Supersonic festival / Capsule / Birmingham

A thread for Supersonic festival, which has been run at The Custard Factory in Birmingham every year since 2003 by Capsule, who also promote loads of other interesting gigs and events in Birmingham...

I first went in 2007, particularly motivated by Pharaoh Overlord's appearance, and have been every year since, making last weekend's 2011 festival my fifth in a row. I've always had the most amazing time and the line-ups have been continually fantastic. The whole experience has been arguably the highlight of my year every time...

Who else has been, goes religiously or otherwise follows this festival? Any Birmingham based people here? Any particular highlights or memories from over the years? Anticipation for next year...

i always want to go

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a Supersonic thread before now, though there was a small bit of discussion this year spread over WDYLL and the metal thread. Still never made it, though lots of my friends have played and it always looks great.

this thing is pretty great, there was hardly anything I saw this year that I didn't enjoy

I had to queue exactly once across Saturday and Sunday (this pretty much includes for drinks!), which was for about 10 minutes to see Cut Hands (who ruled)

the first year this was on, 2003, there was a swimming pool full of water in the main arena - everyone stood round the edge watching the bands who played at one end - LCD Soundsystem were last or second last on and if Jams Murphy had lost his footing ILM would be about 10,000 posts smaller

Ha! Was that where they have now reinstated a pool in the area that was one of the main stages for several years but was not used at all this year? The central courtyard with the canvas awning and the theatre space off it etc?

yeah the pool was... a pool this year - I didn't expect that but the stages were fine and dandy still

I remember someone saying a couple of years back that when Sunn 0))) played on that stage they were audible in the city centre, so maybe that had something to do with it, who knows

That's a story that I tell!

My friend left midway through their set, walked back to his accommodation (he reckons about 1/2 mile away) and says that he could still hear them playing. It's a good little story at least.

I also heard afterwards that they were measured at +135db, which is near record breakingly loud, but believable given their modus operandi and the sheer amount of amplification on stage at the time.

Here is one of my photos of the performance in question...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v1/p102623316-3.jpg

My weekend went Slabdragger/Part Chimp/Scotch Egg/Cloaks/Scorn; Berg Sans Nipple/Orthodox/Teeth of the Sea/Bardo Pond/Kogumaza/Wolves in the Throne Room/Klaus Kinski/Electric Wizard/Skull Defekts/Zombi; Ore/Pekko Kappi/Modulate/Eternal Tapestry/Selfless/Barn Owl/Astro/Cut Hands/Silver Apples/ENVY/Drunk In Hell/Circle/Turbonegro

Highlights were Part Chimp (who can keep on dragging out splitting up for ever on this evidence), Cloaks (who sounded like Grey Machine for the first half then turned into all-out assault for the last 20 minutes), Orthodox (genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed them as they didn't do anything particularly revolutionary), WitTR (bowing out on a high, if they are indeed splitting up), Ore (doom on tubas, who knew? With added cover of 'Ourboros Is Broken'.), Pekko Kappi (Finnish lullabies go a long way to explaining Tuomas), Selfless (c'mon, we all need crust/grind in our lives), Cut Hands (absolutely astonishing stuff, the record just doesn'tdo the live show justice), ENVY (a bit more post-rock than other times, but still great - not so much quiet/loud as loud/DIE DIE DIE) and Circle (someone else called them Judas Priest doing showtunes and I can't think of a better description.

Enjoyed pretty much everything else I saw although I guess ElWiz were a bit disappointing - Jus' voice not in the best of condition and he seems to be suffering from too many trips with the munchies to the 24 hour garage as he's got big, Tad Doyle big - and I genuinely don't think Tony is a good fit in Turbonegro - they need more of a singer than he is and I thought he was mixed far too loud. Oh, and they were turning people away from Agathe Max despite it being half-empty inside and we couldn't get in.

Biggest disappointment was Astro. He started (quietly) and after motioning at the sound about 4 times went off the stage to take issue with the soundman personally - which mainly consisted of shouting "MORE LOUD" at him. He then went on at a decent volume, only to be turned down again after the first burst of noise. He went on for about another 10 minutes before going off in a massive hissy fit, turning over a table and kicking things about at the side of the stage. After a long argument and a few phone calls he went back on for about 20 minutes at a respectable, but still not loud enough, volume.

There's a link to my photos in the metal thread.