FESTIVAL REVIEW: All Tomorrow's Parties – New York

Courtesy of Jarrett Hawrylak

All Tomorrow’s Parties’ New York chapter — the for music nerds by music nerds festival held yearly at a much-aged Catskills resort — once again proved itself worthy to hold the title of the best music festival on the face of the Earth. Partially curated by Jim Jarmusch, goers this year were treated to excellent and rare shows by the greats of popular and obscure music.

(NOTE: Be sure to check out our Soundcloud while you’re reading to listen to some of the bands talked about here!)

Friday, Day One –

On Friday, our car of 5 people rolled up to the resort and was greeted by the aged yellow sign and a long line of festival-goers waiting to check in to the much anticipated weekend. Old friends who remembered me (including many of the security guards that I ran into last year to share a good time) came to say hello, talk about how the last year had been, and talk about how great the next three days were going to be. Immediately upon entering the resort and getting in line to check in, we noticed a constant drip coming from a hole in the ceiling in the main lobby which was getting my suitcase wet. This is how Kutsher’s is, full of worn-down character which in any other setting would make the trip awful which is now greeted with delighted faces, probably the only people who have been delighted to see the insides of this place in decades. After getting our keys, a comic-book-covered band bio booklet, and a pocket-sized schedule indicating the set times of the music and non-music events through the resort, we unloaded our things in the room.

The room was much like the resort, untouched in ages, the wallpaper was peeling, the curtains were aged, the air was musty, and there was not a drop of cold water in the room which eventually scalded our bodies as we attempted to shower by standing under it in two-second intervals on Saturday morning. It was, however, spacious, allowing for the 8 people we brought into our 6-person room to sleep comfortably.

The music began in the evening, with The Scientists – an Australian post-punk band who were performing their 1983 mini-LP Blood Red River in their (claimed) first US show ever. Ripping through tracks like the viciously-voiced Revhead and the vibrato-filled twang of When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow, The Scientists gave first-timers their first glimpse of the Stardust Ballroom.

The sound and lighting, provided by See Factory Industry, were consistently flawless on both stages, offering massive sound outputs to the moderately-sized ballroom, filling our chest with big bass frequencies.

Mudhoney appeared next to perform their 1990 album Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles. The much tamed hair of the 90′s grunge rockers seemed to be indicative of the performance at first, restrained and dull compared to the intensity of the music, until the crowd started to get into it as they played through “Mudride”. A moshpit formed and the energy of the band seemed to increase as people began to crowd surf and stage dive causing frontman Mike Arm to go into a frenzy during later songs like” Burn it Clean” (The album was performed out of order).

Courtesy of Jarrett Hawrylak

Following this was Iggy and the Stooges performing their classic album Raw Power. As soon as Iggy hit the stage the crowd went into a pushing frenzy, squeezing to get as close as they could to the human embodiment of rock. As old as Iggy is, he was still able to perform and scream as he slithered off the stacks on the side of the stage and surfed in the crowd. After finishing the album, Iggy continued to perform many of his songs, including the powerful “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” the band also proved that they were as tight as ever.

Following this, Sleep took the stage to perform their mind-numbing album Sleep’s Holy Mountain. Starting the set in pure darkness with the riff from “Dopesmoker,” the massive and heavy sound ripped through the ballroom and the crowd responded through the haze of smoke with devil horns and headbanging. People rode atop the crowd and hit the stage as Sleep commanded the room, with excellent green and purple lighting streaming through the fog. Guitarist Matt Pike claimed the show to be the best night of his life part way through the set.

The set was awesome and heavy, but in the end two hours of it proved to be a bit much for me and I wound up leaving early to explore some of Kutsher’s abandoned areas. Truly reminiscent of The Shining, I was shocked at how much garbage there was in the place. It seemed like every room was full of mattresses, chairs, pillows, sheets, anything they could stuff in there. Between the 1AM dance party and the late night bars, I finally found myself in bed around 7.

Saturday, Day Two-

I woke up at noon the next day for the day which, musically, I was the most looking forward to. After a scalding-hot shower and a quick look in on the Jim Jarmusch/Thurston Moore film panel which was funny and interesting, if not packed full of people, before running to catch a few songs by Sian Alice Group. They sounded wonderful but for the time of day, some of their songs were a bit too abrasive for my taste at the time and I decided I would leave after a short bit.

A quick walk over to the food court, where vendors from the Brooklyn Flea served up some of the finest festival fare I have ever tasted – from wood-fired pizza from Pizza Moto to Steve’s Craft Ice Cream which is the single best ice cream I have ever had in my life. Asiadog was delicious again this year and Choncho’s Tacos were equally as tasty. There was also a general purpose Athen’s Delight which was open 24 hours and served falafel, gyros, and greek salads among some pasta dishes, hamburgers, and other general festival fare.

We then moved to catch a few songs from Apse, lit from behind with a two-tone light which silhouetted the energetic post-rockers, I hung around to hear a few heavier sounding songs from them before a brief walk to catch Beak>. As I walked, Helen Money – currently opening on tour for Shellac – had set up her looped cello station and performed much to my pleasure. Catching many people mid-step, the heavy distortion coming from her was enough to make a decent amount of people late to see Beak> begin.

Beak> definitely took one of the best sets of the day, playing their ambient krautrock to the constant rhythm of Geoff Barrow’s bass. Songs like “I Know and Ears Have Ears” fixated the crowd, which seemed to have one of the highest mid-day crowd retention rates of all of the fest.

Text of Light, Lee Ranaldo’s performance of textural noise to a projection of avant-garde films was loud and fixating for a bit, but most people grew weary, and upon finding that it was time for Fuck Buttons to begin, the room had thinned greatly. Fuck Buttons were the first group of the day to really push the bass in the ballroom, shaking the roof and causing pieces of it to fall on the pulsating crowd. A quick dance at the Kutshers veteran Frankie Don’s casio-default-beat keyboard playing of hits like “Sunshiny Day” lead us over to the ethereal and creepy Fursaxa.

Beautifully looping harps and cellos filled the room as her low voice crept in and out, filling  the minds of the crowd with dark, lonely imagery. Fursaxa definitely took the best second-stage set for me.

I was only able to catch a bit of Tortoise’s set after waiting around to chat with Fursaxa for a bit and found their set to be a little dull this time around, hearing that most of the songs that I liked were played early on. Tortoise though is hard to find disappointing with their intent and technical performances.

Shellac was vicious as usual, but their shortened set time forced them to not be able to do a Q&A, save for one question yelled from the crowd (“Do you do anal?” “Yes”). “The End of Radio”, always the highlight of their show, was once again a magnificent experience, and the addition of “Squirrel Song” to their set really got the crowd moving.

After this I stopped in the Tim Biskup and Eric White exhibit to watch a specially-filmed tape of Tim & Eric hilariously trashing the artist’s work and self esteem. The tape was not as weird as Awesome Show, for better or for worse, but did exhibit some clearly Tim & Eric editing like video looping and voice alteration.

Explosions In The Sky was the next band I saw after unfortunately missing the Breeders’ set, who definitely had me captured mentally and emotionally. The epic build-ups of the Texas foursome’s rocking post-rock set to the smoke and light and galactically-wallpapered Starlight Ballroom had the whole crowd closing their eyes and being swept away by images of, well, explosions in the sky.

I caught a bit of The Books, very interesting, but was really only able to stay to hear them play a song or two off of The Way Out.

Courtesy of Jarrett Hawrylak

Sonic Youth played an astounding 80′s-driven set of hard-pushing rock that had the crowd moshing intently. Tracks like “Death Valley ’69″ and “Shaking Hell” were split by the slower “Shadow of a Doubt”. It was certainly one of the best Sonic Youth sets anyone had ever seen, truly one of the best shows I had seen all day. Following that there was Karaoke in the lobby, DJs in the bars, stairwells, and rooms. Partying on the roof until 7:30, I finally found my way into bed.

Sunday, Day Three-

I slept through my early alarm and woke up around noon, heading to the Aesop-hosted showers in the health club. The plant-based soap products smelled of gin and I don’t feel that the shampoo or body wash were particularly refreshing, but the toner and hydrating serums immediately filled me with energy and made me feel amazing.

Thurston Moore was the first act, whom I watched right next to Kim and Coco, as he played a few soft acoustic songs on a twelve-string before pulling out an electric and performing a 20-minute noise duo with Bill Nace. The crowd watched in awe as Thurston masterfully controlled his guitar to create the sounds and textures, precisely altering guitar knobs and metal pieces along the strings.

White Hills absolutely dominated the second stage for the day, the heavy rock filling the room, the sound was absolutely perfect and the show was amazing. They’re the most exciting band of 2010 for a reason ending on a huge riff as the guitarist lifted his guitar far above his head in a triumphant pose. Kurt Vile played his upbeat space rock next, many people choosing to sit on the floor to absorb his music.

Fucked Up took the main stage and almost immediately cemented themselves as the best main-stage act (besides Altar) of Sunday. Pink Eyes spent more time in the crowd than he did on stage, wrapping himself up in the mic cord, putting a plastic bag over his head, dumping a bag of cereal on the crowd and eating oreos given by a fan were only a few of the antics that took place in this show. Multiple times rushes of nearly 10 people hit the stage and stage dive right off.

Courtesy of Jarrett Hawrylak

Damien was also one of the most approachable people at the festival – I actually mistook him for an old friend from last year since we spoke a bit every time we spotted each other. GZA was moved to the 12:15am slot so there was a bit of downtime. Eventually the beautifully-voiced Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions hit the stage, somewhat dull but the music was beautifully and perfectly matched to her visuals projected on the stage. The visuals were the most perfectly matched I had ever seen, including pictures of dew-covered flowers and ballerinas dancing through flames.

I briefly checked out Girls, Wooden Shjips, and Dungen, none of which caught my fancy. Dungen was the only band with bad sound, seeming thin and not together. I later found out that See Factory was not responsible for the sound, which I expected as See Factory had done no wrong to that point. I took the slow period to check out the Criterion cinema, showing in HD and surround sound the movie Crumb, about comic writer Robert Crumb’s truly dysfunctional family. The theater was intimate and the film was awesome, almost causing me to it and watch much more than I had expected.

I caught a bit of T-Model Ford’s set but I had already heard him play so many times through a lunchbox sized amp in various places in the lobby through the weekend that it was old hat by that point, and he was definitely more in this environment in the smaller settings. Raekwon took the stage next, introduced by Ron Jeremy for a reason nobody at the festival could fathom. His heavy bass-riding beats and lyrical mastery was excellent as he had everyone in the audience throwing the W up. GZA joined him on his last song, right after a drunk with a AAA pass climbed on stage.

At this point I got ready for Altar, the Boris and sunn o))) collaboration which headlined the festival. After seeing Boris three times this year, my expectations were high. Seeing the five giant full stacks on stage, everyone’s expectations were confirmed: The theme of the set would be volume. Smoke poured over the stage as Etna began, and the volume did not disappoint. Throats, chests, clothes, and hair blew in the wind coming from the subs as the deeply fog-covered, robed figures on stage stood fixated on their instruments. Bowed cymbals, upright bass, a trombone and the sweet voice of Jesse Sykes all transported the audience in a spiritual experience which obliterated my ears for the next two days. In standard Boris fashion, the set ended by Atsuo standing on the drum kit and pointing at the whole room to put up horns before he lowered himself atop the crowd to be carried out and around. The members of sunn o))) deservedly lifted a bottle of wine up in celebration, the set was amazing, and definitely one of the most amazing things I had seen in my life.

After this I freshened up my drink and headed to Steve Albini’s poker game. I played for a bit before needing to run to check out DJ Kool Herc’s set. Drunk dancing to” Let Me Clear My Throat” was amazing as Kool Herc kept the whole crowd moving and jumping to the beat. Following that, David Cox was DJing the Sportsman’s Bar which turned into a giant dance party, filling the dance floor with jumping and grooving festival goers clinging to the last bit of the weekend. Even Ron Jeremy showed up for a bit to dance to the awesome DJ. In the piano, the dance contest winner and some pitchfork staff did renditions of their favorite tunes. Sadly not as good as last year when Bradford Cox and Circulatory System set up to play until the sun rose. When things died down, ATP staff sat around and celebrated the success by playing their favorite tunes through the hotel lobby. Around 5:30AM Kool Herc set up in the bar again to DJ for the 20 or so people who were still awake until about 7:30.

Monday Morning, The Last Day-

In the morning, many sad good-byes were said. ATP is not a just festival for those who go –  it becomes a lifestyle. Three days in an intimate environment, the music becomes your life, and the resort becomes your home. The perfection of every show is awe-inspiring, from the musicians themselves down to the sound and light and smoke and crowd energy. And no matter what you see, you know it will be good. ATP changes lives, nobody who has been there can escape how amazing it feels to be a part of the action. Words and photos truly cannot describe the wonderful feeling that comes with being an attendee of ATP. I know that I and everyone I went with will be reminiscing on how awesome this year was until it’s time to return to the Catskills once more.