All Tomorrow's Parties New York Festival, Monticello, NY - 9/11-13/2009

I bought tickets and booked my room for this festival with no idea of who would be playing back in Oct 2008, all based on how great a time I'd had that year as well as a weird, unwavering faith that Pavement would be the curators and make their big comeback at this event. (I was a year early.) I was slightly disappointed when I learned that the Flaming Lips were the curators instead, but I had faith that the ATP folks would bring the noise yet again. Add to that how amazing the venue is with great sounding indoor stages and on-site hotel rooms ... well, good stuff.

Biggest beef/disappointment with this year: the powers that be decided to outlaw outside alcohol. Last year, I freely roamed around with Magic Hat's and Dogfish Head's that I had brought along, and no one blinked. This year, we had to sneak our good beer in and, at times, pay $5 for a Bud/Bud Light. (Oh, they had Amstel and Heineken, too ... whoopee.) I hope they reconsider this for next year ...

Day One - Friday

We drove in from Columbus, stopping in rural Pennsylvania on the way and arriving around 1 PM Friday afternoon. My buddy Matt and his wife Nicole met us there a couple hours later, driving in from Boston. We got checked in in rapid order, got our beer in by hook or crook, and got ready to rock.

We saw about 2 seconds of the Drones (at which I stood next to Sam Beam of Iron & Wine for a while) and then had to take care of the beer/room situation a bit more. Then we settled in for the Feelies playing Crazy Rhythms in its entirety, an album that is rightly canonize today and was introduced to me by my cousin Bill. They played the whole album and at times sounded great (later in the show) and at times got a little loose (the beginning of the show). It was great, though, and the "Raised Eyebrows" -> "Crazy Rhythms" closer always kills me.

One thing to realize about ATP is that there is no VIP/artists only areas, really. So within a few hours, we ran into and had a kind of normal conversation with Wayne Coyne. He talked about how they had just flown in after opening for Coldplay across Europe and how surreal that was. I've yet to see him wearing anything besides what he's wearing in this photo of Noelle and him ...

We caught most of the next act, the Dirty Three, playing Horse Stories in its entirety. Nick Cave was sitting in with them on piano, too, which was, well, bad ass. I saw the Dirty Three open for Pavement back in 1995 and talked to the violinist in the band, Warren Ellis, who said that that was a fun tour indeed. He was nice and seemed genuinely pleased to talk to someone who knew his music somewhat. And, oh, I met Nick Cave, which was super badass awesome ... what can I say? He's a hero ...





We checked out about 1/2 song of Suicide, which was just super loud and whacked. Then we saw about 1/2 of Panda Bear's set, which was also loud and very similar to seeing Animal Collective.

Then it was on to a great solo set from Iron & Wine, by which point we were all getting a bit drunk, I think. But he sounded great, opening with "Such Great Heights" (to which he encouraged everyone to sing along) and moving on to "Naked as We Came" and "The Trapeze Swinger," among others). I reluctantly left early to catch a bit of David Cross' comedy set (which I found hilarious), and then it was time for one of the big attractions: the Jesus Lizard.

They rocked hard, they sounded unreal tight and not aged a bit. I thought it was badass, I think the rest of my group found it a bit hard for their tastes. A great end to the night. I was getting foggy by the end of their set ...

Day Two - Saturday

We started Saturday with some yummy pizza in town at Brother Bruno and then move on to a gentle, lovely set by Sufjan Stevens, of whom I'm not a huge fan. He played his album Seven Swans in its entirety, and it sounded great. Nice beginning ...

The rest of the daytime included slipping in and out of sets by Bridezilla (interesting but not quite there), Black Dice (tolerated about 15 seconds of this), Anti-Pop Consortium (good hip hop set), Atlas Sound (baaaaaad, as in not good), Sleepy Sun (I left early but really liked what I heard), and Autolux (so so ... kind of by the numbers indie rock).

Then came Shellac, who played their standard set with super tightness. Deerhunter followed with a very good set including "Nothing Ever Happened." They sounded very tight live, which surprised me. Noelle and I checked out about 10 minutes of the Melvins, which was hilariously heavy. Two drummers playing in exact synchrony.

The big finale was Animal Collective, who just don't translate for me live very much. They wove in some "hits" to the set including "Also Frightened" and "Summer Clothes," but it just never gelled for me. And I was tired ... at 1 AM, I really do turn into a pumpkin ... most folks agree ...

Day Three - Sunday

I was hitting festival fatigue (4th one in 3 months) by Sunday. But I soldiered on. We actually went to see a Criterion Collection movie to start the day, Ace in the Hole with Kirk Douglas hamming it up big time. We finally geared up for Caribou, which was pretty cool with a ton of musicians doing a Sun Ra-plays-Beach-Boys type thing. Next was Menomena, a band I really like. They also played some of their better known songs like "The Pelican," "Wet and Rusting," and "Muscle and Flo," but they never seemed to gel, either. Matt and I made it through almost all of Boris playing Feedbacker, which was the loudest experience I've ever had bar none, My Bloody Valentine included.

We closed out Sunday with the Flaming Lips, who played their usual set with their usual antics. Another reviewer of this fest already pointed out that they're good at what they do, but who needs to see them play live more than once? I agree ... If they just made everything sound as great as they sound when they (invariably) open with "Race for the Prize" ... I could get behind that.

We turned in before they finished, but despite many lukewarm reviews above, let me stress that this festival is all about exposure to music/art/film wit which you may not be exposed otherwise as well as a general indie-rock-summer-camp feel. It's different than other festivals and is almost not really a festival so much as ... well, something else ...