ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL
VENUE FERNHILL FARM, BRISTOL DATE 16-18/08/2018
This year’s ArcTanGent Festival sees the main stage headlined on Thursday by Northern Irish instrumentalists And So I Watch You From Afar, who play their stunning new album The Endless Shimmering in full. First, however, there are returning bands to see. Chief among these are Alpha Male Tea Party, firing a stunning parting shot at the end of their Health tour cycle, and Rolo Tomassi, who play a storming set in support of their critically acclaimed Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It album.
When And So I Watch You From Afar do finally take the stage, it’s a fantastic performance. The main stage has gone up in size this year, but the band don’t seem fazed. The highlight is naturally the maelstrom-like A Slow Unfolding Of Wings, but earlier tracks Gang and Big
Thinks Do Remarkable are a breathless rush, punctuated with crowdsurfers.
On the Friday there’s an excellent run of bands, including Prog magazine favourite Mike Vennart showcasing his new album
To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea in all its eccentric glory. Hot on his heels, Chicago’s Pelican deliver a paint-strippingly heavy set that can even be heard from the other side of the site. Their riffs are monolithic, and the show, their first in the United Kingdom for almost two years, is truly spellbinding.
The one-two punch of Anathema and Leprous puts a proggy full-stop to the evening. For the former, it’s the post-rocky Can’t Let Go from latest record The Optimist that goes over best, while for Leprous it’s the anthemic From The Flame that proves the highlight.
Giraffes? Giraffes! pick up this energy and run with it. The two-piece, arguably the inspiration for many bands that have graced ArcTanGent over the years, are playing their first UK show ever, and it’s to an adoring crowd of thousands. By the time they get to the climax of When The Catholic Girls Go Camping, The Nicotine Vampires Rule Supreme, the audience are singing the riffs, and they’ve delivered undoubtedly the standout festival performance.
A short time later, math supergroup trio GUG tear through a mad, brilliant performance that sees the return to the stage of Dan Beesley, who had to step away from the guitar due to illness.
Then, on the main stage, Myrkur deliver a powerful and mesmerising set of their operatic, doomy prog.
After that, it’s left to post-rock titans Alcest to rip the roof off the place, and Shellac to close the festival with a brilliantly wiry, confrontational performance that serves as a perfect reminder of why they’re bona fide legends.
“SHELLAC CLOSE THE FESTIVAL WITH A BRILLIANTLY WIRY, CONFRONTATIONAL PERFORMANCE.”