DiS Festival Diary: My first-ever ATP

Bon Iver, somehow managed to sound more heart-piercingly beautiful than on record, no more so than on ‘Flume’. Men like this, who look every inch the grizzly woodsman, shouldn’t be allowed to have voices like this. By the time the crowd are singing backing vocals on ‘Wolves (Act I&II)’ everyone seemed to be in tears, though on reflection it was more likely just sweat… Hotfooted past the hotdogs downstairs to catch Born Ruffians, whose see-sawing backing chants, whooping and hollering and punchy basslines are the perfect soundtrack to the summery weekend. ‘Badonkadonkey’’s opening lines (“IIIIIIIIIIII got you in my pocket for when I get hooooooooome!”) becomes somewhat an anthem of the weekend. Meandered back upstairs less than purposefully to catch the onset of Yeasayer, who hadn’t yet started. Try and brave it in the middle of the action but end up retiring nearer to one of the several giant fans dotted around the edges; a few more of these would have been great… A little slow to get going and leaving me slightly less than enthused (Mehsayer anyone?), but once ‘2080’ (with_ that bridge about grabbing the chance to be handsome farmers / 21 sons marrying daughters and something incomprehensible about pickling), ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Wait for the Wintertime_’ are aired you begin realise what the fuss is about. Meanwhile Yeasayer’s bassist wins worst facial hair/hat combo of the festival, beating off some stiff competition.

Speaking of fuss, Los Campesinos! are a band that much fuss has been made of, and rightly so. Never before has anyone been so happy to be somewhere than lead singer Gareth (well maybe when Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United were in the Premiership) is to be here performing at ATP. Seriously, he looked on the verge of tears during songs. Every member of Los Campesinos! channels this supreme delight into one of the most energetic, enjoyable and entertaining sets I’ve ever seen. It’s non stop action; cowbells, glockenspiels, melodicas and hyperactive vocals a-plenty from the first til last. The highlights were every single song (finale ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’ was just a bit good…), though I realised that I couldn’t dance a single step after idiotically choosing to wear flip flops and stand at the front. A nice bit of musical ecstasy, in short.

Sunday

Once again awoken by someone else playing Graceland (I still don’t get it…). The state I wake up in I did wonder whether, as an ATP virgin, I peaked too soon. In any case I decided to MTFU and get back on it. I wasn’t sure whether anything could top Los Campesinos! so decided to ditch Swedish crooner Jens Lekman for ‘exercising’ the grey matter in the pub quiz. I managed to contribute the square root of nothing after getting distracted by some football game. Surprisingly managed to come second at a festival full of music geeks (who were probably watching some actual bands or something at this point, y’know?). Prizes include: an ATP t-shirt and approximately 4,367 Jackie-O Motherfucker LPs. Really don’t feel up for watching many of the bands between Marissa Nadler and* Meat Puppets*, so instead choose to watch an epic game of cricket outside the chalet block. Some amazingly kind gentlemen come around offering Pimms and cake to those watching, which is what it’s all about really, no? Amazing scenes.

After bad light stops play I will freely admit that much of the rest of the night is a blur… Meat Puppets I remember being pretty damn impressive and obviously played some classics off Meat Puppets II, ‘Lake of Fire’ was particularly raucous as well as others such as ‘Up On The Sun’ getting me going. The ‘brothers meat’ were truly tremendous. Then something about a chalet party with Jay Reatard which may never have happened, dancing like a lunatic to Mudhoney, and trying to vault into a sandpit but landing elbow first on a bin.

** Monday**

Two hours’ sleep really isn’t enough. Luckily I avoided managing spewing my guts up, though I think my liver probably wanted to escape my body at this point and my brain my skull. I’d never felt this emotional when leaving a festival (though I did want to bawl my eyes out when wading through the mud at Glastonbury last year…). It really was the most perfect weekend and left me contemplating, whether any other festival could beat ATP. Conclusion: probably not.

ATP returns this weekend, at Minehead’s Butlins, curated by Explosions in the Sky – check out their guide to the event here and visit ATP’s official website here.

Photos: Shot2bits.net