Tag Archive for "Nick Cave"
Despite only living in Melbourne, a reluctance to play anywhere near as north as Brisbane in a number of years makes Rowland S Howard a real personal draw-card. Having never seen him in the flesh his gaunt appearance is a bit of a shock, but he is in good humour, and with his excellent but sole solo album, ‘Teenage Snuff Film‘, coming up to being a decade old, it’s good to hear when he tells us that he will be playing some new songs and has started work on a follow up record. Mick Harvey is replicating his Teenage Snuff Film drumming duties but Brian Hooper, who played bass on the album isn’t present for a full reunion, but is ably replaced by J. P. Shilo.Â
I get to see the first four songs of the set, which includes a new song, but as a result of Harmonia’s late starting and late finishing, I’m left with a dilemma; do I stay and watch the rest of Rowland S Howards’s set or do I go back up the hill to the other stage to see Laughing Clowns play for the first time in over twenty years. In the end there is really only one choice to be made and I reluctantly leave the Amphitheatre Stage, hoping that the promise of a new album isn’t too far from being realised and that some live dates away from Melbourne, and preferably as far north as Brisbane, might follow. I miss an apparently excellent cover of Talk Talk’s ‘Life’s What You Make It‘, but the rumours of Nick Cave joining him for a rendition of ‘Shivers’ prove to be unfound.
I can already hear Laughing Clowns playing as I start up the hill and reach the photo pit out of breath only to find Ed Kuepper thanking the audience and the band walking off… Luckily, they decided to play a song for their sound-check, although unluckily security count this as one song and so the we get kicked out of the photo pit after two proper songs. Laughing Clowns are nothing short of a revelation and that very rare occurrence of a reformed band that live up to the hype. Essentially, they are everything that The Saints should have been last night but weren’t. Unlike last night, Ed Kuepper is in a jovial mood and looks happy to be there playing these songs with these musicians. Although he adds vocals to the songs, his role in the band seems almost peripheral, with his guitar playing much more restrained than when normally playing an electric guitar and the focus of the band is shared between Jeffrey Wegener’s outstanding drumming intricacies and Louise Elliot’s sax playing. Growing up in the 1980s, when so much pop music was blighted by tasteless saxophone playing, it’s almost shocking to hear a saxophone being used to such great effect that it’s the true heart and soul of a band. They finish with ‘Eternally Yours’ and it sounds nothing less than astonishing. Everett True and Warren Ellis are both stood only a couple of metres away, grooving away, Warren is taking photos with his camera phone (don’t let security see you doing that…), the sun is shining, everyone is grinning like idiots. It’s possibly the moment of the whole weekend.
Before moving to Australia, Spiritualized were my most seen live band, nine times if I remember correctly; various shows in Newcastle, Birmingham, and London down the years, as well as at countless Glastonburys. It doesn’t take long for me to realise just how much I’ve missed seeing them play, possibly when ‘You Lie, You Cheat‘, segues into a typically sublime ‘Shine A Light’. They’re down from the 20-something piece band I saw them play with one time at Glastonbury to a seven-piece, and unlike previous, more recent encounters, Jason Pierce is stood up. Although he’s not sat down and Spiritualized have their usual epilepsy-inducing lightshow, they’re not the most exciting of bands to photograph, not that it really matters when they are in such stunning form. It really makes you feel even sorrier for Sonic Boom (although rumours are that Spacemen 3 have already started on rehearsals).   The double whammy of  ’Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space‘ followed by the very unexpected ‘Lay Back In The Sun‘ is the highlight.  The only thing that could have improved their set would have been the inclusion of ‘Medication‘, which for so long was a mainstay in the set, and maybe a dusting off of a few more songs from ‘Laser Guided Melodies‘, but time is fleeting and it’s all over far too soon, with an hour being nowhere near long enough. However, it’s still more than the scandalously short 45 minute slot they get in Brisbane a few days later, with Brisbane, as usual, being overlooked for festival sideshows.
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We all know we’re only got one song in the pit to photograph Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. What we don’t know until about 30 seconds before they start is that we have to be sat down in the seats along the back of the front barrier. When the pit isn’t very wide, the stage is over 5 foot tall and there is a wall of fold-back speakers on top, this is not a good thing. When the band come out onto the stage, most of them just can’t be seen from our vantage point. And when Nick Cave bounds onstage he is either perched on the edge of the stage, 10 foot above you and you are photographing right up his nose, with half his face obscured by his hand/mic or he has moved back into the middle of the stage and half disappeared from view . It’s very disappointing and the restrictions just seem overly melodramatic. As with everyone I photograph my aim is to get the best photo I can of them. When overdramatic restrictions like this are put in place it almost seems like it’s an act of self-sabotage to ensure that nobody gains anything positive from the experience.
The View Up Nick Cave’s Nose
Nick Cave vs The Stage
Cropped version of above photo
After all that, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are slightly disappointing, something I wasn’t expecting on my first time seeing them considering how highly regarded their live shows are. The set is a mix of what could be termed ‘Greatest Hits’ and a heavy dose of songs from ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!‘. There is a strangeness about a Nick Cave greatest hits set as his audience is surely much more loyal and isn’t exactly a scenester crowd, only there for the ‘hits’. It’s a similar set of songs to those that played on his solo tour last year, with ‘Tupelo‘, ‘Red Right Hand‘, ‘The Weeping Song‘, ‘The Mercy Seat‘ amongst the songs getting another airing, albeit this time with full Bad Seeds support. the only real surprises being ‘Hard On For Love‘ and ’Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry‘. Although ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ was one of the albums of 2008, the songs played from it seem a bit flat when played live, not helped by the fact that after the ear-splitting volume of Spiritualized, the sound for the Bad Seeds seems very quiet. (The ATP Brisbane show later in the week after Mt Buller is a completely different story, with the band being in stunning form and being what I hoped they would be, even though they play a very similar set of songs). Ultimately, although they are the festival’s headliners, tonight is just not their night, with Laughing Clowns and Spiritualized jostling for the set of the day, if not of the whole weekend.
Even having attended countless music festivals down the years, including Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Phoenix, Falls Festival, Big Day Out, Splendour In the Grass, and Peats Ridge, ATP Mt Buller was an amazing experience, that easily outshone just about every other festival I’ve been to. Near perfect, with an outstanding collection of bands, a truly stunning location, great weather, first rate organisation and the most pleasant festival crowd I’ve experienced in a long while, with not a single drunken, flag waving idiot in sight.  Hopefully it will be back next year, although the organisers have taken a massive financial hit in its inaugural year by only selling something like 3,500 of the 6,000 tickets that were available. I’ve seen nothing but praise and rave reviews from anyone who was there and based on those views you would hope that word of mouth would help sell it out much quicker in the second year.
The main issue is going to be who curates it and who could play on the bill. By having Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds curate and play and by having Australian bands with the pulling power of The Saints and The Dirty Three, the organisers could be accused of putting all their eggs in one basket in the first year, as there’s no Australian act with the ’indie cred’ of Nick Cave, yet mainstream appeal needed for an Australian ATP, that could curate. If Grant McLennan was still alive I think the Go-Betweens could be a possibility, but I don’t think Robert Forster on his own has the pulling power. People have suggested The Drones, who I think would do a great job and were a surprise omission from playing this year, especially as they are signed to ATP’s record label, but they don’t really have the mainstream appeal. Some people have suggested Crowded House/The Finn Brothers or Silverchair, but that’s just laughable and shows an ignorance as to what ATP is about. Time will tell, but I would expect that ATP and an international act will co-curate. As for me, I’m pinning my hopes on a Pavement reunion and My Bloody Valentine being included on the bill.  Whatever eventuates I’m already looking forward to next year and hopefully getting to photograph it again.
If there is one major criticism that could be leveled at the ATP Australian line-up, it’s that it’s very male and very middle-aged. In that respect, Afrirampo are like a breath of fresh air. Sure, they have the whole clichéd Japanese female punk band thing, with the colorful outfits (resplendent with artistic face make up), the kookiness of the between song banter, the extreme politeness and telling us that they love us but there’s so much unbridled joy and a sense of fun that transcends cultures in watching Oni and Pika play. And they really can play, with Pika putting in a really stunning powerhouse drumming performance, providing evidence for their claim that ATP stands for ‘Afrirampo. Top of mountain. POWER!’  They are one of those bands that can’t help but bring a smile to your face when you see them. J Spaceman is watching them play from side stage, although I don’t think he does smiling…
From one happy smiley person to another and it’s time for Michael Gira back down at the Amphitheatre stage… One man and his acoustic guitar can often mean the insipidness of a city busker but when it’s Michael Gira and his acoustic guitar it’s a whole different matter. With just his voice and guitar, Gira has the ability to both terrify and yet captivate an audience, and deliver a performance of hypnotic intensity that stuns the crowd into silence. Apparently he sold $800 worth of CDs in three minutes after he played; impressive stuff and a true measure of the impact he made on the audience.
Robert Forster plays a typically classy set and is so eager to play that not only does he sits out on the drum riser before the rest of his band come out to the stage but he doesn’t bother tuning up as the batteries in his tuner are flat. Adele Pickvance plays mum in trying to convince him that he really should tune up before they start, which provides no end of amusement to all the photographers in the photo pit but Robert isn’t having any of it and away he goes, straight into a cover of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Temptation Inside Your Heart’, with Go-Between classics ‘Head Full of Steam‘, ‘Surfing Magazines‘ and ‘Quiet Heart‘ following soon after in amongst his own excellent solo songs.
Harmonia are another large personal draw-card, and judging by the size of the crowd, which easily dwarves that which Kraftwerk played to in Brisbane late last year, I’m amongst a large number of like-minded souls. They provide an interesting comparison with Kraftwerk, their Krautrock peers; although they don’t have the stunning visuals of a Kraftwerk show, they sound more contemporary than them, with Kraftwerk having a sound, and especially vocals, that ultimately betrays the timing of their origins and popularity, meaning that they can be easily placed as a mid-70s to early-80s band. If you didn’t know better, or didn’t have the benefit of seeing the age of the band members, you could easily mistake Harmonia for a modern-day band and, more than likely, current darlings of the music press. As with so many of the bands playing on the Amphitheatre Stage, the combination of the music, the location and the now setting sun heightens the whole experience to a level that just about no other festival can even get close to.
All the exertion of the previous day as taken it’s toll as I wake to a world of pain, with extremely sore knees and back. Things are taken more leisurely than at Splendour, when the alarm was set for 6am on both days, so editing the first days photos starts at a more reasonable hour, with the usual photo-editing brain food of Tim Tams and accompanied by bad 80s music on Rage in the background. The world outside is looking very grey and like there might be rain but the sky is a bit brighter by the time the second day officially starts at 12:30pm.
There are no truer words than “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know“, and Hunter Dienna, in being related to one of the Bad Seeds, (although I can’t remember which one, possibly Mick Harvey as he’s one of their top Myspace friends and plays on their debut EP…) obviously know the right people to get on the ATP bill. But whilst nepotism might be alive and well in the music industry in 2009, they are more than worthy of their place on the bill, with deliciously deep and dark vocals provided by singer Xanthe and an overall sound somewhere between The Bad Seeds, Mazzy Star and The Tindersticks.
There’s a bit of time to kill before The Stabs are due to play so I’m persuaded to go and join the others for the music trivia in the ABOM for a quick half-hour guest-spot appearance on the team. Having put my camera bag on the floor with my camera on top of it, I decide to have a quick look at the day’s photos but have hand-eye coordination issues and manage to knock the camera off the bag onto the iron base of the table. Where it makes a really unhealthy sound. Somewhat luckily everything still works, although at the expense of the lens hood, which obviously took the force of the impact and is cracked all the way through. That’ll teach me for entering into the frivolity of such timewasting follies as music trivia competetions instead of the much more serious business of taking photos…Â
Despite not knowing many of the answers, the team still manages to be in third place when I head off at half-time and also has a spot-prize Drones 7†and $25 drink voucher to its name. Unfortunately they go from third place to nowhere in the second half, missing out on possible ATP gig tickets for shows back in Brisbane.
After all that, The Stabs are, despite all the rave reviews I’ve heard, not that exciting. Another Melbourne band, that whilst not being terrible or anything, just aren’t that memorable. Maybe another case of the wrong band at the wrong time. Maybe lunchtime at relaxed outdoors festivals just isn’t the right time for loud guitars and feedback.
I had always dismissed Bridezilla as a bit of a Sydney hype band; they seemed to have oversaturated coverage in the Australian music press a year or two ago but what I heard at the time didn’t really excite me, but in giving them more attention via the ATP Mt Buller Last.fm radio I had started to really enjoy and look forward to their songs being played. Holiday Sidewinder might not have the strongest of voices but it has a unmistakable charm and for a young band, they have a very mature sound and more than hold their own with the rest of the festival’s bill. Plus in the flesh they are a fairly photogenic bunch, especially the aformentioned Ms Sidewinder…
 
The Small Knives. I stick around for three songs and take some photos but it’s a bit of a chore; photographing bands that don’t excite you and you can’t get into or don’t give you much to work with visually are always the hardest to photograph.
More ATP photos on flickr.
As with recent shows over the last couple of years, tonight’s Silver Apples set is performed as a solo set by Simeon Coxe. Similar to Fuck Buttons he’s got his array of vintage-looking instruments laid out on the table in front of him, but unlike Fuck Buttons on the Bourke Street Stage, the smaller and lower Amphitheatre Stage, togther with him singing, means that it’s easier to take photographs that don’t look like someone just stood at a table.  Whereas Fuck Buttons have a distinctly retro feel, from their use of toy instruments, musically, at least, Silver Apples sound surprisingly contemporary, although Simeon’s half-spoken/half-sung vocals and lyrics make their 1960s origins a lot more obvious.
With Ocean Songs having been on heavy rotation over the last couple of days and the drive up from Melbourne, it’s already become something of a soundtrack for the weekend, even before the Dirty Three take to the stage to play the album in its entirety. However, they start earlier than listed and I can already hear them playing as I start up the hill for the last time for the day. Out of breath and with calf muscles screaming in pain, there’s no trouble getting into the pit, although I must be about 10 minutes late. For tonight, as with previous ATP shows, the three have become four for the night, with Nick Cave on piano. From a photographic point of view it’s disappointing, as the lights are kept very low and Warren Ellis plays facing Jim White and with his back to the audience for most of the set, only really showing his face when introducing the songs, which he does in ever amusing and detailed descriptions. However, musically it’s sublime, utterly spell-binding.Â
Despite starting earlier than billed it’s not to give them extended time, as so they also end earlier than advertised, meaning that they are forced to cut the album short and end up dropping ‘Black Tide‘ and ‘Ends of the Earth‘ and finishing with ‘Deep Waters‘. It’s a huge disappointment for them to not play the album as intended, especially as even though their playing time had been moved forward, The Saints didn’t start until their advertised time, meaning that the additional time is only used for is setting up The Saint’s stage.
When The Saints played at Pig City in Brisbane in July 2007 with the reformed Kuepper/Bailey/Hays original line-up, the weight of expectation for their finale put the band in an impossible position that they could never live up to. So the Pig City set was good but not great. ATP puts them in a similar position; there is a huge weight of expectation and people in the crowd are telling those around them that they’ve waited 30 years for this moment. How can you live up to that? The answer is that you can’t, and The Saints put in another good but not great performance.
Ed Kuepper‘s playing is as superb as ever and they obviously have the quality of songs on those first three albums to be fair way to pulling off an outstanding performance, but the main sticking point that prevents them from doing true justice to their legacy comes in the form of Chris Bailey. Vocally he is not what he was, with the bratty, menacing sneer of his youth replaced by something akin to a mid-Atlantic accent, although his chain smoking does seem to give something to his voice as their set goes on. But it’s his onstage persona that does the most damage; embarrassing banter and dancing around the stage like a middle-aged relative at a wedding, following John Lydon into the life of punk pantomime dame. A viewing of The Saints infamous Paddington Town Hall gig on YouTube gives you a glimpse of what might have been. It doesn’t seem that hard; all he has to do is stand there and smoke. And ideally not play acoustic guitar.Â
Knowing that I’ll be seeing The Saints play back in Brisbane in a few days, and as the novelty of only wearing a t-shirt has rubbed off in the cold night air, I decide to go and check out Passenger of Shit in the warmth of the ABOM building. In retrospect it probably would have been better to have stuck out for the rest of The Saints’ set as although it was not perfect, it was still considerably better than what transpires in Brisbane a few days later.Â
The ATP program describes Passenger of Shit as “erotic SPEEDCORE happy TERRORCORE / HARDCORE GABBA / trendy fuckwit breakcore tamborine core TYPE DAnCE MUSIC GAME CORE and SAD CORE. SCREAMING VOX + harsh shit NOISE AND OTHER dum SHIT MUSIC”. And astonishingly this turns out to be a fairly accurate description. Imaginge someone screaming something intelligible over a backing track of white noise and 250bmp drums, only for the song to suddenly breakdown to nursery rhyme-type melodies before returning to the more extreme noise and you have a typical Passenger of Shit song.  A large number of the crowd manage not only to get into it but to dance to it, whilst others can only endure a few minutes before deciding to call it a night.  Knowing that an early start of photo editing is on the way and another day of walking up and down the hill with a bag full of heavy camera gear I decide that it’s time to go.Â
More ATP Mt Buller photos on flickr.
After the second time of climbing the hill I’m officially over it and it’s time to consider using the ski lifts, which are now in operation.
The reformed Primitive Calculators sound like a band that has only played once in almost 30 years (a warm up Melbourne show a few days earlier), with an initial sense of uncertainty emanating from those on stage, not helped by some technical issues. When they start playing it’s hard to tell whether they are a serious band or a joke band, whether they are amazing or just plain terrible. But with a combination of good humoured self-deprecation, some fine tuning of the sound and an increase in the volume from the speakers it all suddenly comes together beautifully, leaving no doubt that even after 30 years age and countless musical trends their impact hasn’t diminished.  It does make you think about just how good it must have sounded at their small club warm-up show and what it must have felt like to have seen this band back in the late 1970s. Having been asked to play and talked up by Nick Cave, as having made a massive impression on him when he saw them play in Melbourne thirty years ago, both he and Warren Ellis watch from the side of the stage.
 
James Blood Ulmer brings another change in musical style and pace back down at the Amphitheatre stage, one man and his guitar simply playing the blues. He’s got a music stand to help him out, an item that makes a regular appearance over the course of the festival, showing that even ageing musicians with a life-time of playing need a bit of help remembering the words. I’m stood next to Bill Callahan as we watch and am tempted to ask why he’s not playing in Brisbane on this tour, but it seems a bit rude to ask, even if he is playing four shows in Sydney.Â
A surprise to just about no one is that the ’mystery’ act are Grinderman. Although it always seemed on the cards that it would be them, I had been secretly hoping that it would turn out to the The Triffids, playing a warm up for their upcoming Leonard Cohen support slot and one-off Melbourne gig, but I guess that ATP needs to hold back some classic Australian bands for next year’s line-up. The more optimistic were hedging on a Mt Buller appearance by Kylie, and whilst I think she is still in the country, relaxing after her December tour, it always seemed like that was going to be a real long shot. A shame, as she could have done 45 minutes of ‘Indie Kylie‘ and cemented a legendary status upon ATP Mt Buller in its first year. Maybe ATP are also saving her for next year…Â
Despite allegedly having a new album in the works, Grinderman stick to songs from their first album, with Nick Cave still needing to have the lyrics to the songs on a music stand to help him out. They come out with all cylinders firing, the fervour of a band that has been waiting impatiently in the wings all day. Although all the photographers have had to sign a contract for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds which restricts the time in the photo pit to the first song, nothing has been signed for Grinderman, and no one knows whether we’ll be able to stay for the standard three songs. However, our worst fears are realised as they finish ‘Depth Charge Ethel‘ and launch straight into ‘Get It On’ and we are escorted from the pit. Photographing in daylight does make it easier to get some good shots but with only one song it still feels like too much of a rush.Â
It feels like the only way to alleviate the disappointment of only getting one song in the photo pit is to go on the ski lift and cunningly use the trip to get some aerial shots of Grinderman as I pass by the stage. Not being too good with heights, the initial lurch away from the station and into the open air is slightly terrifying, not helped by the realisation that the bar holding you in is there largely for show. But it doesn’t take long for fear to be replaced by exhilaration as, with camera primed, the chair advances towards the stage. But in photography time is everything and I’ve managed to perfectly time my ride so that the optimum position for photographing the stage coincides with the end of the song, everyone stopping playing and roadies on stage to help out with changes in guitars. So at the bottom of the hill I decide to stay on the lift, along with most of the others who have travelled down, much to the annoyance of the ski lift operators, who are obviously bored of telling the same people ”one more time, then you HAVE to get off”, and the queue of people trying to avoid the walk up the hill. Photographing the stage from the ski lift going back up the hill involves a small degree of contortion to face backwards, making it feel even less likely that the safety barrier is going to stop you from falling out. Photographing moving away from the stage is harder than on the trip down the hill and at the top I’m not sure if I’ve really got anything but although tempted to stay on the lift for another round-trip decide to go and watch the rest of Grinderman’s set. They end with a ferocious ‘No Pussy Blues‘ which makes you wonder how they are going to top that for their second album.
Back at the bottom the hill The Necks are playing minimal jazz. I keep waiting for something to happen, something to start, something to change, some build-up into a crescendo but nothing does before I get bored of photographing musicians who have spent the last ten minutes with their eyes shut. It never gets above being anything but background music, but maybe that’s the point and you need to disassociate the music from the performance, relax on the grass and take in the vistas and setting sun.
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As the day moves into early evening it’s begins to get a bit colder, although I’m still surprised at the amount of people already wearing big coats, hats and scarves; it’s not THAT cold. I make use of having some free time before Fuck Buttons and being near the ski lodge to go and download my memory cards onto my laptop, realising back there that the reason I’m not feeling the cold might be due to sunburn…
Downloading takes longer than expected, although this is due in part to also having a couple of drinks, so I end up missing the start of Fuck Buttons. Security in the photo pit has been fairly lax during the day, with no enforcement of the three song rule, so they don’t seem that perturbed by my late showing. Fuck Buttons are boring to photo from the pit, as you can’t see anything that they’re doing, and the photos are essentially two guys stood at a table.  Musically it sounds like Playstation game tunes from the 1990s, something that might have been used on the soundtrack to Wipeout. As with Dead Meadow, it feels like their set is too early for them and too early for us. A later set, ideally one after sunset, would have at least meant the benefit of some sort of light show and the possibility of some more interesting photos.
More ATP Mt Buller photos on flickr.
Waking up in Merrijig the first thing you notice is that even at the bottom of the mountain it’s cold enough to make getting out of bed a struggle. But once that’s been achieved and some breakfast eaten it’s a short and scenic 20 minute drive back up the mountain. After dropping my stuff off at the Corio Ski Lodge the first thing to do is sort out my photo pass, which happens effortlessly for once and with confirmation of the ‘mystery’ act, not that it was ever much of a mystery. I also find out that if I had stayed on the mountain the previous night I could have caught (and been able to photograph) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and The Saints sound-checking, as well as a secret midnight show from The Stabs in the ABOM building, and the opportunity to try and gate-crash Nick Cave’s welcoming BBQ…
The first band of the weekend are The Holy Sea, and it’s a nice chilled start to the festival, with the ever growing numbers joining those already relaxing around the natural amphitheatre that surround the stage. The band have an air of The Triffids to them and looking through the ATP program it’s no surprise to find that they are also from Perth. Their influences are confirmed when they cover ‘Raining Pleasure‘, which with Texas Tea also recently covering it for their second album. ‘The Junkship Recordings‘, obviously makes it the current Triffids song of choice. Although it’s a good song, and both The Holy Sea’s and Texas Tea’s versions are fairly faithful covers, it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to cover one of the many classic David McComb songs, although maybe they are considered too much of a musical holy grail to cover and do justice to.
Second band on the Amphitheatre Stage are Hoss, who turn out, not very surprisingly and to great relief, to not be the American hip hop band with the same name that has been playing on the ATP Australia last.fm radio station that has been much listened to in the days leading up to the festival. Instead there’s an instant change from the acoustic-based, melodic and lyrical Holy Sea’s set to a much grittier and heavier punk sound.  For the few songs I see, it’s a bit average and unengaging, but largely harmless.
 
Next it’s a walk up the hill to the Bourke Street stage, for the first band on the festival’s main stage, the much talked-about Dead Meadow. The hill is deceptive as from the bottom it doesn’t (a) look that far, and (b) look that steep but it really takes it out of you, with an unhappy realisation at the top that it’s just the first ascent of many that is likely to be done over the course of the next two days.Â
 
Dead Meadow are a band that you could probably guess what they’re going to sound like as soon as you see them and before they play a single note; they’re possibly three people of the most pallid and anaemic-looking people that you’ll ever see, an even more astonishing observation considering that they’re from LA, hinting at a lifestyle that doesn’t include much time spent outside, and the drummer, with his centre-parted golden locks and dodgy moustache, looks like he’s travelled in time from 1970. So their brand of stoner/psychedelic rock is no surprise to the uninitiated. However, it just feels a bit too early in the day for them and for us, and by all accounts their second set of the festival, inside on the ABOM stage early the following evening, is a much more fitting time and place (as is their excellent ATP show at the Brisbane Powerhouse the following week).
Although it’s only been about 15 months since I last saw Bill Callahan play, I don’t actually recognise him when he comes out onto the stage, and somewhat embarrassingly don’t recognise him to the point of taking photos of Mick Turner, only realising my mistake when Bill walks up to his microphone and starts singing. In those 15 months since the show at the Troubadour he’s grown his hair and a bit of a beard and has turned into Edder Vedder… In addition to having Mick Turner on guitar, he’s also by Jim White on drums, and whilst the band is under-rehearsed, with Bill Callahan leading the others through the changes, it doesn’t matter as you can just close your eyes and listen his rich and soothing voice, with ‘Diamond Dancer‘ and ‘Cold Blooded Old Times‘ being amongst the highlights.
Mick Turner, easily mistakable for Bill Callahan c.2007…
Melbourne all-female super-group Beaches have been garnering column inches in the music media and receiving very favourable reviews for their debut album over the last few months but are disappointing and largely unremarkable during the few songs that I see.  They are the type of band that no one would pay any attention to if they came from Brisbane, even if they had an all-female line-up, and seem a bit undeserving of the hype.
More ATP Mt Buller photos on flickr.
Saturday was probably an even better day than Friday. Here’s a quick round-up. Time to start going through all the photos in a bit more detail now and to try to remember all the things that happened over the weekend, a tall order all things considered. I probably should have taken some notes as I went but will see how much I can piece together from my own memory and the various message boards.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Spiritualized
Laughing Clowns
Rowland S Howard
Harmonia
Robert Forster
Michael Gira
Afrirampo
Small Knives
Bridezilla
The Stabs
Hunter Dienna
Back in Brisbane after an amazing weekend at Mt Buller. I had planned on doing a quick round-up of Friday yesterday but the internet place on the mountain wasn’t letting me upload. So here’s some stuff from Friday and hopefully I’ll be able to do a quick round up of Saturday’s events tomorrow, before I get started on going through all the photos and writing some more detailed blogs.
The Saints
Dirty Three
Silver Apples
Fuck Buttons
The Necks
Grinderman
James Blood Ulmer
Primitive Calculators
Beaches
Bill Callahan
Dead Meadow
Hoss
The Holy Sea
It’s always about the sex, the drugs, the glamour, the romance. It’s never about getting up at 4:15am to get to the airport to get the plane down to Melbourne. The taxi comes at 4:45am and it’s a quiet ride, everyone in a state of still being half-asleep combined with early morning grumpiness. But gradually after some food and coffee and with the onset of daylight everyone begins to wake up, although this is then followed up by more sleep on the plane.
Everything goes better than expected when we get to Melbourne; baggage is first out on the conveyor, car hire is speedily sorted and within no time at all we’re on our way. Stop for a quick unhealthy breakfast at Hungry Jacks and then a mix of ATP-related CDs accompanies us all the way to Mansfield, where we make a final stop for lunch and to pick up last minute food and drink supplies for the weekend.
The road wind its way up the mountain until the first checkpoint, where tickets are exchanged for wristbands and festival programs are dispensed. In theory we are supposed to stop and park at the second checkpoint and get a shuttle bus to the village, but as we are there so early and as I’m only dropping Michael and Annie at their accommodation for the weekend before coming back down the mountain for tonight before returning tomorrow to stay Friday and Saturday nights, I’m waved through. Once your above the treeline and can appreciate the unrestricted views, you really get to see what a spectacular location this is, certainly better than Butlins in Minehead, one of the venues ATP uses in the UK, and a more impressive locality than the Riverstage, where the main Brisbane leg of the Australian ATP is being held.
Although the excitement of the festival has been building over the week, actually seeing the site takes it to a whole new level. And It’s not just the physical location, it’s also the realisation that it’s going to be a 2-day festival without the usual camping ‘experience’; one without tents, mud and portaloos, where you can sleep in a decent bed and pop back to you room at anytime for food, drink, sleep, all the luxuries that you don’t get in a tent at a festival. In addition, having the accommodation inside the venue, a couple minutes walk from the stages means that I don’t have to pack everything and then carry it all around for the day and I can set up my laptop with some degree of safety and download photos and edit as I go in relative comfort. Whilst ATP’s demographic is undoubtedly a more affluent, older and call it musically-elitist, call it musically-refined crowd, and there are probably people who would say that not camping would take away a major part of the vibe of a music festival experience, it just seems a more civilised way of seeing some bands over two days, rather than the endurance test you get living under canvas. And having experienced the rain, mud and general carnage of Glastonbury in 1997, 1998 and 2005 it can’t be a bad thing.
After the exhilaration of the top of the mountain, it’s a reflective and meandering drive back down the mountain to the Merrijig Motor Inn, my home for the night.
I can’t wait to get back up the mountain tomorrow and until the music actually starts. More words and photos over the next few days.
Mt Buller, proudly brought to you by Holden
Main Stage
2nd Stage
Ironic billboard. Chris Bailey pictured right…
The drive up the mountain
Festival With A View
Censored ATP poster in Country Victoria
Got confirmed yesterday to go and take photos at All Tomorrow’s Parties at Mount Buller, down in Victoria. It’s going to be awesome. Also going as a punter to the show at the Brisbane Riverstage, to get an extra fix of Spiritualized whilst they’re in the country. And look to replace my two well-worn glow-in-the-dark Spiritualized t-shirts…Â
And of course, as well as all the bands, I’m really looking forward to the ‘featuring’ gymnasiums and ski-lifts… Actually, i’ve never been on a ski-lift so that is quite exciting…
Having been accredited I now have got the slighly more tricky task of getting there and finding somewhere to stay. If anyone knows of anyone with a spare bed on the mountain let me know.
Tweets and blogs to come in January.
