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I am very excited to share the very first guest post on Both Kinds of Heavy! My friend Josh Burke (pictured above) recently experienced the ArcTanGent Festival for the first time, and was kind enough to share some in-depth thoughts on the experience. All words after the break were written by Josh, and he captured all photos in this post. Thanks for letting us host this festival recap, Josh!
Last week I went to Arctangent, a four-day music festival held on Fernhill Farm just outside of Bristol, England. Arctangent caters to a slightly broader but still weirdo-focused swath of music than the smaller festivals I’ve attended in the US. This was my first international festival and my first camping festival. I have friends who have gone before and spoke highly of the event, and it’s been on my must-do list for a few years. I actually had tickets for the two previous years and then got rid of them (ATG offers an early-bird discounted rate with a full refund until the end of the year, which is kind of insane). It’s really hard for me to justify such a self-indulgent trip and in some ways even harder to justify this year due to some other travel plans, but my wife and daughter really pushed me to go. I’m glad they did.
There’s no such thing as a direct flight from Minneapolis to Bristol, but I had a pretty easy time connecting through Amsterdam (“easy” meaning 13 hours in transit including a 4-hour layover). I will say that I passed on the cheese sandwiches offered by the tiny British carrier for the last leg. I will also say that I am an idiot – I convinced myself to bring a money belt and promptly lost it before I even got to Bristol. Thankfully, I had my passport and one credit card, but I was paranoid the whole time about losing those. This mishap did force me to get a better sense of how to use my phone to pay for things, but still 0/10 – do not recommend.
At the festival, I “glamped.” Originally this was supposed to mean a beach hut, but the beach hut company went out of business a few months before the festival. We were given the opportunity to get a refund, and I honestly wondered if this was a sign for me to pull the plug. I didn’t. We were told that we would instead get “bell tents,” which we were also told was a real upgrade (and some veteran attendees agreed). These were tents large enough to stand in easily, with two cots and mattresses. As a solo, it was way more than enough space. Linens, towels, and bathing toiletries were provided, along with eyeshades and ear plugs. I also paid to have electricity in my tent so I could charge my phone, and that was the right call. I had a spare power bank for emergencies, but it gave me some peace of mind not to need it.
There’s no such thing as a direct flight from Minneapolis to Bristol, but I had a pretty easy time connecting through Amsterdam (“easy” meaning 13 hours in transit including a 4-hour layover). I will say that I passed on the cheese sandwiches offered by the tiny British carrier for the last leg. I will also say that I am an idiot – I convinced myself to bring a money belt and promptly lost it before I even got to Bristol. Thankfully, I had my passport and one credit card, but I was paranoid the whole time about losing those. This mishap did force me to get a better sense of how to use my phone to pay for things, but still 0/10 – do not recommend.
At the festival, I “glamped.” Originally this was supposed to mean a beach hut, but the beach hut company went out of business a few months before the festival. We were given the opportunity to get a refund, and I honestly wondered if this was a sign for me to pull the plug. I didn’t. We were told that we would instead get “bell tents,” which we were also told was a real upgrade (and some veteran attendees agreed). These were tents large enough to stand in easily, with two cots and mattresses. As a solo, it was way more than enough space. Linens, towels, and bathing toiletries were provided, along with eyeshades and ear plugs. I also paid to have electricity in my tent so I could charge my phone, and that was the right call. I had a spare power bank for emergencies, but it gave me some peace of mind not to need it.
As nice as it was, though, it was still a tent. It got hot during the day and was cold at night. I wasn’t really in my tent during the day and I like it chilly when I sleep, so that was fine. There were lights at the campground, so the eyeshade was critical. I had also stopped on the way out of town to get a little desk fan and with people snoring and everything else, the white noise was extremely helpful (thank you again, electricity). The bigger issue was that we were pretty much on top of each other, so if two people decided to have a chat at 7:30 or 8, that was it. The tent with the main stage was literally on the other side of a fence, so the 9 a.m. soundchecks (loud enough to need earplugs, obviously) were the final nail in the coffin for sleeping in. So between that and the jet lag, I was fairly exhausted at all times.
They call the festival grounds the arena, which was confusing to me at first. This is the fenced-in area with four gigantic tents (in order of size: Main, Yokhai, Bixler, PDX) containing stages, the merch and all the food stands. While these are “tents,” the big one probably held 6,000 people and the smallest was still over a thousand. I could walk from my tent and then to either end of the arena (or from one end to the other) in five minutes or less. I was still clocking 10,000 steps a day. It would have been even more if I had been in the regular camping area instead of VIP, which was slightly closer, had slightly better Wi-Fi, a reserved bar, and our own portaloos and showers. There were still lines, it was still kinda gross (bring wipes) and there’s no upside to walking through a field at 3 a.m. when it’s freezing to pee, but it was about as good as it could be.
The big lifeline for me in so many aspects of the festival was a fairly active group chat for people travelling by themselves. I have gone to other festivals without knowing anyone and would have done so here. I’m there for the music and any socializing is a plus. Admittedly it can be a huge plus, but I can draw on my inner hermit as needed, even in a large group of people. And at 12,000 or so people, this festival is about double the biggest festivals I’ve attended in the past and literally over ten times bigger than the festivals that have become regular stops for me. I just love the intimacy and also the access to the bands that you get in such a small group (and maybe the latter speaks poorly of me).
The fans of this type of music tend to have a built-in camaraderie due to our appreciation for music that most people don’t like. My experience has been that much of the time that connection makes it just that much easier to talk to a stranger and connect. And with the ATG solo group (“Solo, not alone”) that was even more true. Almost immediately upon joining the group I found people to drag me to and from Bristol for the festival. The people in this group shared advice, extra tickets, extra supplies and were incredibly welcoming to an old Yank who was still very ambivalent about this journey. Knowing that I would be meeting up with people I already had “met” online eased some of my apprehension about this whole escapade. Almost immediately after dumping my stuff in my tent, someone from the group gave me a big, sweaty hug and handed me one of the scores of purple sweatbands he had decorated with green yarn. Someone else had made a rogue’s gallery of photos so that a few faces looked vaguely familiar. For the rest of the weekend, you knew that spotting one of these wristbands meant having someone to chat, share a meal, or just stand next to and geek out for an amazing band. We met up after the headliner every night to share highlights, take a group photo, and head off to silent disco (more below) or your tent. I’ve picked up new friends at every festival I’ve gone to, but ATG is more like going through basic training with some of these people. Having this group to lean on made the whole festival that much more fun.
They call the festival grounds the arena, which was confusing to me at first. This is the fenced-in area with four gigantic tents (in order of size: Main, Yokhai, Bixler, PDX) containing stages, the merch and all the food stands. While these are “tents,” the big one probably held 6,000 people and the smallest was still over a thousand. I could walk from my tent and then to either end of the arena (or from one end to the other) in five minutes or less. I was still clocking 10,000 steps a day. It would have been even more if I had been in the regular camping area instead of VIP, which was slightly closer, had slightly better Wi-Fi, a reserved bar, and our own portaloos and showers. There were still lines, it was still kinda gross (bring wipes) and there’s no upside to walking through a field at 3 a.m. when it’s freezing to pee, but it was about as good as it could be.
The big lifeline for me in so many aspects of the festival was a fairly active group chat for people travelling by themselves. I have gone to other festivals without knowing anyone and would have done so here. I’m there for the music and any socializing is a plus. Admittedly it can be a huge plus, but I can draw on my inner hermit as needed, even in a large group of people. And at 12,000 or so people, this festival is about double the biggest festivals I’ve attended in the past and literally over ten times bigger than the festivals that have become regular stops for me. I just love the intimacy and also the access to the bands that you get in such a small group (and maybe the latter speaks poorly of me).
The fans of this type of music tend to have a built-in camaraderie due to our appreciation for music that most people don’t like. My experience has been that much of the time that connection makes it just that much easier to talk to a stranger and connect. And with the ATG solo group (“Solo, not alone”) that was even more true. Almost immediately upon joining the group I found people to drag me to and from Bristol for the festival. The people in this group shared advice, extra tickets, extra supplies and were incredibly welcoming to an old Yank who was still very ambivalent about this journey. Knowing that I would be meeting up with people I already had “met” online eased some of my apprehension about this whole escapade. Almost immediately after dumping my stuff in my tent, someone from the group gave me a big, sweaty hug and handed me one of the scores of purple sweatbands he had decorated with green yarn. Someone else had made a rogue’s gallery of photos so that a few faces looked vaguely familiar. For the rest of the weekend, you knew that spotting one of these wristbands meant having someone to chat, share a meal, or just stand next to and geek out for an amazing band. We met up after the headliner every night to share highlights, take a group photo, and head off to silent disco (more below) or your tent. I’ve picked up new friends at every festival I’ve gone to, but ATG is more like going through basic training with some of these people. Having this group to lean on made the whole festival that much more fun.
And oh yeah, there was music. This festival is so well-curated that I bought my ticket before a single band was announced and knew I would not be disappointed. Sure enough, one of the earliest announcements was for the reunion of Adebisi Shank, a mathy, Irish post-rock band I love and never thought I’d get to see. ATG has a reputation for luring bands out of the ether. I tend to be really into the small print bands more than the headliners and ATG also hosts a ton of smaller bands (particularly European bands) that are unlikely to ever get to the States. I do a ton of research before a festival and added names like Lowen and Clown Core to the must-see list. Other favorites like a Kylesa reunion, Dvne and Pelican filled out the schedule.
ATG had four stages, with two going at any given time (except Wednesday, with only one stage). That meant making choices. I can have option paralysis, but mercifully, I didn’t get hit with too many brutal conflicts (although the more I dug into the bands, the harder some of the choices became). It was pretty possible to bounce between bands although the earlier slots were only half an hour, so the returns for doing so could be pretty small. When I’m at a festival unless there’s something I really don’t like, I kinda feel like I must see music every second that it is humanly possible to do so. That was even more the case here, factoring in the expense per band for this trip. The food stands were right by the tents, and it was possible to get food and still hear everything, so that was not much of an issue. While deciding what bands I “saw” in this context gets fuzzy, I can definitively say that I saw 49 bands using the Fred Zilliox Rule (at least two songs in full) with the Josh Burke corollary (or 8-10 minutes, especially for bands with long songs), including at least 28 full sets.
ATG had four stages, with two going at any given time (except Wednesday, with only one stage). That meant making choices. I can have option paralysis, but mercifully, I didn’t get hit with too many brutal conflicts (although the more I dug into the bands, the harder some of the choices became). It was pretty possible to bounce between bands although the earlier slots were only half an hour, so the returns for doing so could be pretty small. When I’m at a festival unless there’s something I really don’t like, I kinda feel like I must see music every second that it is humanly possible to do so. That was even more the case here, factoring in the expense per band for this trip. The food stands were right by the tents, and it was possible to get food and still hear everything, so that was not much of an issue. While deciding what bands I “saw” in this context gets fuzzy, I can definitively say that I saw 49 bands using the Fred Zilliox Rule (at least two songs in full) with the Josh Burke corollary (or 8-10 minutes, especially for bands with long songs), including at least 28 full sets.
A Swarm of the Sun
Delving
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Adebisi Shank
As an aside, there were so many really good food stands. I’ve heard that ATG has some of the best food for any festival and it was often hard to decide what to eat. I had good/great paella, jerk chicken, sausages, burgers, crepes, and I don’t even know what else. Many people brought a camp stove and other things so that they could cook their own meals (and there was a reasonably well-stocked camp store on site), but with the travel involved (and my inherent laziness), I was happy to rely on the food stalls (and a box of fairly gross Oreo Clif Builder protein bars).
The bigger issue, with something like 80 bands and with my exhaustion, is that there were times when I hit a wall and had to have a break. Sometimes that meant listening to a band from my tent. Sometimes that meant taking a shower. Sometimes that meant just sitting down by myself or with friends and spacing out. Trying to go hard for 14-16 hours a day was just not possible, but I made the most of it and still got to see a ridiculous number of bands. I made a few bad choices on bands and there were a few bands that I heard later were crazy good but that is just the nature of this kind of festival and I’m not going to say I have regrets about any of my choices.
Will I go back? That is the question. I already bought a ticket for next year but have a while to decide. The expense is a big issue, the camping is a big issue, the actual, physical toll is a big issue. I also picked up Covid at some point during the festival, which was not helpful. One thing I need to figure out is how much of a trade-off it would be to stay off-site in terms of transit time and expense. Still, that might be a way to survive the festival.
So I don’t have an answer yet. I would still encourage anyone who loves this corner of music and who can swing the money and the time to give it a shot. It’s the premiere festival for it, the vibes are immaculate, and it goes beyond any other festival experience I’ve had.
Once again, the music. Below are the bands I saw, categorized by awesomeness.
Holy shit:
Best of the rest:
Bands I’ve seen before that delivered:
Several of the other bands were really good but didn’t quite hit the same for me.
Noteworthy:
The bigger issue, with something like 80 bands and with my exhaustion, is that there were times when I hit a wall and had to have a break. Sometimes that meant listening to a band from my tent. Sometimes that meant taking a shower. Sometimes that meant just sitting down by myself or with friends and spacing out. Trying to go hard for 14-16 hours a day was just not possible, but I made the most of it and still got to see a ridiculous number of bands. I made a few bad choices on bands and there were a few bands that I heard later were crazy good but that is just the nature of this kind of festival and I’m not going to say I have regrets about any of my choices.
Will I go back? That is the question. I already bought a ticket for next year but have a while to decide. The expense is a big issue, the camping is a big issue, the actual, physical toll is a big issue. I also picked up Covid at some point during the festival, which was not helpful. One thing I need to figure out is how much of a trade-off it would be to stay off-site in terms of transit time and expense. Still, that might be a way to survive the festival.
So I don’t have an answer yet. I would still encourage anyone who loves this corner of music and who can swing the money and the time to give it a shot. It’s the premiere festival for it, the vibes are immaculate, and it goes beyond any other festival experience I’ve had.
Once again, the music. Below are the bands I saw, categorized by awesomeness.
Holy shit:
- Slift – French psych band. I can imagine them existing in the late 60s as easily as they exist today. They played here last year to what could not have been more than a few dozen people (unfortunately I was out of town) and it would have been insane to see them level the modest club where they played.
- Ni - experimental/math metal. This is what Meshuggah or Car Bomb would sound like if they were happy. Most songs seemed to have multiple time signature changes, or maybe no time signature at all.
- Delving – This is the side project of Nick DiSalvo from progressive giants Elder (and two of the Elder dudes joined him) with more krautrock and no vocals. More jaw-dropping musicianship, more crazy time signatures.
- Coilguns – impassioned, high-energy post-punk. Positive and political, but not overtly so (or I’m just not smart enough to pick up on it). They had the whole tent moving for their entire set and they didn’t keep anything in reserve. The singer told the crowd before their last song that the big guys needed to make sure that there was a place for everyone else in the pit and that was all the encouragement I needed to claim a small jolt of physicality. I can’t explain why hitting and getting hit in this context is cathartic, but it felt really good.
- Adebisi Shank – Irish post-rock upbeat whatever. Lots of pedal wizardry, some heavily effected vocals, and fueled by joy. Bassist Vincent McCreith said during the set that they were back because we demanded that they come back and they were grateful. I love this band, they were one of my most anticipated sets (and the reason several people I talked to came to the fest), and they delivered. I managed to be one person behind the barrier for their set and the whole floor was moving.
Best of the rest:
- Year of No Light – instrumental post-metal that is not quite drone but leans in that direction with a somewhat tribal feel that does not feel like appropriation.
- God Alone - mathy rock/dance/punk band that are clearly influenced by Adebisi Shank and ASIWYFA but a little heavier. I met a few of the guys at the airport and they were stoked to be at the festival.
- Arab Strap – Stream-of-conscious, mostly spoken vocals over beats (and a few synths) supplemented by a full band, I liked these guys on record and the live performance was surprisingly compelling.
- Kylesa – The reunion of this progressive sludge band was another one I was really looking forward to and they were great. Laura Pleasants is an even better guitarist than I realized.
- Healthyliving - post-rock trio leaning a little more on the rock than the post. The female vocals remind me of Messa, which is good.
- Wren – Young post-metal band from London. In a crowded genre, their performance stood out.
- God Is An Astronaut – Irish progressive, instrumental post-rock trio, joined by Jo Quail on cello for their last two songs.
Bands I’ve seen before that delivered:
- Pelican – I’m sure I’ve seen Pelican at least half a dozen times since the early 2000s. Having seen them three times this year, however, I can say that the return of their original second guitarist, Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, led to a fantastic album and they have really leveled up live, as well.
- Dvne – I first discovered this sci-fi prog metal band from Scotland at Psycho Las Vegas in 2018. They played two sets and I randomly wound up meeting all the dudes. They have put out a couple of amazing albums since then and I have kept in touch a little. They haven’t been back to the States, however, so I was overjoyed to get to see them again. They were great and I got to catch up a little with Victor. People need to buy their albums so they can get back to this side of the Atlantic.
- We Lost the Sea – just saw these Australian post-rock masters play two sets in Indianapolis a few weeks ago. I was only able to catch one of their sets here but it was great.
- Emma Ruth Rundle – ERR also played Indianapolis and that show left me in tears. She is one of my all-time favorite performers and songwriters and this set was a great sampling from across her career. Some jerk in the audience felt the need to loudly and repeatedly proclaim his love for her and may have even proposed between songs and unfortunately she chose to engage with him. It broke the vibe and worse, wound up in her cutting a song. She asked the audience for a voice vote on her closing number which resulted in not getting to hear my favorite song (“Real Big Sky”). If I hadn’t just seen her play it at Post Festival, it would have been devastating, but it was just annoying. I don’t know what that guy was trying to accomplish other than making the show all about him, but I hope he suffers some painful and embarrassing but non-lethal malady.
- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – not my favorite band but almost certainly my favorite live band. Massively talented, theatrical, and campy without taking themselves seriously, playing folky, classical influenced art metal. Thanks to leaving Clown Core early (more below) and a hot tip from a friend, I got to meet bandleader Nils Frykdahl at another tent and tell him how much I love his band. When you get the chance to do this, you do this (later, in a louder tent, I also got to give a wordless bow to bassist Dan Rathbun).
Several of the other bands were really good but didn’t quite hit the same for me.
Noteworthy:
- Clown Core – clowns performing avant-garde, electronic, jazzy grindcore. Musically very polarizing, I was looking forward to seeing them. I was digging the set and their hilariously weird visuals until they took a turn towards (possibly ai) porn. I am not anti-porn, necessarily, but I found it extremely off-putting in this context. There were many kids at the festival and at this show. There is debate whether the festival is appropriate for kids or not, but they sell child tickets and whether it “is” or it “isn’t,” the fact is there were a lot of kids there. I’m not going to speak for any woman, but I talked to a few about the show and while many of them weren’t bothered by it, some were. The musicianship is great and I would consider seeing them again in a different context, but it just didn’t feel inclusive or fun to me at the time.
- Battlesnake – when I first heard them, I thought it was lame classic metal/NWOBHM-revival. Turns out they wear costumes and write songs about battling snakes. I was persuaded that it would be fun, and it was. I was hoping that they would have props and characters and bring the story alive (like Castle Rat or Gwar). They didn’t, but it was still entertaining.
- Lowen – heavily Persian influenced prog metal with Phrygian scales all over the place, plus the singer has amazing pipes and she brings out daggers and axes and stuff. I love their album and was really psyched for this band but the sound was horrible (a frequent issue for this stage). All bass and kick drum and you literally could not hear the guitar for long stretches of time. Like, at all. I’m not a sound guy, but that seems like an obvious problem. I know the same room can sound different in different places, but this was not that. I moved around the tent to try and find better sound, including right by the sound board, and it was just awful. Hopefully they’ll get to the States when their new album comes out.
- Maybeshewill – similar to Lowen, I was looking forward to this post-rock band celebrate their 20-year career with the addition of three string players, but the bass was crushing. Again, if you can see the strings playing but not hear them at all, isn’t that a problem?
- Green Lung – Sabbath-y old school English metal with songs about Old Nick and sprites and what not. Great fun, although I would argue that these guys are cosplaying just like Ghost but don’t get nearly the same level of shit.
- Car Bomb – one of the originators of mathcore and hugely revered and influential. They played great but there is nothing melodic in their music. I have to be in the mood for these guys and I wasn’t.
- Giant Walker – like healthyliving, a powerful, woman-led rock band with some post elements.
- Ithaca – swansong for the UK metalcore band known for being aggressively feminist and unapologetically brown in a mostly white, male genre. Not my thing, but sure.
A word about Silent Disco: after the headliner every night, the festival would have a band play completely through the sound board – no amps, no acoustic drums or instruments, and piped directly into headphones. Most of these bands were electronic or ambient or something in that vein and not really my thing. I spent most of those sets talking to friends at the end of a long day. One of these bands, however, was Walpurgis, an Ozzy-era Sabbath tribute band put together by Mike Vennart of Oceansize, Biffy Clyro, Empire State Bastard, etc., with guys from Alpha Male Tea Party and Twin Atlantic. Vennart is hilarious (“I think we can all agree this is way better than an Oceansize reunion”) and performed mostly in character as the pompous, egotistical leader of “the most authentic, strictly-Ozzy-era Black Sabbath tribute band on earth.” They were great, nailed the songs, and it was really fun - and really, really fun to take your headphones off and hear hundreds of people singing Sabbath songs with seemingly no accompaniment (especially during the instrumental bits). After the bands played, they had two DJs as well as a few pre-programmed channels that you could flip between. One channel was nu metal, one channel was regular metal, and there was also the infamous Mars Volta channel. You could see what channel people were listening to by the color of the lights on their headset and hearing half the tent belting out “this is my last resort” while the other half of the tent was headbanging to Blood and Thunder was again great fun. The signal carried across most of the arena so you could even enjoy Televators in the loo.
Bands I definitely saw in no particular order (* denotes full set):
Saw but didn’t pay a ton of attention to/didn’t stay long
Silent Disco bands I listened to but didn’t really hear:
Walked by the tent/watched from the other tent:
Heard from my tent – these were big bands (including two headliners) that don’t do a lot for me. I don’t know if I can say I really “saw” them but I also don’t feel a compelling need to see any of them in any other context.
Did I see them? I may or may have not seen or at least heard them but honestly have no idea and can’t rule them out.
Bands I definitely saw in no particular order (* denotes full set):
- Wardruna
- Slift*
- Year of No Light*
- Healthyliving*
- God Alone*
- Hundred Year Old Man*
- Battlesnake*
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor
- Arab Strap*
- Kylesa*
- Melvins
- Street Grease
- Pelican*
- The Fall of Troy
- Lowen*
- We Lost the Sea*
- The Gorge*
- Pothamus*
- Rezn
- Ni*
- Lemondaze
- The Grey
- Codespeaker*
- Gost
- Maybeshewill*
- Mew
- Green Lung
- Delving*
- Coilguns*
- Emma Ruth Rundle*
- Car Bomb
- Giant Walker
- Ithaca*
- Mt. Onsra*
- Chalk Hands*
- Vessels
- God Is An Astronaut*
- Clown Core
- Kayo Dot
- Adebisi Shank*
- Dvne*
- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
- Bipolar Architecture
- Lo!
- A Swarm of the Sun*
- Wren*
- Sugar Horse
- Walpurgis*
Saw but didn’t pay a ton of attention to/didn’t stay long
- Vower – this was one of my hardest misses. Guitarist Rabea Massaad has been in several bands I really like (particularly The Totemist), but this is maybe my least favorite of his projects (just a little too slick). I wound staying longer at Mew, so just caught a song or so.
- Between the Buried and Me. This was one of two bands to get two sets at the festival but they don’t do a lot for me. I saw several songs but it really did not stand out for me.
- The Callous Daoboys – this is a “next big thing” band like Turnstile who do a lot of genre-hopping. I wasn’t that into it 30 years ago and am still not.
- Tesseract - slick and complicated prog whatever. I apparently saw them in 2016. They didn’t do anything for me then, they don’t do anything for me now.
- Colossal Squid – highly talented drummer using triggers and other gimmickry
Silent Disco bands I listened to but didn’t really hear:
- AK/DK
- Yard
- Nordic Giants
Walked by the tent/watched from the other tent:
- Sometime in February
- Envy
- Underdark
- Meryl Streek
Heard from my tent – these were big bands (including two headliners) that don’t do a lot for me. I don’t know if I can say I really “saw” them but I also don’t feel a compelling need to see any of them in any other context.
- Rolo Tomassi
- Karnivool
- Leprous
Did I see them? I may or may have not seen or at least heard them but honestly have no idea and can’t rule them out.
- Burner
- Teeth of the Sea
- Kalandra
- Frontierer
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