Ice Cream Man

Whats better than going to All Tomorrows Parties in England? Hitting up TWO in consecutive weekends while youre there. Yup, luck would have it that after Pitchfork vs. ATP in Camber Sands, I got a few days off before Jeremiah, Liz, Tom and I rented a car and drove to Butlins Holiday Centre in Minehead for ATP curated by Explosions in the Sky. The big differences between the two events was that this weekend would be twice as large and the resort was a bit more middle class as opposed to Camber Sands blue collar awesomeness. All in all, it was a great opportunity to rock out for another three days and to get spoiled like never before.

While trying to get out of London we got stuck in traffic and it took us over an hour to go three miles. Not the best way to start a trip but whatcha gonna do? The 180(ish) mile journey took us about five and a half hours and we got there just in time to check in, grab some grub, then head to the Pavilion Stage to rock out to Explosions in the Sky. We were all a bit dazed by everything at that point and I just hung out by the soundboard in the back and bobbed my head up and down to the ever-building/growing instrumental tracks. One cool part about the festival was that the curators werent even the biggest band on the bill, so there was lots more good music on the way, even though EITS were headlining the main stage the first night.

We missed out on Constantines which was a bit of a bummer and the rest bands on the bill, outside of Four Tet, we werent familiar with. This is good and bad. You kind of need anchor bands that you know will rock out each night and with EITS finishing at ten we figured the best thing to do was wander around and get an idea of how the venues were set up so we could get in quick when bouncing between shows. Phosphorescent took the downstairs stage at Reds at 11:15 and we snuck around the back of the building to check out the one man band. Mannish had recently given me a copy of his new album, Pride, so I was a lil familiar with some of the songs. It was cool but just wasnt really high energy enough for a late night set.

After that we headed upstairs to Centre Stage check out The Paper Chase. The venues were setup quite differently with Reds being a bit more cozy and lounge-like and Centre Stage holding about 500 more people (I believe I saw a sign that said capacity was 2800) and it being laid out more like a traditional concert venue. When watching The Paper Chase I had the feeling that this was probably the biggest audience theyd ever played to. The noisy, catchy rock n roll was cool but didnt get me dancing much. Thats what Four Tet is for though. He closed the night out upstairs with a set that showed you really can make music with computers onstage. Kieran Hebden, the man behind all things Four Tet, makes electronic music, yet there almost always seems to be an organic aspect of it. When hes mixing his songs live, you can tell by the beats being off a tiny bit at times that hes not just pushing play in itunes. Tom was excited to see him because he mentioned a lot of his newer stuff was a bit more upbeat with a techno feel too it and when he played a couple of those, they were the ones that really got the crowd movin.

Normally when were doing a festival there are a ton of logistics to slinging cream. We have the truck, thousands of ice creams, and a crew of at least a half a dozen photographers and helpers to take care of. This often means we dont stay out too late and dont get the luxury of sleeping in each day. Since we were buying ice cream on site to give away and the whole event took place inside a resort, our lives were made especially easy. We were also blessed with meal tickets which are often the hardest things to get at a music festival. All this lead to us sleeping in till eleven or noon each day then rolling over to catering for brunch. The best part was that Eat to the Beat, who catered the weekend before, were at it again. They serve up some of the best festival grub out there and we made sure to stop by each day to give them lots of free ice cream as a thank you for their hard work.

Before we even started seeing music on Saturday we took care of some cream slingin. Jeremiah brought out a cooler bag and we headed to the onsite convenience store to cram the bag full with as much as it could hold. When we got to the register, the lady checking us out thought we were nuts. The first stop was right across the way at the poster exhibit by Michael Michael Motorcycle that was set up in an unused hair salon. Next up we wanted to be sure to get to the production office because they were the ones who made everything possible, including us being there. It was nice to have enough cream to hit up some of the other workers too. I think my favorite was hitting all the security guards we could find. They were particularly friendly and since all the workers were putting in insanely long hours each day, they deserved at least one or two ice cream treats.

Before I go further Im gonna try to explain the setup of the main area and the Pavilion Stage, and its not going to be easy. Hmmmthe whole main area of the venue was under a permanent big top style tent that could be seen from miles away. On the inside there were a lot of shops, a couple pubs and restaurants, a bowling alley and pool hall, and a large area in the center of it all that kinda resembled a food court at a mall. Without anything there, except a stage at one end and a soundboard at the other, you could fit prolly 4000 people in there to watch a band. What made it work was they hung huge black curtains along the sides and in the back of the stage so you werent (really) looking at Burger King while you were rocking out, and they also helped to reduce the echoing that a mall-like courtyard setting can produce.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw kicked things off on the Pavilion stage on Saturday and their gypsy tunes were a nice and relaxing way to start things off. I didnt stick around too much cuz Saul Williams was starting about fifteen minutes after and hes a pretty wacky dude. Sure enough, Saul hit Centre Stage wearing a mohawk of feathers and a band that came to get down. Im guessing most of the material he played came from his new album, Niggy Tardust, cuz Trent Reznor helped produce it and the music had a more industrial feel than when Id seen Saul before.

Up till this point, most of the set times for the stages were staggered which allowed you to see the majority of the bands playing. For reasons completely unknown to me, from this point on, most bands on the two largest stages, Pavilion and Centre, had identical set times. Worse than that was the half hour between where thered be no music. The first of these conflicts was Okkervil River and Ghostface Killah. Believe it or not, I was never a Wu Tang fan. In the early 90s I was more into west coast stuff like Pharcyde and The Coup because it seemed more fun. I opted for Okkervil River and was glad I did because their setlist was filled with their best songs and the large band (with the dude from the Wrens helping out on guitar who seemed to be popping up in every other band playing) filled the mall with some rocking afternoon tunes. I guess I did miss a bunch of girls dancing on stage thoughbig surprise.

The next clash was Iron and Wine and Trail of Dead. It was good that the styles of music werent really conflicting so far but I still wanted to see some of both. A lot of tunes from the older days of Sam Beam and Iron and Wine were pretty mellow and mostly solo stuff. His more recent stuff has blossomed and with a lot of the songs he played, even the older songs got a bit of a boost, which was cool to hear. How many times can you play the exact same version of a song anyways? I hadnt seen …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead properly, so I scurried upstairs to check some out. Once I opened the door it was full-on two drummer, heavy-hitting rock n roll. It was nice to get amped up for a bit before dinner.

After dinner was when the conflict of sets proved to be a problem. The National was on the Pavilion Stage and Dinosaur Jr. was on the Centre Stage. Dinosaur Jr. had already played an early set on Friday so Im sure a lot of people caught that and opted for The National now, but we hadnt. I started with The National for a few tracks then ended up heading to Dino. The timing couldnt have been much better because they played “Bug” and some other classic tracks. Back down to The National just in time to catch Mr. November and the very end of their set. They also rocked some slower stuff like How Close Am I to Losing You which is one of the strong points of the band, they can rock your socks off or make you wonder how soon its gonna be till your heart will be broken again.

Western Keys, who suspiciously had a member of the band that was also the manager from EITS was playing Red’s after the break and I was curious to check yet another Austin, TX based band. That dude from the Wrens was playing with them too. There was actually a similar sound between those two bands and I think I leaned over to Jeremiah and said, these guys are like what youd want your favorite hometown band to sound like.

For some reason there was a desire to put on some of the mellowest music around midnight each night. Not really what we were feelin but I was curious to see what Stars of the Lid sounded like, especially live. Theyre a mix of classical and minimalist music with a twist. I think in a different setting, like now while writing this review, Id really enjoy their tunes but with Battles coming up next, we decided to get prepped for their 1:45 3 AM set.

Wow Battles really got it going on. Its kinda funny how they, and Holy F/_ck are pretty much just jam bands but since theyre using a lot of electronics and rocking out way harder, theyre helped to build a new genre of music. And its great live. Everyone was into it and it was the most I had seen people dancing all weekend. The line to get in was also the longest Id seen all weekend. I think we rolled by the pub afterwards to check out the dance party but I just didnt have dancing in me, at least not like my marathon dance party last weekend.

This is going to be the longest review Ive ever typed.

Have you ever gone to a 3+ day festival and said you were gonna save up till the last day to do most of your partying because thats when the bands you wanted to see most were playing? Im guessing, for the people that have tried this in the past, me included, theres prolly a 90% failure rate. Somehow we kept everything in check this time around though so when Sunday came we were pretty excited. We started out with some yummy brunch then a couple rounds of cream slinging before checking out Jens Lekman. He also played the weekend before on Sunday morning and the packed house was eating up his Swedish pop songs and the cute bandmates he brought along with him.

Polvo was up against Beach House and I knew my friend Gosh Money would punch me if I didnt see most of Polvos set. It was the first time in 8 years theyd performed, yet you wouldnt have known it by the way they sounded. If youre a fan of early 90s indie rock from North Carolina, you woulda dug it. Caught the last thirty seconds or so of Beach House, Jeremiah said they sounded better than he expected.

I was talking with Mathieu from La Blogotheque about Animal Collective and he said he thought they were the most important band of the last five years. It was funny cuz just the night before I mentioned to Jeremiah that, fifteen years down the road AC will be looked about as a huge turning point for music. They were on the Centre Stage and somehow they only had an hour set. I realize its a festival but some bands need more time. Knowing AC has a reputation for playing tons of unrecorded songs in their sets, I didnt keep my hopes up about hearing some of my favorites. Luck had it they stuck to mostly tracks off of their last LP, Strawberry Jam. Im pretty sure Fireworks was my most listened to song last year and they extended it to close to fifteen minutes. Ah. Heaven. It was loud as hell in there yet, perfect.

Apparently De La Soul got a late start and we got to catch a couple songs, even after lollygaggin upstairs for too long. De La has really stepped up their live show in recent years and this time around they had a FULL live band and sounded as fresh as many new hip hop groups today. My only concern was that there would be a curfew on the main stage and that Broken Social Scenes set would be cut short.

BSS is a collective of sorts comprising of some of the best Canadian musicians around. Emily Haines from Metric has spent time with them as well as Leslie Feist. The current setup has front man Kevin Drew leading a rather large band, including Amy Milan (from Stars) on vocals. Im guessing they hit it off with some of the De la Soul crew because half way through the first song, the horn section came back on stage to do their thing. I can never remember the names of their songs so I cant help ya out there. I can say it was awesome and that J. Mascis came out for a song. I think the cats from The Constantines and EITS came out for a song too, but I dont think they actually played any instruments though.

It was break time after that. We rested up a bit for a second round of Battles. They mixed their set a bit and after hearing Atlas again, Jeremiah leaned over to see if I wanted to take off. I figured, since Battles are great live, this was the best wed get. We checked the schedule and I noticed Envy was playing downstairs in Reds. It took me a second to connect the dots but I leaned back to J and said oooh, Japanese Noise Rock, LETS GO!

Without a doubt, heading downstairs to see Envy was the smartest decision I made all weekend. I guess the best way to describe them is, they sound like EITS fronted by a Japanese scream vocalist. We grabbed some more Carlsberg then rested them on the handrail so we could grasp the rail with both hands while slowly headbanging. I couldnt believe Id never heard of the guys before and how much the crowd was freaking out. Kudos to ATP for having Envy pretty much end the fest. They left the stages and the lights went on but the crowd kept yelling for more. After 5 minutes or so the lights went back down and the band played a much deserved encore. If I ever get the good fortune to host an ATP, theyll be high on my list of bands to play.

So, that was ATP, the two best weekends of summer camp, EVER. Thanks so much to Deborah, Barry, and everyone at ATP for spoiling us. Thanks to Lizzie for taking me in in London and for coming out for the party. Thanks to Tom for driving.

Im finishing this up while sitting outside in Seattle. After flying back from London, I picked up the new truck, packed, then here from LA. For the next three days well be rocking Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge. Pretty crazy how much can be done in an 18 day period (two ATPs, London, LA, Sasquatch). To the good life!