ATP Nightmare Before Christmas – Minehead 5/6/7th December 2009

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Words: Marc Higgins | Photographs: Lucy Johnston

Sometimes Christmas comes early when you’re a child, but very rarely when you get older. This year, however, is going to be one of those Santas visited early moments. Obviously by Santa I mean Mike “I’ve got more side projects than you’ve had hot dinners” Patton. Riding a sleigh from the depths of ungodly hell, along with his good friends The Melvins to curate ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas shebang at Butlins holiday resort in Minehead. Never before has ATP’s nightmare vision been more fully realized than on the days between 5th & 7th December 2008.It is undeniable the amount of fantastic musicians ATP have given the curator card too over the years; Mogwai, Thurston Moore (who invariably shows up in one guise or another at most ATP’s); Shellac; Portishead; Dinosaur Jr; Explosions in The Sky etc. The list gets more and more ridiculous.

On announcement of this years Nightmare Before Christmas annual party, the list just got downright insane! The Lord is smiling down and so are all the people with tickets for this one. I now know what Charlie felt like when he found that golden ticket! Like one lucky, Melvins lovin’, Fantomas shouting mother trucker. Sorry, I must musically critique and stop salivering like a dog chomping down on the postman’s last fingertip!

Friday December 6th was a cold, cold day, and with a 5 hour drive under my belt (courtesy of my friend Steve – props to him for holding the wheel till we got there), we entered what seems like the most surreal place for ATP to stage its festivities; Butlins, of fair Minehead. A strange mix of retirees and career professionals live in Minehead, a slightly lost in silence seaside town, which makes it all the more strange that we’re here to watch Mike and The Melvins raise unholy sledgehammer hell! Bring it on.

Who would take to the stage first but The Melvins 1983; either cos Buzz and co couldn’t find anyone to play or the just wanted to plain hog the stage. Yes they’re famous for their lineage and influence on the grunge movement, but tonight they sound tired and a little out of place. ‘Honey Bucket’ still sounds awesome, but I find that I’d rather listen to the records as they will forever have venom and punch. Tonight, Melvins 1983 lack both. Too bad really as most of the bands playing here this weekend seem to be picked, or influenced by The Melvins.

Undeniably Big Business are huge fans. But before they can show where they’ve taken that influence, Jared Waren blows up his bass amp. He hasn’t even played one note of any BigBizz song! For a second a wave of distress and mild laughter sweeps over the crowd but a generous man awaits backstage. Undeniably anxious, the unknown backstage minion lends his amp over for the greater metal good. Rather you than me. The slaying begins. Jared plays the bass like he was taking over the world with it, like a force of nature. Towards the end Dale Crover, of The Melvins, makes his second stage appearance to hammer out ‘Just as the Day was Dawning’ and the monstrous ‘Grounds for Divorce’ from their mighty album Here Come The Waterworks. Genius! Dale Crover will no doubt win the award for most time on stage this weekend.

Trevor Dunn’s new project isn’t quite what you’d expect from the ex-bungle bass man. Well, it is, and it isn’t. Strangely blending hooky, romantic alt rock, with Peeping Tom style sexiness (hmmm are they sexy?), Madlove make disturbing alt-pop. It doesn’t register like it should’ve done. I expected far more experimentalism, more strangeness. It’s far more of a straight forward venture for Dunn, who is known far and wide amongst these circles, especially in this circle, for Mr Bungle, and his lesser known Trio Convulsant outfit. It was their second gig ever, so maybe I can forgive it lacking something inspiring. To see Trevor Dunn play live was pretty special for me so I’m happy as a pig.

It wasn’t easy to get lost or miss bands this time round as only Reds and Centre Stage were open. Luckily I was able to catch every last energy fuelled moment of Torche! Their album Meanderthal is an absolute classic of sludge-pop-metal, and live they set the bar so high that they would never be beaten for the entire festival. Louder than God and far more supreme, they nailed it through stompers like ‘Piranha’. I almost couldn’t take it when they played ‘Healer’ and ‘Across the Shields’. Outstanding! Take QOTSA, throw in some Pelican, and some more Pelican, and you have the best heavy band on the planet right now. I haven’t loved a gig as much since I saw QOTSA at Leeds 2005! Completely jaw dropping. Plus the singer looked like he should be in a country and western quartet, but sounds like Burton C Bell with groove! Just managed to see the last sixty seconds of bile inducing noise nuts The Locust, which means, we saw three songs, and they rip your throat out!

If there’s a band on the planet doing more for progressive metal it’s ISIS. Aaron Turner and Co make it look easy. The music is so dynamic that I thought it may not translate as well live. But they never failed to mesmerize, playing a selection of tracks from their latest record, including my favorite ‘Dulcinea’, an absolute master class in how to break the mold. We’ve waited for a band to take Tool’s mantle; these guys have well and truly taken it on. From a relatively new band in terms of influence, to perhaps one of the best known grunge bands of all time: The Meat Puppets. Like The Melvins their influence spans generations. I have a feeling people are only here to see them play ‘Plateau’ and ‘Lake Of Fire’ though. I miss the latter through the need for sleep. They hit hard with there brand of psychedelic punk and noise. It was unexpected as Curt Kirkwood plays guitar more like J Mascis than the bluegrass style I thought I was going to hear. A gift no doubt, he handled his effects guiding the phasers and rampant delays like a true guitar god. Unfortunately I’m off to bed and miss Porn (and Dale Crovers next appearance surely – he invariably bashes it out with these guys live too), but, having seen them before, I’m not overly upset. The double blow will come tomorrow.

When starting the day, why not start it with Mastodon! Hell that’s exactly what I needed; pure skilled, old-school metal for the new crowd. Missing a guitarist (you’d never tell) they give one of the most crowd pleasing performances of the weekend. Viking metal full of demons and shrouded in gothic imagery. Definitely what I wanted. However, what I didn’t want was a fifteen minute set from Fennesz. What was the point in trekking downstairs to get a small slice of nothing? One of the more experimental acts of the weekend I really wanted to see what he was about. Fuck it lets go for some King Buzzo!

And so we did, where they made up for their earlier disappointing set by ripping into the new stuff. Not that I know it, but they have far too many albums for me to know them all. But with two drummers, and a new bass player, namely Coady Willis, of Big Business, joining Dale Crover on drums, and Coadys bandmate Jared on bass The Melvins have found a whole new energy. They play through mostly new stuff, and what I think is Hooch, but don’t really touch their two best albums, Houdini and Stoner Witch, other than that. Cleverly orchestrated dismantled sludge from the godfathers! Good times! Whether Butthole Surfers could match that was soon to answered, and answered with a firm No! Not what I would call a live show fit for ATP; funny, but not musically entertaining. Plus I was itching to see Mike spasm on stage like someone on day release. I wasn’t disappointed!

Fantomas enter stage right 15 minutes late – obviously because The Directors Cut is only about 37 minutes long and they weren’t prepared to throw some others in. He’s Mike Patton, we’ll let him off. He squeals like a man possessed and with abated glee ‘The Godfather’ is first up (Go! Go! Gagaga! Go! Go! Yayayayayaya!) All the way through the set it is evident how incomparable Pattons talent is with any other musician here tonight. He composes the rest of the band, guiding them through songs like ‘Henry: portrait of a Serial Killer’ and psycho trauma that is ‘The Omen’. Simultaneously graceful and horrific Fantomas deliver and deliver, ‘Cape Fear’ has heads firmly bouncing before ‘Rosemary’s Baby’. I spy that Dale Crover has also made another appearance on stage – taking place of Dave Lombardo, of Slayer. To play his drum parts! Dale you’re a magician. With a very gentlemanly thank you to the crowd and a slating of the hellhole that is Minehead they finish ‘Der Golem’ and ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’.

Santa has come early and looking like the cutest snowflake is Martina Topley Bird. Adorning a red ball dress she warms the crowd with alternate versions from her fantastic debut album that was released some time ago now. She alleges she has a new record, and plays some songs from that but she has a number of technical hitches that stunt her performance. She shines best when she sings unaccompanied, and even gets the crowd in on the act for one Christmassy number. She is a charming jewel of the British music scene and even has time to cover ‘Baker Street’, but in her own street lullaby style. Dreamy. Unfortunate incidents preceeding this gig mean that I sleep through Teenage Jesus and The Soulsavers gigs, missing Thurston Moore, Lydia Lunch and Mark Lanegan. You can imagine the biting agony of realizing that when I awoke at 3am!

On Sunday I was astounded by this Norweigian band called Farmers Market who completely blew me away. Gypsy folk, with hints of lounge, rock and country, but in the way that Bungle do it. Musically they were simply audacious. I don’t think the saxophonist took one breath the entire show. I advise anyone who likes Mr Bungles mix to get hold of Surfin USSR, its brilliant; Inventive musicality with a satirical political edge. With titles like ‘The Dismantling of The Soviet Onion Made Us Cry’ why wouldn’t you go for it!? Israeli punk outfit Monotonix , obviously on a mission ruffle up the system, played the gig in with the crowd. Whether it was a backing track, or not, is to be debated as there was no band on stage and they couldn’t physically play in the crowd. Lead singer Levi Elvis was surfing a kickdrum across the crowd whilst belting out their brand of rock n roll infused punk anthems. Just what the festival needed really, everything tends to be slightly reserved at ATP. Fuck that!

Fantomas were brilliant again only they played a cover of Al Greens’ ‘If I gave you My Love’. Exactly what I was hoping for; Soul Death Metal! Lip smackingly good!

The most intense gig of this “nightmare” had to be Dalek. Ipecacs kings of noise truly shook the foundation of Reds bar. Never has Hip Hop been so monstrously dark and industrial. The malevolent stage presence of Mc Dalek, on vocals, and his co conspirator Okt0pus, on production, packs even more fire. Okt0pus struts at the back of the stage like a caged beast, eyeballing the audience! There’s no way you can’t be moved and almost broken by the consuming darkness they breed when their music plays. On record it’s intense, but live they’ll blow your mind! Word! After that The Black Heart Procession kinda just fall by. It takes time to digest Dalek and I’m not really affected at all by TBHP. A band I love, their nourishing romantic pop touches Bad Seeds territory at times and they can really hit you in the heart. But not tonight, besides the singer looks like Kevin Smith, and he knows it.

It’s all a waiting game, preparation for the pusher of squares. He’s well up for the gig and, despite being the quintessential English eccentric, Tom Jenkinson is loving the audience and breathing energy from every fret. As he powers through tracks from his latest, more dynamic melodic effort, Just a Souvenir it is clear that the best has been saved until last. In terms of musical progression no one is taking things further than Mr Jenkinson. ‘Delta V’, ‘A Real Woman’ and ‘The Glass Road’ all go down a storm as well as his classic move into the realms of greatness ‘Come On My Selector’. Genius knows no bounds and this guy is touching the sky. Whilst it’s hard not to dance, you have to take a few minutes out to look on in awe at his bass playing; phenomenal magic. End of!

Same time again next year anyone?

P.S Probably should mention the in-chalet gig by The Melvins, but I missed that too! Next time I’m gonna check every chalet! Apparently the people staying in that chalet got kicked out for destroying their accommodation – hmmm, a little unfair I feel. But that’s Rock n Roll Kids!

ATP Festival
Lucy Johnston Photography