Ah the first day of ATP. Has it already been a year since My Bloody Valentine were curating? Could this weekend ever live up to that? Can I survive writing this review without using the word Twee once? The answer to all three is yes!
We arrived for the last part of the In Between Days festival curated by Amos. Which, instead of housing about 6,000 indie kids with music blaring out of three or four different stages, it played host to about 200 die hard fans with the bands crammed into the Crazy Horse, which, if anyone has ever been there before will know, is the club you normally go to see off the night after the music is finished. So after gearing up for the long journey down the M4, we arrived just in time to have a pre gig beer and nip off to watch Mugstar. This is a band I had not heard of before but instantly fell in love with their intense psychedelic sounscapes. The set was extremely full on with exciting visuals that fitted the atmosphere and guitarist Pete Smyth ending it by jumping off the stage and smashing up his guitar, raising the bar predominantly high for what looked set to be a very fun weekend.
I had just enough time to get my head together before a band I had been waiting to see live for quite a while graced us with their presence, Moon Duo. Consisting of one quarter of Wooden Shjips and his girlfriend, on cd the pair create synth heavy psych-outs, murmured vocals and lots of fuzz, this was transcribed pretty well live, although it was really hard to get the psychedelic hangover that Mugstar had left behind in their wake so watching Moon Duo did become a little tiresome.
After this we opted for an early-ish night to be fresh for the three killer days ahead of us.
Words : Gordon Reid
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