Flashback live gig! These two days at ATP festival in Altona just outside Melbourne 2013 will go down in history as the best one they put on in Australia. The first day was Saturday February 16th curated by ATP themselves (this post) and then the second day Sunday February 17th curated by The Drones (next post) that year they were just about to drop the then new album called I See Seaweed which I would say now is one of the best The Drones albums, anyway more about that tomorrow.
The night on Friday 15th February before all this even start, I got to see a a last minute intimate HTRK nightclub show @ The Liberty Social on Flinders Lane and if my memory it right they didn’t start their set until one and finish somewhere around 2:30AM in the morning and oh my god what a show, that’s really Saturday so that’s where I’m starting this post. I’d only seen them once before @ This Is Nowhere Festival in Perth the year before this one. The one and only Perth HTRK set/show so getting seeing them twice again was just amazing at nightclub then pretty much the same day at ATP.
I was right on the fence for them too, see photo below and nope I’m not the cute girl I’m standing next or behind her. Both these sets at tiny nightclub and huge fest by HTRK was unbelievable, one of the highlights of the first day. Now they don’t really play that much so if you get the chance the see then live, I would if I was you. Since then I’ve only had one more lucky change/time to see them live but this weekend was the best!
Swans and The Dead C would be the other highlights on the first day but to start it all early was the local band called Strangers From Now On, which once again must be hard opening something like this but they where cool. Sleepy Sun was next and they were OK but the first band I really total fall in love with that day would be Civil Civic or just CC for short or even use the thingo next letter m on your keyboard <<, they’re just a two piece and are wicked!
I did see the end of Thee Oh Sees which just OK again but next up is Swans. I’ve included the time card here before, do you always have a hard time picking what to watch and then what your doing to miss at fests like me? As you can see I totally missed Godspeed You! Black Emperor too. Would have like to have Standish/Carlyon but the Swans was on at the same time so who’s going to win that one?
Nothing can prepare you for a Swans show, I really mean that! Even me writing that or everything I write here will do it no justice at all. On the time cards hand out at the start of the day they’re blocked over for two hour and mostly likely did played the longest set of the day because bands never really stick to the time that well really. Swans haven’t tour Australia meanly times, they play a lot of totally new stuff that would be on the To Be Kind album that didn’t come until 2014 but that has a special place in my heart partly because of this show. Swans playing the longest set of the day too!
When bands reform lately they’re just doing old stuff and it’s nostalgia of the past if they do something new it’s just not as good as before but Swans are not your normal band, I would say this was even be better than the old band. Now mostly this town is freezing cold every-time I visit it but it was one of the hottest day in Melbourne that day they play and Swans did their old party trick of turning off all the air-cons while they played, so just think about this it’s Aussie summer on one of hottest day of the year and then Swans walk on stage which is in pretty much just a thin shed. It was totally unbelievable show, one of the very best I’ve seen, I never see everything really like before or after. It’s like Swans psychically rip your head off your body turn everything inside out, upside down but words fault me to tell you want kind off show they put on!
After they finished I had to drink a lot of water because I was about pass out from what just happen but I think everyone else need to do the very same. I when to stage two to see an Aussie band who front-man is an American called New War who were wicked too after recovering from the Swans attack.
I guess, should point out I’ve been going between main stage and the small stage. It was a great set up at Altona, it was at this place called Westgate & Leisure Centre which stage 1 was in the sport part, it’s like an indoor soccer or cricket arena which green floor and white lines everywhere but was just a big thin shed really but the smaller, stage 2 which was in a different room. In like a place you have a wedding or rich bastards have meetings or functions, red carpets, velvet everywhere, big chandeliers everywhere hung down from the ceiling etc.
The Dead C played next after HTRK to finish off the highlights of the first day. The Dead C were wicked amazing live too, maybe not as totally insane as the Swans but I love it just as much or maybe even more! They’re a Kiwi or New Zealand three piece band.
Well, My Bloody Valentine was a totally disappointing live as headlining act but sorry to say they just seem totally lame act after seeing Swans, Civil Civic, New War, HTRK and The Dead C earlier that day/night which were all unbelievable great and epic live so in the end just made My Bloody Valentine look like some crappy boring pop band. I didn’t see the big deal and the new album mbv which they were touring on at time was just rubbish or maybe I should say it’s not my thing but they’re always a big over-rated English band in my books. I say more people should have listen to The Dead C. I’ve including streaming music players for all my highlight acts, just to make it real easy to listen to the bands I’m talking about but I do that om all my blog posts anyway? I hope you do enjoy them, if you do have a listen to any of them?
Now Oren Ambarchi played to close the opening day which I did check out and was very cool nice and mellow to finish the night on. Everyone else was freaking out then because there were still no buses yet to take us all home to the city but it’s not something I give a shit about but a lot of people just bitch and moaned about this at the time but who cares after seeing all this, your complaining about what?
All photos above are by Katie Fairservice!
Cheers 🙂
a1000mistakes 