Portishead’s Cultural Weekend

Any festival that takes its name from a Velvet Underground B-side is always going to find itself facing a certain amount of accusations of pretention. But All Tomorrows Parties (ATP) continues to prove that just because something isn’t in the mainstream, it doesn’t mean it’s going to lie quietly.

Taking the curatorial reins this time are trip-hop titans Portishead who raided their impressively eclectic record collections for their two-day takeover of Alexandra Palace at I’ll Be Your Mirror.

While Saturday’s line up boasted a surprising yet nonetheless respectable line up of reggae and rap artists including Doom and Company Flow performing on the same roster as electronica scenesters Factory Floor and genre-defying The Books, Sunday’s line-up was a real reflection of Portishead’s inspirers and those they inspired.

Opening with a mammoth two-hour set, Godspeed! You Black Emperor delivered an epic journey of soaring strings, pounding drums and guitar laden tracks to their awe-struck audience. While fiery chaos engulfed the on-stage screens and the music reached its cacophonic crescendo, the band remained stationary, in control, proving that GY!BE truly are masters of their trade. While two-hours was a challenge for a 12.30pm kick off, for a band where 15 minutes constitutes a short song, to give them anything less would have just been cruel.

Beach House’s Victoria Legrand’s shivering vocals teamed with their atmospheric rhythms echoed through the Great Hall with an ambitious set featuring Norway, Zebra and the beautiful Walk in the Park. While their talent undoubtedly filled the stage, I’d be inclined to argue the venue was a little too big – and with much too much light – since due to their 4pm set time their perfectly choreographed lighting was sadly forced to take a backseat. Nonetheless, with their passion for live shows, Beach House are an unmissable and grossly underrated band to watch.

From dreamy electronica, we move to the destructive, sweaty world of punk fuelled jazz with Acoustic Ladyland. Performing their last ever gig under this moniker before an as yet undefined reincarnation later in the year, Acoustic Ladyland tore ATP a new one demonstrating this is a band that truly needs to be seen live to be believed. Hitting every note with a raw punch of energy, frontman Pete Wareham and co left their enthusiastic – and amazingly diverse – audience gasping for breath and wondering whether the ringing in their ears would ever subside.

Complimenting the musical line up, IBYM boasted an impressive array of films in the cinema including Richard Ayoade’s Submarine, Easy Rider and Tommy Wiseau’s much loved cult classic The Room, in addition to live soundtracks to films including Dreyer’s 1928 iconic The Passion of Joan of Arc and a spoken word accompaniment to Harry Smith’s surreal animation by Alan ‘Watchmen’ Moore.

But it was inevitably headliners and curators Portishead who were the climax of the weekend. With their recent emergence from obscurity onto the live circuit, powering their way through the European festivals, their performance at ATP seems almost intimate, despite the huge venue, as they performed before the clear idolatry from their fans. While Dummy classics did provide the backbone of the set list, with highlights including a stripped back version of Wandering Star, the pulsating Numb and a touching encore performance of Roads, the band delivered a back catalogue selection that illustrated the relentlessly experimental and progressive music Portishead have made over the last 17 years.

Writhing through The Rip and the gut-wrenching Threads to the dirty beats of Machine Gun, Beth Gibbons’ soft but unwavering voice sends Portishead’s dark side from Third reverberating through Alexandra Palace. It must be an occupational hazard for Portishead that as soon as those infamous opening strings rise into the air, the audience finds themselves teetering on the edge of an inadvertent orgy as each individual recalls teenage mix tapes featuring the classic, smooth grinding bass of Glory Box.

Having possessed said mix tape but until now never experienced it live, I can confirm that your battered cassette is most definitely not doing this song justice. To describe this band as ‘haunting and heartfelt’ is redundant, as in her very essence the incomparable Beth Gibbons commits every ounce of emotion into each note from when the first chord is struck to the final fade out.

Suitably chilled, it was left to Caribou to close the festival; with an incredible set mainly populated by Swim crowdpleasers, where an incredible version of ‘Sun’ which left the ATP crowd scorched, emerging into the cool night breathless and, in one chaps case – shoeless, the perfect end to a perfect day. I’m sure Lou Reed wouldn’t mind me borrowing a tediously Velvet Underground linked analogy….

ATP & Portishead Presents I’ll Be Your Mirror took place on July 23 and 24 at:

Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace Way
Haringey
N22 7AY