Ever have one of those dreams where incredible things happen in the most mundane places? A rave in a bakery, a flash mob at school, or an internationally acclaimed arts and musical festival in a sports and leisure centre in Altona?
Grown men hugging teddy bears listening to avant-garde rock, sweat dripping from every body in sight. Tex Perkins playing soccer with a giant colourful ball surrounded by animals made of grass, members of bands giving out discounts for sausages and a cowboy painting portraits inside a rock climbing wall with his penis (aptly named Pricasso).
Was it all a dream? Bizarrely it wasn’t. It was ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror, a weekend of impeccably selected music, food, film, and culture.
Day One – Saturday
Whilst a combination of heat, train, and bus issues made the journey to the Westgate Entertainment Centre and Grand Star Reception in Altona North frustrating, the half-covered up décor at the destination was endearing with two stages more commonly used for basketball, weddings, and debutante balls.
A cap at 5,000 tickets meant a quality individual experience but tragically didn’t make it any less hot. That’s the thing about a scorching day in Melbourne – everyone talks about it, even the bands. There was a cinema full of bean bags, a games pavilion, a Tiki Bar, and enough food options to make an indecisive lady go bananas.
The crowd was an eclectic bunch of music makers and lovers with an almost never-seen level of respect for the musicians. While ATP wrote some handy rules in the book about a ‘no-assholes policy’, after a day it seemed unnecessary because it was the loveliest group of lovelies that ever loved music.
Speaking of, Californian fivesome Thee Oh Sees provided an energetic and unique set to kick off an impeccable day of tunes on Saturday, revealing the influence that Saturday night headliners My Bloody Valentine (and a certain hallucinogenic) may have had on John Dwyer’s picking up a guitar. Many reflected on the set as one of the best of the weekend.
Moving to the remarkably cooler Stage 2, Standish/Carlyon were delivering punchy beats and ghostly falsetto causing instant aural lust. The duo is formerly of rock-noir group Devastations, who have returned to Melbourne from London to release their debut album Deleted Scenes.
Their tracks could be the soundtrack of a really cool movie you’ve probably never seen, channelling everything magical about the eighties and wouldn’t be out of place on 4AD records in 1983 playing alongside Cocteau Twins and sharing a Roland 808 drum machine.
It was then time to flock, earplugs in the ready position, to experience the sheer volume and ferocity of Swans. Having heard rumours of amps blowing up at their previous night show at The Corner, anticipation was high as Michael Gira and band took the stage. Their slightly-shorter-than two hour set was phenomenal. Dark, pulsating, bone rattling noise.
Gira took on the role of a twisted shaman; chanting, spitting, and bellowing as he pushed his band to the absolute limit. Over the years the collective has stuck to a live formula reflecting the roots of Swans’ percussive, rhythmic destruction. Gira has said he is searching on stage for the heavenly experience, an ecstasy he has only felt a handful of times.
It is this remarkable attitude towards music that explains his onstage persona, a place where his band seem as in awe/afraid of him as his audience are.
With dinner down the hatch and ears still ringing, it was time for post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor, touring the country for the first time.
After a decade of waiting for new tunes, they are back with a vengeance. In their own words, they’ve been making music, road trips, food, gardens, and babies and are getting as much out of playing epic soundscapes live as the fans are hearing it.
In a packed, sweaty room it was fascinating to see how individuals experienced it – some stood and swayed; some meditated on their backs and one guy attached himself to a speaker stack and went to a very special place.
Chirping from a lost and confused bird overhead only added to the minimal lead ups of their tracks. The visual backdrop moved with the music in symbiosis. GY!BE proved why they’ve influenced so many with a grand combination of strings, guitar, and percussion.
It was time for a different flavour of post-rock with improv-heavy, kraut Kiwi trio The Dead C. Loved by many, including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, the rule-challenging group gave a how-to in gritty, psychedelic drone jams. A fluid set with ever-present guitar feedback at the forefront.
A handful of die hards stuck around while the masses flocked for a spot at My Bloody Valentine, which the trio acknowledged and appreciated, lapping up their time on stage.
Did anyone mention it was hot on Saturday? Imagine every single one of the 500 punters in the same room and you have the scene for My Bloody Valentine. As surreal as it seemed, the crowd followed the path of cartoon paw-prints laid out on the complex’s tiles to the original shoegazers to hear classics and new material from their album m b v, no less than 22 years in the making.
The euphoria of the crowd lifted the band as they played a range of familiar material including ‘Soon’, ‘I Only Said’ and ‘When You Sleep’. While some mentioned the mix wasn’t perfect, most simply stood in awe, appreciative of the opportunity to see the defining Irish group… in Altona.
MBV’s set grew from a respectable volume to a terrifying yet somehow beautiful wall of noise, now remembered as #noisefk2013. An absolutely phenomenal teeth-chattering twenty minutes to out-loud every band of the day and possibly every band ever (even Swans).
For those still needing more, there was the minimalist, electronic compositions of Oren Ambarchi to cleanse the palate or of course for those who felt inspired by the sounds of the day, Karaoke presented by Rage for the everyman to become the star of the stage.
Day Two – Sunday
After enough sleep to settle ringing ears, it was back to Altona for the day curated by The Drones. If Saturday was all about the noise reunions, Sunday appeared more accessible with a wider variety of musical themes.
What better way to kick off a stinking hot day in Altona than a run around in the sweaty games pavilion?
A hit of tennis, followed by a battle royale in a jumping castle, giant connect four, chess, and soccer with a huge colourful ball. Overworkeed? Luckily, the ATP Games Pavilion Officials came to the rescue in crisp whites with orange slices and water. Genius.
Feeling refreshed and ready for another band, it was off to the aircraft hangar tin shed that is Stage 1, where it’s never too early for strobe lights and laser beams with a band celebrating ten years since their first gig, Melbourne’s own minimalist groove trio My Disco.
They delighted long-time fans with early tracks such as ‘Administer A Prosthetic Dream’, an epic drum solo merging into ‘Turn’, and a punchy version of recent single ‘Wrapped Coast’. The light show was breathtaking and for such a short set the three managed to show off the individual talents that make them such a unified force.
Dan Kelly’s Dream Band provided sweet, harmonic, twangy aural relief. Dual boy-girl vocals were sweet and cleverly, Kelly had his cousins hold boxing-esque signs with song titles before he played them as he was backed by a lineup that lived up to its name; including The Hello Morning’s Joe Cope on keys, Augie March’s David Williams on drums, and Indra Adams on bass (“he books your bands,” intro’d Kelly).
There was dreamy sfx, folk jams, an audience member making up a guitar solo (it was great by the way), whole band involvement on stage, and an absurdly brilliant jam about a post-apocalyptic world where Kelly and his band with Hendrix, Ringo Starr and Bindi Irwin living under the sea. The audience learnt the words which are still creeping into heads back in the real world (“ooh-ee, ooh-eee/Bindi and me, Bindi and me”).
A mysterious band noted as one of the best of the weekend was The Stickmen. Emerging from Hobart’s iconic 90s scene with psychedelic surf/noise rock, The Stickmen had a reputation as one of the great live acts of the time but released only two albums and disappeared.
This kind of reunion is what ATP was all about and their set was simply awesome. Moody, pub-tinged post punk with resonant vocals and feedback made a packed-in room pay attention. For a band with such enigma, the wait was worth it with many tweeting about a new found desire to locate their scarce albums.
Taking time out from curating a magic day of music was The Drones themselves. Each time you see this band live, you’re reminded of just how exceptional they really are. While it was wonderful to see so many bands reform for ATP over the weekend, what became obvious was that Australia really does have some kick-ass bands currently making music.
The Drones are a band full of integrity, a group that defies genre and continue to expand their scope. Live, they are a powerful force.
Obviously delighted to be there Gareth Liddiard told the crowd, “I hope you have a good day and are happy with the choices.” One very articulate response from a gent summed it up, “FUCKING AWESOME.”
Their set soared with violent guitars, passionate vocals, and a setlist full of surprises new (‘How To See Through Fog’) and old (‘Jezabel’). One particularly sentimental choice was a cover of Kev Carmody’s River of Tears in honour of the man who was too ill to attend.
For those who’d never heard of Pere Ubu, they would’ve sounded rather ‘hip’. It turns out they invented hip. The Westgarth Leisure Centre was instantly transported back to 1978, the year the band released ground-breaking record, The Modern Dance which they played in full to celebrate the day before it celebrated 35 years since its release.
Considering how much music we’ve heard since then, it was boggling to fathom how the ‘Avant Garage’ sound would have gone down but having influenced the likes of Pixies and Joy Division, it obviously took off.
Sunday’s set was out of this world. David Thomas is not only the only remaining founding member of the band; he is the driving force of their live show. His rigid, fit-like dances, his insane between-song ramblings, his high pitched vocals and his demands of the band meant we saw a cult-figure in action.
A figure who wouldn’t be out of place yellin’ at kids from his porch. Sitting down during instrumental breaks to swig from a flask, Thomas appeared to be rocking out to the mixing pot of sounds with the crowd. Part of that sound was, most recognisably, a Theremin. Enough said.
As Thomas said himself, borrowing a line from an Aussie cult hero, “That’s not post rock… THIS is post-rock”. So it was – a tight set played with the vigour of a much younger band with Thomas taking the mantle from Michael Gira for grumpiest/most-terrifying frontman of ATP.
A weekend of reunions and reincarnations continued with the legendary original lineup of Beasts of Bourbon – Tex Perkins, Kim Salmon, Boris Sudjovic, Spencer P Jones, and James Baker doing their thing on a sweaty summer night.
The band moved through singles chronologically with Tex offering tidbits of information about their time and place. A personal favourite was his exclamation that things got ugly around their second album because “nobody GOT us!”
The crowd certainly got them, heavily involved and emotionally invested in the set particularly as classic tracks such as ‘Black Milk’ reverberated around the big shed and beer evaporated quickly and not because of the heat. The set was as expected, Tex growlin’ and the band howlin’ with pure ‘what-you-see’ blues twisted rock.
From the Beasts to ‘Chisel, maaaaaate’. Don Walker, former writer and pianist for Cold Chisel and recent inductee into the Australian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame delivered a smooth, rock n’ roll sound. Looking super slick singing with a band he coined ‘The Suave Fucks’, a collection of talented instrumentalists and with a double bass, twin neck electric, hollow bodied and lap slide guitar, this was a bluesy, country affair and a wonderful contrast to the unconventional sounds of the weekend.
Things couldn’t stay conventional for long and Einstürzende Neubauten from Germany and their industrial experimental sounds, have managed to create non-conventional aural assaults our of their DIY sonics for 30 years, and were almost bringing down buildings in a fitting end to the weekend.
It takes a lot to get to seeing positives when you’re profusely sweating in a shed in Altona, yet ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror did it creating a relaxed environment to see era-defining bands, experience new ones, veg out watching a film or play a spot of tennis; or even simply avoiding ‘the eye’ of Pricasso.
No matter how you spent the two days, ATP was a surreal and truly enjoyable weekend.
