What leotard shall a poor boy wear?

This past weekend, and the weekend at the end of March, were probably two of the best of my life. Factoid. Before those two weekends I hadn't been to a music festival for 3 or 4 years, somewhat due to being a very poor student and not having enough money, and a tiny bit due to not having enough enthusiastic friends to go with! Therefore the recent two All Tomorrow's Parties festivals were just abso-blood-lutely amazing. I got to hang out with some wonderful people in a reaaally fun venue (from now on I don't think that any festival should be allowed to be held anywhere other than in a holiday camp), and with some of the best bands in the known world. Here's a list of who I've seen over the two fests:

Ian Wadley (28/4) / The Only Ones (28/4) / Magnolia Electric Co. (28/4) / Dirty Three (28/4) / Psarandonis (28/4) / Devastations (28/4) / Josh T. Pearson (28/4) / Magnolia Electric Co. (29/4) / Shannon Wright (29/4) / Low (29/4) / Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline (29/4) / Nick Cave (29/4) / Grinderman (29/4) / The Scientists (29/4) / Youpi Youpi Yeah (29/4) / The Drones (29/4) / Nina Nastasia (29/4) / Einsturzende Neubauten (29/4) / Papa M (30/4) / Dirty Three (30/4) / Mary Margaret O'Hara (30/4) / Silver Mt Zion (30/4) / Cat Power (30/4) / Nick Cave (30/4) / Grinderman (30/4) / The Thermals (18/5) / Daniel Johnston (18/5) / The Notwist (18/5) / Sparklehorse (18/5) / Current 93 (19/5) / Clinic (19/5) / Annuals (19/5) / The Go! Team (19/5) / Les Savy Fav (19/5) / Battles (19/5) / Patti Smith (19/5) / Apples In Stereo (19/5) / Trans Am (19/5) / Shellac (20/5) / Slint (20/5) / Architecture In Helsinki (20/5) / Bat For Lashes (20/5) / Modest Mouse (20/5) / Built To Spill (20/5) / Echo & The Bunnymen (20/5) / Brightblack Morninglight (20/5)

Wow. The highlights of the first weekend, curated by the Dirty Three were probably the curators themselves (who played twice), Nick Cave (twice), the incomparably divine Low, who somehow made a huge pavilion filled with hotdogs and Burger Kings seem almost churchlike, the still fantastic Einsturzende Neubauten, indie bingo, Wesley Willis sing-a-longs, dodgems and the everpresent Josh T. Pearson.

Of the second weekend, one band stands out as the clearest highlight. Les Savy Fav. Whose set featured: leotards, costume changes, facepaint, crowdsurfing, balloon eating, staged executions, crowd singalongs, sexual molestation of security guards, and some of the best live music i've seen in my life. Here is a picture of me afterwards:


Words cannot adequately describe my joy. Other highlights of the second weekend? Daniel Johnston, Modest Mouse (I unashamedly crowdsurfed to Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes), Apples In Stereo, Battles, Shellac, Built To Spill and the mighty Trans Am, dancing shirtless to Bon Jovi and scraping my knees bloody performing an air guitar powerslide along a stage in Jumping Jaks, swimming with members of Los Campesinos, spying on the legendary Steve Albini poker game, Dance Dance Revolutioning, the legions of wonderful people I met and sang and danced with, and the list is...endless.

The jealous and musically needy should be aware that Portishead have been confirmed as the headliners for the next ATP, which will happen on the 8th-10th December this year. People travel from all over the world for this thing (I met australians, californians, italians and people from Georgia (Georgians?). YOU have no excuse not to join us next time.

Here's a link to some video mayhem from a friends chalet on the last night.

Here's some pictures I took.

Here's another blog featuring some video of the utter insanity that was the LSF show, plus some CloudDead reunion action!

And here's the best song I could think of to serve as an anthem for the past weekend, followed by a new LSF song as played by them the other day! Enjoy.

Les Savy Fav - The Sweat Descends
Les Savy Fav - The Equestrian