ATP: IBYM

[angelsighs]

thought I'd share my experiences on attending ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror on Saturday, could have put these in various other threads but thought I'd post it all here.

eased myself in with The Music of Can which was Irmin Schmidt (Can keyboardist) and Jono (band archivist) presenting some songs from the new Lost Tapes boxset. the music was tremendous, totally on a par with their released stuff (no surprise as the band don't really have 'outtakes' as such, as all their music was formed from jams anyway) it was a thrill to hear Can pumped through a PA, hearing the basslines and in particular Jaki's drumming loud and proud. the only thing was that the set was advertised as having 'discussion' too, but this just amounted to a brief comment from Irmin between tracks (who to be frank was hardly overflowing with charisma). I was expecting more of a Q&A session of some sort, but it was more like a DJ set of their own music. also the room was totally lacking atmosphere, it resembled a conference room with harsh light pouring in through the windows rather than a music venue. fine for something like this Can thing, but later on when they had proper bands playing in there it was just bizarre.

next caught the end of Harvey Milk and most of Chavez, both okay- fairly loud and grungy rock and enjoyable enough but not my sort of thing.

Codeine were next, from what I've heard I expected it to be really quiet and dull but was surprised how muscular it sounded in places. the guitarist had a lovely clean and crisp telecaster sound (infact the sound was impeccable for all the bands) and the drums were good too. the only thing was they were awfully samey (even down to similar vocal melodies on a lot of the songs). wouldn't say I was blown away but I might investigate their albums further. definitely file them next to likes of Low.

Dirty Three next and they were superb as always. there really is no band like them. the set was largely made up of material from the new album, but it had a lot more dynamics to it, and peaks and troughs (a lot of the songs seemed extended too- they opened with Furnace Skies, the nearest the band gets to free-jazz skronk and it felt like 10 mins or so). Jim's drumming was incredible on Sometimes I Forget You've Gone and The Restless Waves. the band always really seem to inhabit their set fully and never phone it in. I will say that I enjoyed them more last time, but that comes down to setlist reasons as they played many of my absolute favourites then.

finally Mogwai blew the roof off. I can empathise with the Mogwai-sceptics, back in 2006/7 sort of time I thought they were past it, treading water with Mr Beast and the show I saw then was lacklustre. but they really seem on form right now. the sound was huge- thick and loud but clear as a bell and I could hear all the layers kicking off. one good example was Rano Pano where I could distinctly hear all 3 of the massive distorted guitars as they came in, one by one. highlights for me were 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong which was alternately hugely uplifting then developing into a crescendo of noise. and of course the mighty Mogwai Fear Satan.

all in all a great day, the sun was beating down and Alexandra Palace is largely a great location but they need to do something about the atmosphere vacuum of a second stage, I would be keen to go again but really depends on a solid lineup (there were bands I wanted to see on other days, but not enough to make me shell out for the whole weekend)

[Starfish]

yeah, I went on the Saturday. Would have loved to have seen Afghan Whigs, but Saturday was the stronger line-up.

Beautiful day up at Ally Pally, great view of that London. Great venue if it does rain, but there was no chance of that happening.

I caught glimpses of Chavez and Harvey Milk and wished I'd seen more as they were new to me and sounded pretty brutal, in a clear way.

I was talking to a couple of lads later who said they thought Codeine were awesome. It made me feel old to tell them I remember them first time around and that Frigid Stars was probably in my top 3 albums of whatever year it came out.
I also remember seeing them and not being that moved by them 20 years ago. And there was a case of that for this show - apparently they reformed for this show and to promote the reissues of all their albums.
The songs are great. I love the paradox of loud crashing melancholia, slowed down to crawling pace. But they are very samey - I think the guitar played the same chord for every song - and just didn't excite me enough.
Good to see them, all the same. Not bad, just not great.

Dirty Three were another live first for me and they did exhilarate. Fantastic power and atmosphere, some great drumming (*in fact there was some great drumming all day) . Menacing and overwhelming in places, subtle and dark in others.
Reminded me of Godspeed YBE. Just as well for my credit card there didn't seem to be any Dirty Three merch/music on sale in the foyer.

Mogwai topped off a great line-up brilliantly. Massive noise and a great climax. I've echoed angelsighs enough already, so I'll just say I largely agree with his Mogwai appraisal, although I'd prefer it if they played more of those emotional songs - you know the ones with the chord changes that make you well up (oh, maybe that's just me).

I was thinking later that Thalia Zedek (out of Come and Live Skull) would have fitted into the line up perfectly. I wonder if she was asked? And what are Slint and Seam doing these days?

[angelsighs]

re: the Codeine thing, I liked the way they actually admitted they are a bit samey "here is a song from our second album.. it's a bit like all the other ones..."

yep I was also on the look out for Dirty Three merch and there was none to be seen.

Mogwai wise I can't really complain about the setlist, I got two of my absolute favourites, Stop Coming To My House, and 2 Rights. a bit of Helicon or Cody wouldn't have gone amiss too though (don't you think the latter sounds a bit like Codeine, funnily enough?)

[Starfish]

oh lordy, I can't believe I didn't mention Mudhoney.

They were fantastic. For me, the pick of the first wave of Sub Pop bands and it was probably for the best they flew below the radar while the masses were wetting themselves over Nirvana and Soundgarden. (And Pearl Jam)

Mark Arm has an incredible voice, and the songs are always brilliantly crafted.

One of the great rockpunk (oh, ok, grunge) acts of America and it was a real treat to see them.