The Big Bang: Explosions In The Sky curate All Tomorrow’s Parties 16/05/08-18/05/08

ATP festivals and life as a Cambridge student are two things that generally don’t go hand in hand: after all, deciding to hold your festivals in the middle of May doesn’t tend to fit too well into anyone’s exam schedule. Fortunately, having dealt once and for all with exams (apologies, I don’t wish to rub it in), I was in the fortunate position of being able to attend the Explosions In The Sky-curated ATP festival (apologies again). With just 6,000 attendees, chalet accommodation next to a seaside resort, and three indoor stages, this is far from your ordinary festival, as one look at the lineup would also confirm. Here’s a roundup of the best of the three days:

FRIDAY

Papiere Tigre: Whilst their music has its limitations, French art-punk three-piece Papiere Tigre delivered a ferocious and highly convincing set of dischord and punishing (in a good way) percussion.
Sunset Rubdown: In spite of multiple broken guitar string moments (why didn’t you bring spare guitars guys?), Spencer Krug’s wonky indie-prog parade triumphed with an energetic set capturing all the best moments from last year’s superb Random Spirit Lover.
Explosions In The Sky: The hosts were no disappointment, bringing their tense mix of pretty guitar shimmers and earth-shattering freak-outs to a rapturous audience. Whilst consistently falling just short of greatness on album, live they a different (and very loud) proposition.
The Octopus Project (left): The most fun set of the festival came from the instrumental/noise/pop/electronic collective The Octopus Project and their strange ghost/cat things. Plus a load of illuminated balloons. And a theremin.

SATURDAY

World’s End Girlfriend: An unexpected highlight of the festival, Japanese act World’s End Girlfriend is just one guy (Katsuhiko Maeda) and his thunderous touring drummer. Somehow encapsulating serene oriental beauty, crushing guitar noise, jazz and electronica into the space of one 45 minute set, World’s End Girlfriend proved a revelation
A Hawk And A Hacksaw (right): Ex-Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes fronts the Balkan-infused trio AHAAH with some lavish accordion skills, and equally accomplished violin and mandolin accompaniment. Limited in scope, perhaps, but highly enjoyable over 45 minutes nonetheless.
Okkervil River: Contrary to my prior worries over Will Sheff’s supposed vocal fragilities, OR delivered a superb set of their brand of literate folk indie-rock, with Sheff himself in particularly good form.
The National: As with Okkervil River, I had heard somewhat discouraging accounts of The National as a live act. Thankfully, these proved completely unfounded, with the National injecting a lot of extra oomph factor to expand the songs from last year’s stately Boxer. The highlight came with the set-closing Abel.

SUNDAY

Animal Collective: After a slow start to the day (admittedly I’d missed Jens Lekman earlier, which might have changed matters), AC laid down a bewildering hour of electronics, flashing lights, screams and tribal percussion which the acoustics of the centre stage could barely cope with. With just two songs taken from last year’s Strawberry Jam, the set suggested yet another new musical direction for this ever-evolving band.
Broken Social Scene (left): Headlining the Pavilion stage on the final night, BSS fittingly provided the highlight of the festival. As if their own numbers weren’t enough, the band were joined by Explosions In The Sky, The Constantines and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. At the same time. Bolstered by lots of trumpets and the irrepressible charisma of Kevin Drew, this was a performance of true greatness.
Lichens: Robert Lowe a.k.a. Lichens used just a guitar, some strange vocal effects and a handful of electronic sounds to build up his 30-minute set from scratch. With just enough variation to keep it fresh, this was a strangely compelling performance.
Battles: In spite of playing two sets across the weekend, the queue into Battles was enormous, and subsequently we missed the first half of the set. What we did catch though, was a band of ever increasing powers in fine form, turning the hitherto difficult genre of math rock into something altogether cooler. Worth the hype
Envy: The final set we saw of the festival was also the loudest, with the Japanese post-rock-metallers throwing everything into their ferocious set in front an impressively packed out Reds stage. A most satisfying end to a most satisfying festival.

Sure, with festivals like this, you’ll always have the odd pretentious and horribly self-indulgent performance (Atlas Sound, much to my horror, definitely fell into this category), but the array of genre-pushing sounds and the general sense of community between both festival goers and the bands/artists are not to be missed. Unless you have exams. But hey, there’s always the Nightmare Before Christmas ATP in December: beach shorts are not a recommendation.