Holiday to the Boredoms (part 5)

All Tomorrow's Parties

While you wouldn't know it from the Boredoms music I've been repeatedly playing for two weeks, there were some other neat things about the ATP festival at Kutcher's that are worth mentioning.

Deerhoof: Truth be told, looking up Deerhoof's tour schedule was actually the source of how I found out about ATP, not the Boredoms as I might otherwise lead you to believe. Their set was a bit short, but full of math-rocky goodness in their own goofy way. I missed the band the last time they were in DC, so it was nice to see them even with a time-limited set.

Image swiped from The Village Voice.

Boris: Sometimes I really enjoy loud, droning music, but I forgot that it can strike me as a tad boring live. Really, Boris was just LOUD, so much so that we left the stage area and heard the show quite well sitting on a couch outside conference room where they were playing and enjoyed it just fine.

Bob Mould with No Age: I haven't really listened to Bob Mould in over ten years, but when I did, I was totally addicted to his solo work, Sugar, and especially Husker Du. He actually played his old Husker songs with No Age, alternating tracks with the band as if they were Grant Hart. He screamed, bounced, and hammered the guitar like it was 1986, and I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. The only thing missing from the set was his Flying V.

Image swiped from The Village Voice.

The festival: A wonderfully relaxed environment was the real compelling part of ATP (well, the Boredoms, then the relaxed environment). Coming from DC where you can't go anywhere without being treated like you are Bin Laden's right-hand man or park your car without having to study the tow-away signs as if they were gospel at the eve of judgment day, the event in rural NY was just fun. Plus, it was common to see many band members and other celebs simply walking around and watching shows like casual people. Wayne Coyne rode around a golf cart looking at everybody with a gigantic grin, Jim Jarmusch attended a few show that we were at (plus he was in Akron to see Tom Waits when we were there a few years ago, just to plot our paths on the musical map), and the Boredoms and Boris were just everywhere we were, it seemed. Only the poor girl from Deerhoof seemed to be constantly bombarded by geeks trying to meet her, but such is the life of a girl singer at one of these things, I guess.