ATP Presents: Les Savy Fav @ ABC2, 24 Oct

Article by Chris Cusack | 29 Oct 2009

Somewhere on the universal moral spectrum - considerably closer to Nick Griffin than Gandhi - lie people who talk during movies. Sure, ABC2 is an unlikely venue for this premiere of Warp Films' All Tomorrow's Parties picture, but it is a great place to witness the engrossing collision of art-rock and post-hardcore thrown crowd-wards by New York's brilliant Les Savy Fav. Pity then that so many members of tonight's clearly Les Savy Fav-orientated audience can't quell their impatience and avoid turning the first Glasgow viewing of a creakily assembled film into a frustrating battle to hear some of its many excellent, if rather brief, music clips over their indifferent rabble.

It is a shame too that tonight's event organisers don't keep a closer eye on their watches. With LSV scheduled to appear at 9.20, the clock hands creep to 9.45 before Tim Harrington and crew finally make it on-stage, allowing little over half an hour until kick-out time. Clothed in typically eccentric fashion (this time initially as a Lugosi-esque Dracula) the aforementioned and utterly demented front-man spends his band's painfully brief set clambering along barriers, around speakers, on top of furniture and through the tangled limbs of a fervent Glasgow audience.

As is their way, the rest of LSV enthusiastically tear through a brilliant clutch of classics and equally impressive newer numbers as though nothing untoward is happening. Yet, despite awesome renditions of We'll Make A Lover Of You and stunning finale The Sweat Descends, a distinct downer swoops on the handsome crowd when things are prematurely wrapped up. No encore. Just the wet street and a niggling feeling of being slightly short-changed. [Chris Cusack]

All Tomorrow's Parties is available on DVD from 9 Nov.

http://www.lessavyfav.com