All Tomorrow's Parties NY: My Bloody Valentine

posted Nov 27, 09:09 PM by Rick Webb

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Bands: Tortoise performing “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” Eugene Mirman, Thurston Moore performing “Psychic Hearts,” Patton Oswalt, Built to Spill performing “Perfect from Now On,” Wooden Ships, Fuck Buttons, Harmonia, Om, Autolux, Low, Polvo, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Shellac, Robin Guthrie, Lilys, Gemma Hayes, Mercury Rev, Spectrum, Yo La Tengo (a very little), Trail of Dead (very little), Mogwai, Bob Mould (very little), Dinosaur Jr, Brian Jonestown Massacre, My Bloody Valentine

I never got a chance to write about All Tomorrow’s Parties NY: Curated by My Bloody Valentine, of which I had the pleasure to go to a month or so ago. It was located at a comically quaint holiday resort in Monticello, NY, called Kutsher’s, that was apparently the inspiration for Dirty Dancing and also where they filmed Wet Hot American Summer.

I drove up with DMD and his wife Stella, who were also my roommates, and Jocelyn. We met up with the boston posse of Ashley and Emma and Brandon and some others. We traded Jocelyn for Emma on the room front, but we were all lucky enough that in the giant complex, our rooms were right across the hall from each other!

Kutscher’s was a pretty fair replica of Butlins and Camber Sands, the two holiday centers that host ATP in the UK. It was an all-in-one complex, with two venues, and several bars, and a great lobby with a grand piano, and an “executive card room,” where Steve Albini hosted card games the whole weekend. The one thing that I would say was less awesome than Butlins or Camber was the food, which was confined to a weird sort of outdoor ad hoc food court.

Also, as Bradley noticed, there seemed to be a bedbug infestation at Kutscher’s, but that seems to have been professionally and promptly dealt with, and thank god we didn’t get any of those.

Several other friends were in attendence at ATP, including Bradley and Tim and his girlfriend, and Ben and Marcie and Harry and Alice and Steve Marchese from the Webby’s and his wife. It was a nice little posse, as each posse had some friends with it, and we all got to meet some good people.

But really, it was about the bands. I mean, seriously. A stunning lineup. So many amazing things. We got there and checked in and immediately ran into the big room to see Tortoise playing Millions Now Living Will Never Die, which was such a weird thing to see. Tortoise. Playing that whole album. That you listen to all the time and… wow. Weird. There was also some solid comedic performances – including my favorite,* Eugene Mirmann*, and Patton Oswalt, who had some hilarious descriptors (“cookie bath” and “uncle touchy’s naked puzzle basement” are two that come to mind).

The center bar was pretty awesome, too, making a fair replica of the venerable Pub at Camber and Butlin’s. The one sad thing was that of the 5,000 or so attendees, I think only like 2,000 actually stay at Kutcher’s, so you don’t get the full sense of 5,000 off-their-gourd after-hours revellers like you do at Butlins – because many people are shipped off to other hotels. This makes the dancing more sporadic, but we finally met Declan this year – my favorite DJ in the whole wide world – and we definitely had some awesome moments of getting to dance to the ATP hits like Super Furry Animal’s “Ther Man Don’t Give a Fuck,” New Order, Joy Division, Mudhoney, Shellac, Sonic Youth, Big Black, the Butthole Surfers (Satan! Satan! Satan!) and the like, as well as some new favorites like Hot Chip, etc. The other DJs – non-declan were comical in their drunken ineptitude, playing the same songs over and over, and even passing out behind the DJ booth.

The first night was also rounded out, for me, with some of Thurston Moore and his posse playing “Psychic Hearts” which was okay, but the need to stick to an album format sort of robbed Thurston of his usual improvisational brillance. The night ended with a stunning, perfect rendition of “Perfect from Now On” by Built to Spill that gave me shivers it was so awesome. The half hour, two song encore? Skippable. “I heart a fly” and “Randy Described Eternity?” Amazing. Holy hell. Amazing.

Saturday was the ATP curated day – and it brought me gigs by Wooden Ships (solid, but very ATP-esque), Fuck Buttons (as noisy and wonderful as ever – the bulk of their set was listened to from the side of the lake while eating free Ice Cream), Harmonia (awesome in that old german krautrock sort of way), Om (the same as always, but definitely always a surreally disturbing minimalist affair), and Autolux (not my thing).

Then the night really kicked in, with a disturbing, tense set by Low, ending with a creepy new christmas song. I always love low. I love the vast majority of their albums and songs and I love how spanning their oevre is and how you never know what they’re going to play. Polvo rocked the house in a way everyone forgot they could do it, and then Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra, though I had seen them a few weeks earlier. They’re great and intense but it’s like the same set, so it’s a little weird. Then came the glorious, fucked up ridiculousness that is Les Savy Fav, and holy hell was that insane. Dude is crazy, and playing to like 4,000 people in a giant constellation-splattered round room really inspired him to be insane. He licked Emma’s hand (and we were WAY in the back) and the best antic was that he brought a ladder out into the crowd, climbed it, and then made the audience lift the ladder up and he crowd surfed. WTF. Man, I love them live. Funnest live band in the world.

It would have been hard for Shellac to follow that up, but they managed. Man I love them. I loved their sparse lights. Their bluesy version of “Prayer to God.” I love that they didn’t play “The End of Radio.” I loved the version of “Steady as she Goes.” I loved the way they ended the set by breaking down the drums as he was still playing. Steve Albini is so awesome. Lightning Bolt followed, and I do like them, but… I dunno. They’re overrated. I only watched a bit.

Then we danced and wandered around and drank and partied and watched all the revellers wander and stagger around until the sun came up and we enjoyed the ridiculous party atmosphere that only ATP can offer.

Then came Sunday, the My Bloody Valentine curated day. Started with Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau Twins, who experienced a lot of technical details in playing along to his movie, and was basically the atmospheric instrumental part of the Cocteaux without the creepiness or the vocals. Still not bad. Next were the Lilys, who were good and they played that song I love but I was completely distracted by the drunken dancings of this Stacey Duda lookalike in a too tight jeanskirt and too much to drink. Then came Gemma Hayes who was creepy and kinda awesome but not quite right. Then we skipped a few acts and then came Mercury Rev, from whom I wasn’t expecting much, as their Secret Migration shows were definitely a bit anemic, but OH MY GOD. They were back. It was rocking. The news songs – “Senses On Fire” especially were amazing. I loved the show. It made me so happy.

It was especially poignant since it was Mercury Rev who opened for the first My Bloody Valentine show I ever saw in 1992, which I consider one of the best shows I’d ever seen. Then we caught Spectrum, which was AWESOME because he had a full band and played a full hand of Spacemen 3 songs including “When Tomorrow Hits,” “Suicide,” “Revolution” and more. Oh my god. Talk about reliving your youth. Only a smidge of Yo La Tengo since they were on a mellow kick and I needed to eat something. Then a bit of Trail of Dead after dinner, who were awesome and INSANELY loud, and then Mogwai who were SO AWESOMELY AWESOMELY AMAZING and loud and perfect and the room sounded amazing and oh my god. Apparently right after the show the drummer was taken away via medivac since his PACEMAKER BURST THROUGH HIS SKIN while playing. Talk about badass. It caused the Boston show to be postponed, but hopefully that means we get to see them again soon. Then Bob Mould who from what I saw seemed to be playing songs from his whole Husker Du/Sugar/Solo oeuvre, which was sweet, and then Dinosaur Jr who are so rockin and loud and noisy live, and actually seeing them before MBV made me see the connection with them WAY more than I usually do. I always think of MBV as way more “etherial” but they’re not – they’re just as noisy and insane as Dinosaur. Next was the Brian Jonestown Massacre who actually bothered to play a decent show including some of their hits and some from Methadrone and Strung Out in Heaven, which was sweet.

And then the night ended with My Bloody Valentine. As insanely loud as ever. I think the set was most notably amazing for the fact that it sounded EXACTLY like their old shows, so if you saw one of these, you can rest easy and know that it was basically as good. It was intense, loud, crazy. Listening to Bradley’s recording it sounds amazing, but the sound was overpowering. Eventually we departed and listened from just outside the room and that was awesome. But man. Talk abut a loud band.

Sop there we go. Another awesome ATP, this time in America, and man I am ready for more. I have already bought my tickets to the Kutcher’s ATP, whoever may be curating, and I am debating between the Fans ATP )(with the Jesus Lizard!) and the Breeder’s ATP at Butlins. Both have pretty serious lineups.

Photos are here.

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