All Tomorrow’s Parties @ Mt Buller Ski Resort 10/01/09 (Part 2)

After a good much needed sleep with three other strangers, I woke up early and fresh for the next day (despite branding the worst sunburn I have ever had). The relaxed nature of the morning though made me feel less enthusiastic for bands for some reason initially. I decided to either play basketball, partake in trivia or endure in long conversations over coffee with strangers. It all added to the relaxed vibe of the whole festival.

I did get around to seeing half of the first band of that day though – Hunter Dienna, who I found a little boring and willing to not interact with the crowd. Their slow drowning music kind of didn’t help matters, but I got the feeling that no one really gave a crap about that as everyone in the audience was recovering from last night. The relaxed vibe continued with The Small Knives who eased me into a set of beautiful set of songs sung with beautiful harmonies. This band were one of the local hidden gems of the line up.

Afriframpo basically gave the afore-mentioned vibe a sharp right angled turn, going all crazy with a set of screamo rock sung in their native Japanese. Everyone throughout the festival most of the time thanked Nick Cave for asking them to perform, and Afriframpo decided to take that to a new level, with the drummer donning a mask of the curator and prancing around stage showing love for his moustache. Robert Forster crooned through his set, looking like he was just thoroughly enjoyed to be there, while Harmonia looked the same as well with their beat inspired kraut rock, albeit standing motionless behind a set of tables fiddling with knobs, guitars and keys. I found that this band needed to be taken more notice of, they had a lot of great chordal progressions and melodies developing thick in their tunes. It was aural bliss with those tones and beats intertwined

At this point I headed back to the bed for a bit of shut eye (which was unusual considering the amount of coffee I had). Once I woke up in the realisation that I missed Rowland S Howard, I decided to stay around the amphitheatre to witness a bit of The Silver Apples (which was unmemorable to say the least unfortunately – one of the rare low lights of the festival) as well as the magic of Psardonaris. This bearded man definitely showed what influence he has on Warren Ellis’ violin playing withe some great lyra playing and earthly beats drawing from what I gathered were traditional Crete songs.

Spiritualized were special for the 4 or songs that I saw them for. I was unfamiliar with their material, but I think I am going to have to listen to this bands back catalogue a bit more to appreciate their iconic-ness. Those gospel singers sounded especially amazing though. To round off the night, Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds put as much soul and heart into his set as much as I have ever seen him. Playing a selection of tracks from his Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! as well as the occasional oldie, he had the crowd basically swept away in the palm of his hand. It all seemed to go to quick for me, and I left the festival wanting so much more from him.

ATP – please come back for 2010. I enjoyed you so.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos – My iPhone (aka iDong) ran out of battery.