So I rarely post on here but am thinking that this is a better venue for my music reviews/vacation tales/etc. than just old e-mails. Plus I can toss in more links, have these things remain a bit more "permanent," etc.
So I just got back this week from
the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in the Catskills, New York. There have been some great, all inclusive reviews already published, like from:
NPR - All Things Considered Pitchfork MediaThe New York TimesHere's my 2 cents on it ...
Thursday 9/18/08I fly out from Columbus to Providence, RI, where I rent a car and head up to Newton, MA to meet up with my sis and her family. I got there by 1:30 or so in the afternoon and scared my brother-in-law slightly. We headed up to
my sister's lab to all meet up (my brother-in-law's mom was in town, too) and ended up ordering pizza back at the house. I was having a blast playing with my nieces, of course. My sis and I ended up getting out of the house for some beers, and it was great to catch up, though she gave me the damn third degree on career plans and what not. A nice, easy night.
Friday 9/19/08Lily, my 3-year old niece, comes in and wakes me up in the morning. (I should explain that when I sleep at my sister's, I usually sleep on an air mattress on the floor of their half bathroom downstairs, as they don't have a guest room and my brother-in-law is up late in the den usually. Lily, who just turned 3, thinks that I
always sleep in bathrooms all the time. Mildly hilarious.) I make my first driving foray into Boston proper to pick up my med school buddy Matt (pathologist in Boston) and his lovely wife Nicole (ditto) right by MGH. I did OK, methinks.
We hit the road, stopping on the way to get 3 cases of beer and some snacks, and around 2 PM arrive at
Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, NY. An article I read described this resort as "elegantly shabby." It's hard to quite convey just how right on that description is. As Pitchfork reported:
A resort that was once a jeweled notch on the buckle of the Borscht Belt, Kutsher's is stuck in a time warp somewhere around when Dirty Dancing was supposed to take place. It's got a real golf course and a mini-golf course, an ice rink, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, a playground, a lake with rowboats, a synagogue, an arcade, a cinema, and a cosmetics counter where a lady sat from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, ready to do your makeup. The kitchen is kosher; the ATP food court, serving only the finest in greasy fried carnival fare, was located in the parking lot. As a certain expert on the vacationing patterns of Northeastern American Jews during the 1960s and 70s (a.k.a. my mother) said, "What the hell are you going to Kutsher's for? That place is still around? What a dump!"
Indeed, Kutsher's was a dump. An entire wing was crippled under flood damage, many rooms barely got hot water, and ATP advised guests to bring their own towels and toiletries. A rumor spread that the place was infested with bed bugs. (Not true, thank goodness.) The ceiling of the main performance space looked like it had been attacked by Cookie Monster. But as the event's publicist pointed out, it isn't easy to find a space that not only features all of the amenities required for a three-day, live-in, indoor rock festival, but is willing to put up with thousands of intoxicated revelers and the mayhem that ensues. The place did have its charms, though. References to The Shining ran rampant, and Patton Oswalt made a joke about David Lynch walking into Kutsher's and saying, "Ahh, perfect!"
As we checked in, we ran smack dab into
Thurston Moore within 10 minutes, which gave me a taste of what the weekend had in store. The first day's sets were close to getting started, so we hurriedly cracked some beers so as to get there in time to see Bardo Pond perform their album
Lapsed, a record I bought when it came out and have liked for a long time. It's not as seminal to me as their double album manifesto
Amanita, but it's a good 'un. They were pretty dang true to the album, and our first introduction to the main venue (the venerable Starland Ballroom) was surreal. Also, we quickly discovered that we could bring our own beers wherever we wanted. And that this festival was composed of about 92% dudes by my estimate, so ladies, if you're looking for socially awkward late 20's/early 30's rock nerds, this is your Studio 54.
Bardo Pond - "Be A Fish" (off
Amanita, but it gives you a good idea of what their sound is all about)
So Bardo Pond brought it, I thought ... we recharged with more beer and then settled in for the Meat Puppets playing
Meat Puppets II. It was a bit cracked at first, but by the end of the record they were cooking with fire and even did a killer trio of "Up On The Sun" (my favorite song of theirs) into "Tennessee Stud" into "Tomorrow Never Knows." I knew we were in for a good weekend.
Meat Puppets - "Up On The Sun"I was feeling drunk by now, too, but we regrouped for part of Tortoise's rendering of
Millions Now Living Will Never Die. I like seeing Tortoise live, but it was, as usual, a bit boring. And to reiterate ... I was getting drunk. At this point, I ate some (fairly nasty) kebab (which will now forever make me think of
Flight of the Conchords) and acutally napped through Thurston Moore's
Psychic Hearts. I had to rest up for Built to Spill. Sadly, I missed all the comedians, which was too bad, because some of those dudes are damn funny.
So I really did get up and rally for the coup de gras of the first evening, Built to Spill's complete opus
Perfect From Now On. Both Nicole and I tried to rouse Matt with earnestness, but he was out for this one. What can I say? It's one of my favorite records of the 90's, and they absolutely killed it. Not always a great live band, they were clearly digging it. Right when "Untrustable" ended, they launched into (without pause) "Goin' Againt Your Mind," followed by a short break and then a killer encore of "Stab," "Car" (!!!) and finally a long, noisy drone out. I was so stoked that I ended up staying up 'til 3 or so that morning talking and drinking and soaking it in.
Built to Spill - "Randy Described Eternity" (live)Saturday 9/20/08I felt pretty good this morning, despite my fears otherwise. I e-mailed some in the morning and then went to a screening of
Gimmie Shelter, the classic Stones documentary that I've seen multiple times already. It seemed like a good way to get into the day.
The Criterion Collection was there screening films all weekend and giving away some killer prizes. A guy at the Stones film won a Frank Kozik-signed poster related to the movie. Damn!
During the day, I saw Apse (forgettable, but great drummer), Wooden Shijps (pretty killer psych rock) and Harmonia (very cool, oddly relevant krautrock from some old geezers from Germany).
Harmonia - "Arabesque" (live 1974)Then we saw Edan, a rapper/DJ from Boston, and he killed it. Great rapper, very innovative spinning ... it was a great set. Impressive. And he had crazy reverence for indie rock, including a long rap where he namedropped a great and varied cache of artists.
Edan - "I See Colours"Next was a band that was a deciding factor for me to come, Polvo, indie rock greats from Chapel Hill who have just recently reunited. I never got to see them back when I first fell for them in high school, so it was great to see them now. And they were
huge - monolithic slabs of math rock with a drummer who blew my mind. And they played some "hits," including "Fast Canoe," "Every Holy Shroud," "Bombs That Fall From Your Eyes," and a personal favorite, "City Spirit." Possibly the set of the weekend for me.
Polvo - "City Spirit"Polvo - "Bombs That Fall From Your Eyes" 
Next was Les Savy Fav. (The singer, Tim Harringon, was standing next to me during Polvo, so we snuck a shot of that.) They were predictably awesome and wacked out, but I had to take a breather for about 30 minutes to prepare for Shellac. And Shellac rocked it hard. Very machine-like, with enough "hits" ("Prayer For God," "Copper," "My Black Ass" and a bunch of others) to keep it great. I had to bolt right when they finished, as I am an old man who can't hang with the kids who hung around to see Lightning Bolt.
Shellac - "Copper"I should mention that this was Nicole's least favorite day, as it was very heavy on hard, math-y rock. I find that interesting.
Sunday 9/21/08I am still very tired on getting up this morning. Matt, Nicole and I drive into Monticello for proper brunch (it wasn't that proper, but whatever) and to restock the beer fridge. I wasn't planning on seeing any bands until 4:00 or so because I was feeling like such a wimp, but I roused enough to get over and start the day seeing Lilys, a psych rock outfit from Philly. They've been around a while and were fine ... nothing great, but fine.
We then saw EPMD, the most incongruous act of the weekend. They are straight up hip hop legends, and this was the whitest crowd you could possibly imagine. A handful of people really knew their catalog, but it was kind of eerily quiet at times. They seemed to have fun with it, though, and they were pretty great.
EPMD - "You Gots to Chill"Then it was time for the mega-lineup everyone was really there for ... Mercury Rev, Yo La Tengo, Mogwai, Dinosaur Jr and, finally, My Bloody Valentine's first show in the US in 16 years. This was a long night, and I got quite drunk, and I got quite tired, and I had to take some breaks. But here's my attempt ...
Mercury Rev - ear-splittingly loud, very "soaring" and bombastic, made me think of the Flaming Lips minus the good, succinct songs
Yo La Tengo - a weird set for them, starting with an ambient opener, then an obscure one off
Electr-O-Pura called "Flying Lesson" (which I'd never heard them do live, interestingly), a couple of new tunes ("I Feel Like Going Home" and "Watch Out For Me Ronnie") and a crushing ending with "The Story of Yo La Tango," which was fantastic ... and people moshed to them -
hard - which never happened the rest of the weekend
Yo La Tengo - "The Story of Yo La Tango"Mogwai - I stuck around for about 2 songs ... they don't do it for me, though they sounded great ...
(At this point, I woofed down a hot dog and saw about 5 songs from Bob Mould, including a spirited take on "See a Little Light," which was nice ...)Dinosaur Jr. - I certainly made it back for Dinosaur but was getting stupid by this point. I saw "Little Fury Things" and "Out There" and a couple others, but by the time they started in with "Feel the Pain," I had to go lay down and rest up for MBV ...
My Bloody Valentine - Pitchfork wrapped their set up nicely, though I would have to disagree on the point that they came out of the gate rocking hard (and loud) and continued to do so for the whole set ... it was great and, on some level, revelatory to hear these songs done this way ... I only made it through about 5 minutes of the unreal, 17-minute wall of noise with which they end each set ... it was super loud, like standing behind a jet engine ...
My Bloody Valentine - "I Only Said"And so I was out like a light, though we stayed up for a while just gushing about how great it was. Hey ... it was pretty great ...
Monday 9/22/08Traveling ... we hit the road at 7:30 that morning after we saw these poor English dudes getting scolded for taking a golf cart out and wreaking havoc. They looked sheepish and hungover. That was probably the most violent thing that happened all weekend. I really think the staff and security were just perplexed by these mostly older, fairly calm, almost totally white dudes all hanging out qutie politely for 3 days.
We were in Boston by 11:30 AM, said our goodbyes, and then I was off to Providence and finally back in the C-bus by 8 that night.
There's some talk around that they're going to do this thing again next year ... same time, same place. If the line-up is anywhere near as sick as this one, I can't recommend it enough. Just a great time ...
Compared to the last time I saw him (at the Ryman in Nashville, 2006), he was very engaged and chatty, even having fun. And the show started with some excitement, especially getting a lot of gems in the first 5 songs. But the playing was just a bit ... by the numbers. Not once was an acoustic guitar touched during this show. The first set really hit a high mark with "Goodnight Rose," not a favorite of mine usually, but they really channeled a Dead-style energy and made it hum. "Let It Ride" is a never miss as far as great tunes, but it too felt kind of tired.
The second set had an emotional high point or two ("Dear Chicago," which he played even though he vowed he wouldn't play it in a million years after people kept yelling for it, and "The Rescue Blues"), but there were moments that I swear could have been from a Counting Crows show. All in all, it just saddens me because he's got the talent and Lord knows he's got the songs, but the performance itself just lacks a bit.
