Supersonic: A Birds Eye View

Friday

Who we saw: Mike Watt, Scotch Egg, Secret Chiefs 3, Scorn

What we found: Beards, Menfolk, Beer

We travelled up to Supersonic on Friday night with great anticipation, with so much going on that we wanted to see and we knew it was going to be good being held in Capsule’s capable hands. We were ready for clear skies and some fun in a different city, a city that compared to our hometown Bristol looked big, bad and proper. Getting the bus in from Smethwick suckling on a pop bottle full of rum, watching the suburbs drop away and the bright lights get closer, the city crowded round and invited us in.

 Supersonic is housed in the Custard Factory - a one time industrial space underneath some mighty railway arches, which are lit up for the festival adding to their epicness. Even with maps everywhere it seems like a labyrinth, with lots to discover. There’s plenty of space and a super hot seating area to get in out of the chilly October air. The festival has a small and friendly feel and on this first night there is a buzz of anticipation in the air about the weekend. As first timers to the festival there's some bands/labels that are familiar through links with Supernormal and the Cube, Bristol but plenty of names we're not yet acquainted with .

So we started with a brief look in on Mike Watt, but only caught the last two songs which he gurned his way through to an appreciative crowd. Already we become aware of the man/woman ratio and the man with beard percentage. It soon became clear that the music at Supersonic is made by men with beards for men with beards. More of that later. A helpful punter also informed me that this festival is not about the shagging it’s about the music. Glad we got that one clear so early on. The next music to grace our eardrums was the game boy sounds of DJ Scotch egg, the crowd formed a wall and nodded along in time, and beards grew in time too.

Secret Chiefs

Walked back over to Space 2 for Secret Chiefs 3, brilliant set and lively sounds with some obscure facewear to boot, as their guitarist was sporting a fashionable face doily! These really picked up the pace and it felt like the weekend was fully getting started. The visuals throughout the weekend were consistently ace, and here was no exception. 

                                   Some Vintage Porn-Inspired Visuals
 We got talking about when the use of visuals became popular all those rave years ago, with memories of outstanding ones at gigs. The slowly revolving cassette tape eyes of the Supersonic logo making a regular apprearance whilst keeping watch over all the proceedings in Space 2.

Scorn

Our final musical adventure that night was to see Scorn playing in boxed, this was intense and awesome. Dirty fat basslines that could be heard way off in the Birmingham backpackers (apparently) and vibrated your trouser legs, your eardrums, your hair! It was an epic way to end the first evening.Toddling back to the suburbs with a taxi driver who got lost (a recurring theme on our weekend) it felt good that the weekend was only just beginning.

Saturday

Who we saw: Nathan Bell, Agathe Max, Bardo Pond, Antilles, Lucky Dragons, Electric Wizard, Klaus Kinski, Alexander Tucker, Skull Defekts

Also:Panel A to Zine, Napalm Death Zine Exhib (Grindcore Cut and Paste), Conny Prantera Exhibition

What we found: Sheet of paper with lyrics on, Poster Art, Approachable bearded menfolk willing to have photos taken.

Where we ate: Yumm, which turned out wasn’t so yumm after all.

After checking into our hostel on the sunny saturday we found our way through the heaving crowds of Birmingham city centre. Sucking rum out of a bottle in a doorway outside the venue before entering the DOOM we were given a couple of  free art posters to ponder over while we polished off the remainder of our contraband booze. 

                                                Supersonic Mascot                                          Free art!

 With a tinge of hangover we got in in time to see Nathan Bell (from the label Lancashire and Somerset) opening up in the Library. This onetime Lungfish one man band really got the crowd entranced when he invited Liz of Black Octagon on stage to play a duet version of Pilgrim.

Nathan Bell with Liz of Black Octagon

It seems like we got a 80% man to woman ratio on stage as well as off, though next up was Agathe Max, playing some intensely beautiful drone violin. It was one in one out when we first arrived to have a look, so we knew that something special would be going on inside and sure enough she delivered, creating an atmosphere so tense the crowd watched in awe.

Agathe Max

The many different venues used for Supersonic around the Custard Factory make for an interesting and varied viewing experience and if you fancy a sit down or bit of warmth (it may be sunny but it’s not that temperate) the theatre’s the place. With loads of interesting stuff going on there throughout the weekend including talks and films, we caught a spot of Zine chat on Saturday afternoon. The Zine panel had a Q&A with expert ziners including Nic Bullen from Napalm Death who collectively pondered over the ethos of the fanzine and whether the DIY approach has been diluted becoming commonplace thesedays. Interesting stuff.

Napalm Death Zine

The 'Grindcore cut and paste' exhibition was another look into the world of zines, providing a glimpse into the alternative 80’s punk scene with an impressive archive of fanzines from around this time on display, including reminiscences for me on the kinds of animal rights stuff that was happening then. Also an amusing letter from to Napalm Death requesting the group to disband because they're shit!

Home of Metal Exhibition; Grindcore Cut n Paste

  

Walking through the Zellig area where a number of art happenings were located we came across a dark and mysterious sounding carpeted room with a multi-t.v screened installation by artist Conny Prantera -  a stop frame animation featuring four elements of the natural world creating disquieting visions.

Kore Kosmou by  Conny Prantera

Throughout the weekend there was much appreciation in the ladies toilets about the relentlessly long queue for the men’s toilets and lack of queue for the ladies! Which in turn signified the incredible lack of women present at this man-heavy festival. We love seeing men having to line up for a slash day and night. 

Lucky Dragons encouraged audience participation with some sonic sheets of stripy vinyl that linked up to the visuals while the crowd controlled the electronic sounds and beeps created by moving the sheets about all amid some occasional wailing.

We were glad to have caught the tail end of Antilles set who kicked ass with some enthusiastic drumming, whilst grandfathers of metal Electric Wizard rocked Space 2 as expected. It felt humbling to be in the presence of such legends. Doom or be Doomed!!

Antilles

Managed to catch the last little bit of Klaus Kinski, enough to see a band member clambering effortlessly all over the rigging, by this point I was pissed so I was mighty impressed with his dexterity and staying on/staying alive skills.Come late saturday night and more than a few drinks later we made it our mission to document the huge and impressive array of facial hair present in the vicinity. Never before has so much course hair sprung forth from so many faces in one place. Click on the link to discover a selection of some of the finest beards seen over the weekend, hope you spot yours. And if not, grow harder!  Supersonic Beard Slide Show 

A Favourite Beard

Alexander Tucker was brilliant as L.E.D eyed hairy faced yeti in the Theatre, and facilitated by the sounds of his synth the warm and comfort of the place sent many a happy punter off to the land of nod (I was one of them, it was well nice and cosy). 

Yeti Man Alexander Tucker Excites the Crowd

In the lack of anywhere local that wasn't a total meat market unlikely to greet a motley crew of beardies and Supersonic go-ers to get more drinks at after chuck out time, we head to Digbeth's finest kebab house for chips and gravy where we came across these two lovely ladies who'd obviously had one too many and that's just the kebabs! And home we went.

Sunday

Who we saw: Eternal Tapestry, Drumeyes, Barn Owl, Iconaclass

Also: 24 hour Velzuvial performance, ‘Incarnate’ James Robinson, Market Place

What we found: someone’s notes for a talk

Where we ate: Meatballs at the food stalls by Space 2

After a night in a hostel for the first time in a long while and a lunch time jaunt to the Ikon we got to the festival just a little too late for the Tuba drone band ORE and Peppo Kappi, both of whom were rumoured to be great and we’re sorry to have missed them. Even though we arrived after the programme had started it was a quieter more subdued crowd today following the raucous end to saturday night, and the sound of birdsong echoed under the arches above a bunch of ailing flowers wedged in the fence reminiscent of roadside memorials.

Making a beeline to the Market Place in search of some merch was next on our agenda for the day. We called in en route to see James Robinson’s portraits of musicians from previous years at the festival, and also to Get a Grip printmaking studios who had a fine line in t-shirts, as well as offering screenprinting workshops over the weekend. The marketplace was buzzing full of an array of brilliant handmade wares - loads of music stalls; vinyl with incredible artwork, zines, t-shirts and prints. It was great to see such a vast amount of DIY creativity and ideas in one place.

I particularly liked the exhibition in the tiny shed by artist Herman Inclusus which housed his intricate illustrative paintings of all things doom and dark.

It’s super sticky underfoot in Space 2 after a weekend of beer swilling, barefoot it woulda ripped your skin off. 

Caught the tail end of Eternal Tapestry enthusiastic psychedelic folk blend. Really enjoyed their mix of sounds and wished we’d got there earlier.  

Eternal Tapestry

With still more happenings to explore, we made our way down to the 24 hour performance 'Velzuvial' in Eastside Projects which by the time we got to them were 21 hours in. We were intrigued to see how their performance compared to Hákarl's 36 hour performance at Supernormal this year. There were three people remaining at this point with one of them occasionally banging his guitar with a rusty nail and a plethora of instruments scattered around the floor hinting of the ghosts of other musicians now departed.

Velzuvia

The performance was housed in the artist-run space Eastside Projects which is nestled away in a nearby side street surrounded by factories and industrial buildings.They had a fantastic collection of art books to peruse whilst listening to the low fi sounds of the Velzuvial orchestra, including a box with books of home drawn porn.In a side room was the Empty Orchestra installation (in association with Supersonic) where additional performances also happened over the weekend.

 

We wandered back to the main event and came across Drumeyes, there was a lot of anticipation from fellow festivalgoers about this gig and after a slow start they really got the crowd going with Scotch Eggs infamous electronic game boy inspired sounds.

The weekend was almost over for us, we were just about to leave and came across the epic scratching, all-rapping Iconaclass who were reminiscent of hip hop heavies Beastie Boys. A surprise addition to the heavy line-up and the only time we observed the crowd doing more than enthusiastic head nodding. 

Iconaclass

We were reliably informed that the Sunday night bands that we missed - Alta Nova and Fire! and Tony Conrad were all blinding.  Would have also liked to see Turbonegro just for their amazingly impressive bespoke jackets. 

Turbonegro

And so we make our way back down the M5 leaving the bright lights and dark sountrack of Birmingham and Supersonic behind us. With such a varied line up of excellent acts, films, art and chat, Supersonic delivered a really top weekend. Thanks team Capsule! We’ll definitely be back again.

Ruth Sharman - Words

samfrancisco - Photos & some words