Explosions in the Sky ATP – Minehead, 16/17/18th May 2008

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Jens Lekman. All photographs by Rich Thane.

Another year, another great weekend of ATP action. This was the first year TLOBF have covered it properly, with press passes and everything, so it was a slightly more distancing experience. Staying in a (rather splendid) B&B about 10 mins walk away from the Butlins site itself, our morning stroll along the sea front a breath of fresh air to clear the residual hangover each morning (well, afternoon really…).

Explosions in the Sky had managed to bring a lot of bands from across the globe together for this weekend. There were barely a home-grown act amongst the line-up, the bands flown across from Japan, America and Canada for our listening pleasure. The best sign though was how great the first act on each of the days were. Our Friday pilgrimage was finished by the dirty rock ‘n roll of The Constantines. Lead singer Bry Webb deciding that he needed a hair cut, taking chunks out of his hair between chords. Saturday saw the raucous gypsy-noise of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, blasting away the remnants of the night before, causing people to spontaneously dance at 4pm in the afternoon. It was the turn of the nicest man in Sweden, Jens Lekman, to woo the crowd on Sunday. A perfect slice of sunshine filled pop, his delicate picking out of chords from the air, twisted with his spoken interludes of ‘Postcard to Nina’ sending the crowd into equal measures of applause and laughter. He also had the best looking backing band of the weekend…

Around these opening blasts of aural pleasure were massive highlights from more established acts. The curators wowed the crowd Friday night, their superbly evocative ‘Birth and Death of the Day’ sending shivers down my spine, whilst The National on Saturday night blew the crowd away with their incredibly intense performance. Matt Berninger prowling the stage, his growling voice arcing out of the confines of the Pavilion stage and out into the night air. Broken Social Scene set the same stage alight with their joyous indie-noise-pop. The stage being swapped by guest stars at one point with members of EITS, The National, Constantines and J Mascis all joining them for a slice of Kevin Drew’s ‘Back out on the Cocks’.

Brendan Canning, Broken Social Scene

We weren’t just blessed with skinny guys with guitar bands either. Ghostface Killah on the Saturday afternoon put on an eclectic show of hip-hop, the surreal site of indie-chicks dancing to ‘Greedy Bitches’ will stick in my mind for years to come, as will his posse selling CD-R’s of the Wu-Tang back catalog to anyone who stopped near them.

Beyond that were ear bathing sets from Silver Jews, whose gloriously lyrical Americana and exceedingly dry sense of humour kept everyone amused for their set. The augmented Beach House which included a live drummer and, for one song only, a bassist nicely fleshed out their usually quiet songs. Victoria has become comfortable with her voice to such an extent that the vocals now carry an added edge and depth that’s broken free of the records. Iron & Wine’s recent dubious live form was realised with much of their set consisting of extended jams of established songs. But the bones of the songs were still wonderfully rich slices of World-tinged country.

Alex Scally, Beach House

There was a bit of a hassle with Battles, which is a bit too tiresome to go into here, but at least we got it to see them on Sunday. Which was good because I would have missed the ending of all festivals. Plenty has been written about their great live show, but they lived up, and beyond, it. ‘Atlas’ has become some weirdly mad anthem, the site of people dancing like loons to it will stick with me. The floor bouncing as layer upon layer of their perverted music was woven together.

Every festival must have its down side though. Sunset Rubdown were boringly flat, and noticeably struggled with their sound. Western Keys, who were making their UK debut, sounded unimaginative and one-paced whilst Phosphorescence were on so late that people were falling asleep to his go slow routine. And the queuing for Battles was just stupid and poorly communicated. Other than that, the lack of stuff on at the Red’s Stage also didn’t make sense, but there we go.

Another year, another great weekend of ATP action. Honestly, I don’t think I can go to another festival ever again.

Hungry for more ATP? Check out our photo specials from the event: Friday 16th May, Saturday 17th May.

Or check out our the previous weekends ATP vs Pitchfork coverage here & here.

Battles