Another long weekend, another ATP. Except this weekend, the holiday camp indiefest we’ve all come to know and love was not curated by a band or artist: half the lineup was chosen by the ATP staff and the other voted for by us, “the scum”. Oh sorry, I mean “the fans”.

I was very happy to see that as a result, both Why? and Subtle were asked to play. Now, anyone who’s a fan of Subtle frontman Adam “doseone” Drucker and Why?’s Yoni “Why?” Wolf will know they’re long-time friends and musical collaborators, best known for their incarnation as the completely marvellous and sadly missed cLOUDDEAD (their project with fellow Anticon member Odd Nosdam, pictured). So with them both appearing at ATP, despite having diverged in two rather different (but equally brilliant) directions, surely, I hoped, they might perform something together. They did. It wasn’t for long, but they did. They sang the “physics of a bicycle” refrain from Bike and I managed to record the end of it once I recovered from the initial shock at a dream coming true:

cLOUDDEAD at ATP on Vimeo

I wasn’t so surprised to see Les Savy Fav on the lineup, but I wasn’t any less pleased. They managed to be the highlight of my weekend, even though I’ve seen them plenty of times before. Like Subtle, their music alone would be enough to command my attention – but their vocalist Tim Harrington consistently seems to put everything he’s got into the live performance. In fact, if he’s got more, I’m not sure I want to see it, especially after coming face-to-groin with his painted self during Rome (Written Upside Down). By this point in the set, he had stripped down to a black leotard and made his way out into the audience before deciding to make his way back to the stage via the medium of table. Like this:

Les Savy Fav @ ATP on Vimeo

It’s certainly a good way to get a crowd going.

So, good work, fans. And good work ATP. It turned out there’s really no need to fight. Now if only Fugazi had reformed especially for the occasion like I asked, it would have been completely perfect…