This is the place to discuss ArcTanGent festival, the riot of sound and cider from the West Country, UK! There’s always such a lovely atmosphere.
ArcTanGent is celebrating its 10th year (2014-2024) and once again I find myself on the annual pilgrimage. Once a shining beacon for fans of math rock and post rock, ArcTanGent now caters more towards heavier styles, however there is still a lot of weird stuff going on - last year I was lucky enough to catch Swans, Heilung and Jaga Jazzist, for example.
Cannae wait to see Electric Wizard, Three Trapped Tigers (for the third time), And So I Watch You From Afar (for the sixth time), Baroness, Caspian, Animals as Leaders (again) and Meshuggah (why not).
Are you going? Who are you looking forward to seeing?
So I have avoided Clown Core ever since I heard of them because they sounded lame but I’ve finally checked them out and now I’m very much looking forward to seeing them. ;D
I saw them in 2018 supporting Pitchshifter in Nottingham and they were good. Karl’s other band Blueprint played as well and the night got a little messy because there were lots of friends there…
I went years ago to maybe the second ArcTanGent, it was a lot smaller back then I think! I really enjoyed seeing ASIWYFA, having never seen them (or even heard of them) before. One of them came on the mic halfway through the set to tell the crowd how cool it was as mainly an instrumental guitar band to have a crowd singing your songs back at you- I don’t think they had really seen that before!
Mogwai would definitely be on my list if I was going this year.
Mostly for the LOLs (and the many opportunities for tripping balls in fields), but I’ll probably look at some bands while I’m there.
Mogwai are probably the band I’ve seen live the most in my life, they were very important to me during some pretty rough times but I’ve not seen them for years, so that’ll be cool, as long as it doesn’t trigger the old suicidal nostalgia.
Also looking forward to seeing benefits, I missed them when they played near me last year and it’ll be interesting to see how they translate live in a field full of tech metal/math nerds. The sound tech at my local EMOM venue said they were fucking excellent, and she knows her shit.
Okay so far we have recommendations for Bossk, Audio Noir, Amenra, Year of No Light, ASIWYFA (obvs), earthtone9, Mogwai (again, obvs) and Benefits. Well and Clown Core.
Any other recommendations? Especially for the lesser-known bands?
I remember being entertained by Bo Ningen supporting Faith No More quite a few years ago.
They’re great; I’ve seen them several times and played on the same bill and in Damo’s Network with several members. Their live gigs are always intense.
I missed Teeth of the Sea at Acid Horse but they were apparently outstanding live. They’re probably one of the more synth-heavy bands playing the festival too.
RIP Damo! He graced one of my home towns (Northampton, UK) a couple of times and I couldn’t believe our luck. Got into Can while at uni, what a crazy bunch of guys.
Thursday
Explosions in the Sky
Baroness
Amenra
Red Fang
Julie Christmas
Conan (I think my friend Dave will be playing bass)
Author and Punisher
Bo Ningen
Catsx3 (released a split single by then years ago)
Hundred Year Old Man
Itoldyouiwouldeatyou
Friday
Three Trapped Tigers
Year of No Light
AK/DK
Delta Sleep
Teeth of the Sea
Saturday
Mogwai
Electric Wizard
ASIWYFA
Caspian
Bossk
Earthtone9
Oh man, thanks so much! And I TOTALLY forgot about Three Trapped Tigers (adoreadoreadore their EPs) as well as Electric Wizard (Let Us Prey was a soundtrack to playing DOOM for a long time for me).
Would love to have seen Isis at ATG, what a brilliant album Oceanic is.
