Various venues, Digbeth
The Midlands experimental music institution celebrates 20 years of triumphant noise, from alt-rock stalwarts Deerfhoof to feminist punks Taqbir and folk stars Lankum
After a summer of unimaginative corporate festivals sponsored by crypto companies, Supersonic couldn’t come at a better moment. Rather than jamming punters into a field, slapping halloumi stands between brand “activation” stalls and calling it culture, the care and community at this independent festival of outer-reaches sounds is evident in every single detail as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. There are the handpainted signs of an eyeball dripping blood, a logo that comes to feel extremely prescient as delirious volume threatens to rearrange one’s internal organs; the fresh £1 samosas, as bracingly spicy as much of the music and perfect for soaking up an excess of farmyard-strength cider; thoughtful panel discussions on whether DIY music events can constitute temporary utopias.
Most striking is the very human sense of how fans experience a festival like this, with the lineup building to a crescendo of apocalyptic noise on Saturday night before a gentle comedown on Sunday featuring a yoga class set to doom music, a very silly pub quiz (it comes down to a tiebreaker revealing that 2,100 samosas are consumed at each instalment) and a (comparatively) softer, folkier conclusion. That care is repaid in the sense of an ardently appreciative Supersonic family: the musicians frequently shout out founder Lisa Meyer and the almost comic preponderance of T-shirts bearing the logos of drone heroes Sunn O))) (who aren’t even playing) and cult outdoors zine Weird Walk suggest a strong common bond amid an underserved audience. (Though the best T-shirt simply reads: “unlistenable”.)
Continue reading...by Laura Snapes via Electronic music | The Guardian
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