Damn near the last minute I was given a chance to attend this year’s ATP NY (I’ll be covering it for Gothamist all weekend) and I have to say I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a musical weekend in ages! With bands like The Flaming Lips, Deerhunter, and Animal Collective all on tap and crazy concoctions like Bob Mould with No Age (performing as Hüsker Dü) and the Boredoms doing a 9 drum BOADRUM, this is gonna be a crazy weekend! It starts tonight with several legendary performers reprising classic albums and a highly publicized reunion from The Jesus Lizard that we are especially amped for! Here’s what I’ll be catching tonight (full review tomorrow hopefully!) and you should join along. I’m skipping the comedy stage, most of those guys are from the area already.
3:15pm: The Drones
The first act to take the stage this weekend are from Australia and are here to promote their upcoming album (which just happens to be on ATP Recordings). Even though they are promoting a new album they will be performing Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By in its entirety. I’ve honestly never really listened to their music so this will be a new experience for me, but since they are the first band of the weekend they will probably get my undivided attention and a lot of my bubbling energy!
Out of all the bands that played ATP this year, all the legends that graced the stage, there was one act that really stood out above all the rest as the act I wanted to see and that was the crazy pairing of No Age with Bob Mould with Mould agreeing to play Hüsker Dü songs during the set! For a kid who grew up worshiping punk rock Hüsker Dü is at an idol level for me, they are one of my favorite band ever. And to have No Age assist Mould in pulling it off was almost as cool as if Grant Hart and Greg Norton would have joined Mould on stage, okay maybe not quite that cool. But I do love No Age and I have loved Hüsker Dü for a long, long time so to finally see Bob Mould playing these songs on a stage was a very special moment.
Late last week word came down that Bob Mould had recruited No Age to perform a set of Hüsker Dü tunes it warmed my heart to know that the second best possible version of the band would indeed be hitting a stage. Sure, it may not be Mould, Grant Heart, and Greg Norton, but it will be the first time Hüsker Dü songs are played in a live setting in a few years and I’m excited for the chance to see (so long as I can find the cash to cough up!). It also led me down nostalgia road, listening to the old tunes and discovering them once again like I did somewhere in my teen years.
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