and brutal. albini is exactly as i would expect him to be live. . bob weston took questions from the crowd, such as their stance on unicorns ("not extinct yet.") and could they name a song worse than kokomo (albini: "i'm sure jimmy buffet has hundreds.") i was more than pleasantly surprised by them, though i expected to enjoy them. definitely a highlight.

bands we missed i wouldn't have minded seeing:
fuck buttons, polvo, autolux, harmonia

band im glad i missed:
les savy fav.

so here's some pictures (sorry if they're a bit dark):

Low