All Tomorrow's Parties festival rocked New York's Monticello

by Yuliya Talmazan | September 21, 2008 at 01:24 pm

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Monticello, New York, welcomed music bands from all over the world this weekend for the All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) festival. The impressive line up included My Bloody Valentine, Shellac, Polvo, Wooden Shjips, OM, and many others. A Canadian quintet “Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra” was also performing.

Why the festival’s name? It was named after a song by The Velvet Underground, the famous American rock band from 70’s. The festival was set up as a sponsorship free event with festival organizers and artists staying in the same premises as the festival goers. The festival was intended as an alternative to giant stadium rock festivals where more interaction between musicians and their fans would be possible.

This year’s choice of venue was said to have helped create "an easy going summer camp vibe," but no one was sleeping in tents or eating Kraft dinner. The venue for this year's festival was an expensive Kutsher's resort.

When not checking out the bands, festival-goers could be found across Kutsher's expansive grounds enjoying rowboat rides on the lake, playing rounds of golf, challenging strangers to games of table tennis, floating in the indoor pool, competing in indie-rock trivia or hitting the dancefloor at one of Kutsher's on-site bars, which features DJs all day long.

Yesterday, the event began with concerts by five artists, each performing one of their best-known albums in its entirety. Highlights included the Meat Puppets' crunchy interpretation of their second album ("Meat Puppets II"), Tortoise's droning tour through the 1996 instrumental rock classic "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" and Built To Spill's powerful run through 1997's "Perfect From Now On."

Thurston Moore took a break from recording with Sonic Youth to perform his solo album "Psychic Hearts," while underground Philadelphia noise mavens Bardo Pond revisited their 1997 album "Lapsed."

Highlights today included performances by Shellac, Low, Les Savy Fav, the reunited Polvo and the pummeling duo Lightning Bolt. Besides My Bloody Valentine, tomorrow's bill boasts hip-hop twosome EPMD, Dinosaur Jr., Mercury Rev, Bob Mould, Yo La Tengo and Mogwai.