By Jase Walker
So for this year’s tenth anniversary iteration of ATG admittedly I’ve had a bit of a rough time getting everything in order to write something out properly for the “extra” day of Wednesday. I’m getting things started with my write-up beginning on this, the second day, kicking this weekend off with my lovely lot in Hundred Year Old Man who kicked off and scared the ever living shit out of the bar staff serving my pint.
It’s been a hot minute since I saw these last, made yet more difficult due to living across the channel now when HYOM rarely play outside of the ÜK if at all. But it’s all good now, their lumbering blanket of noise surrounds me and it’s back to my comfort zone. They do seem to be having the odd sound issue where the vocals don’t quite seem to punch through in the way they started out but it’s not affecting it massively. HYOM have a huge turnout as well, PX3 is pretty packed all the way to the back of the tent as well as having a smattering of people just outside the tent too. Thankfully the sound issues don’t persist for long and I’m able to fully enjoy HYOM’s beautifully heavy and wonderfully melancholy stoney noise, I’ve really missed these and it’s been cathartic to scratch that itch after so long.
Next up is Blackpool shoegaze outfit, blanket. Consistently fantastic shows but I’m really hoping they decide to do their cover of ‘In The House, In A Heartbeat’, which might be a bit overly hopeful considering the set length. The odd technical glitch here and there is met with some good humour to keep things going before marching on with the next in the set. Introducing a song as if it’s some sort of bizarre daytime TV for ‘Euphoria’ was a bit of an unusual touch, feeling like a random break in the middle of ‘Homes Under The Hammer’ or something. No win for me this time but here’s hoping I can catch a headline show from them sometime, great set
though.
Jumping to the main Yohkai stage, I’m checking Bo Ningen out for the first time ever and it’s absolutely not what I was expecting, erring somewhere between stoner and psychedelic rock but yet the ideal sort of bizarre ATG adjacent sound. Discordant, fuzzy, and just that little bit mental, Bo Ningen are a lot of fun to watch but a lot to take in with their constant whiplash between segments of the same song. At one point they hammer out a song that sounds just like Black Sabbath, what a fantastic show even if the last song did take up about half of their set. Bizarre and a lot of fun.
A small break and I’m back for an artist that I have literally not shut up about for a while now, Julie Christmas. The ambient intro gives way to one of the meatiest live sounds I’ve ever heard, even on the periphery of the tent the low end of the bass drum and guitar commands my chest cavity to fall in line with its pounding rhythm. Julie’s shrill vocals punch through the wall of sound with incredible force, I don’t doubt that the crowd gathered for her are going to forget this set in a hurry. “‘Not Enough’ and ‘Supernatural’ sounded absolutely massive and I’ve gone off on one of my incensed moments where I want to throw down hard enough to give myself a back injury. ‘The Lighthouse’ builds to an incredible crescendo before leading into the last few minutes of
the set. Julie Christmas once again has put on an incredible show and I cannot recommend seeing her live more right now. I can’t see her remaining a smaller artist for much longer, she’ll be massively in demand very soon.
A break back to camp and it’s over to PX3 to catch one of the more bizarre sounding bands this weekend, Kaonashi. Their singer is one of the most gigantic men I’ve ever seen and yet he sings with an incredibly shrill voice that’s reminiscent of Mikee from Sikth in songs like ‘How May I Help You?’. Switching between songs that could be classed as third wave emo and straight up gritty hardcore but never relenting on their madness. And in true ATG style, I’ve seen a blow up doll with a gigantic penis bouncing around in the pit and someone climbing the rent pillars and swinging around from their legs. After being drawn in by ‘I Hate The Sound Of Car Keys’ and it’s insanity which was made even more hilarious with an off the cuff reference to Creed’s ‘Arms Wide Open’ in the middle of it. Kaonashi have been hilarious, bizarre, and bonkers, totally worth the time to see them.
In true ATG style, the heavens have opened so it’s now packed inside the tent after a mad dash to Bixler for Kalandra. The vocalist’s voice and use of melody gives me chills, just the right sort of distraction for pissing weather outside of the tent. Every time I describe these I usually aim for Leprous fronted by Aurora but this undersells their unique sound overall that is engrossingly atmospheric and in some ways quite folky and uses a lot of tonal stress to weave a complex tapestry of layers. Another stunningly ethereal set from these Norwegians, a real treat to see and a band that I will make every effort to catch, incredible.
A bit of a break and back in Bixler to catch a set from the recently reformed Dutch prog metal act, Textures. They take the stage and kick off and the bass drum is absolutely pounding my chest and feeling as if it’s trying to dictate my heart into polyrhythms. I’d almost forgotten how aggressive Textures are in their absence but I’m enthused to witness their return finally! I’ve seen a lot of brilliantly skilled stuff today, some of it more atmospheric than others but Textures are just pure fucking groove. It’s time to turn the stank face gurn up to 11 and lean into figuring out where on earth the one is. Welcome back Textures, you’ve been sorely missed.
And finally for today, one of the premier post rock bands, Explosions In the Sky. Definitely a more chilled way to at the evening out with their signature crescendo-core style of building songs up to incredible peaks that elicit feelings of euphoria at the peak. Not to say they don’t do an immaculate job of painting a fantastic canvas of colour throughout their set, layers and layers of incredibly atmospheric beauty. Explosions In The Sky are clearly confident in their music’s ability to speak for itself, the stage production is completely barebones with almost zero direct lighting on the band itself. They’re opting to eschew the focus on the band’s members and any flashy production and instead the lighting is almost entirely based around flooding the stage with colour from beneath the band which results in them appearing to be silhouettes.
This isn’t a crowd that’s here to throw down, smash into each other or have a rough time down the front, this is an experience to revel and totally lose yourself in. And that’s exactly what I did, by the end of the set I was fully engaged in losing myself in their music. All the way to the finish, their wonderfully tender yet strong sound whisked me away to another world. Admittedly I was a
bit shocked at the turnout being somewhat lacklustre for a band like these as the back of the tent was quite sparsely used. Either way Explosions In The Sky put on an immense show that shows why they are one of the premier post rock bands and will continue to be for years to come.
Nothing else left to do but prepare myself to get back at it again…
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