After the weekend’s Hungry Pigeon Festival there is Monday’s Dot to Dot Festival. The line-up is incredibly strong, and you will need an iron resolve to catch enough of the good stuff, but I have gone through the listings, which include utilising the Council Chambers as a venue, and put together a perfect schedule for a day of Dot to Dot fun*:
*Disclaimer – this may not be physically possible
The Answering Machine, 4.15pm, Academy 2
Right, firstly, eat something, eat a lot, there’ll be no time for that later, and get over to Club Academy for local band The Heartbreaks at 1.30pm.
Then go and see two more local bands with Pocketknife at the Deaf Institute at 2pm, followed by Frazer King at the Council Chambers at 2.30.
Back to Club Academy for New York ‘acousmatic’ band Small Black at 3.30pm, then for Manchester indie rock icons The Answering Machine at Academy 2 at 4.15pm.
Goldheart Assembly, Academy 3, 5pm
Next up, London’s former zookeepers and media darlings Goldheart Assembly are on at Academy 3 at 5pm, followed by Brighton two-piece Blood Red Shoes nearby at Academy 2 at 5.45pm.
Then once they finish, have a half-hour break, have a biscuit and a sit down, and get ready for the next wave.
Get back to Academy 3 for The Chapman Family at 7pm, then get to the Council Chambers for Canadian electropop singer/songwriter Lights for her set at 7.30.
Wild Beasts, Academy 2, 8.45pm
Then venture for the first time to FAC251 for Eno-esque Wolf Gang at 8.15pm, then Kendal indie-rockers Wild Beasts, who’s 2009 album ‘Two Dancers’ was described as “one of 2009′s indisputable masterpieces” by The Sunday Times are on at Academy 2 at 8.45.
Then local favourites Egyptian Hip Hop are on at the Council Chambers at 9.30pm, and follow them up with another Manc as Lonelady plays at FAC251 at 10.15pm.
Los Campesinos, Club Academy, 11.15pm
You will probably be flagging by now but haul yourself over to Club Academy for Cardiff nut cases Los Campesinos for their set at 11.15pm, and you’ll find a second wind to go and see dubstep dj Doorly at FAC251 at 12, and then finish things off with Team Ghost, the French cinematic post-punk electronica band, who are on at 1am at the Deaf Institute.
Then go home and sleep until next weekend. What an incredible line-up the guys at Dot to Dot have managed to fashion, as my ridiculous schedule, even with its necessity for time travel, misses out all these people:
Mystery Jets, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Jakwob, Zane Lowe, Casiokids, Beach House, Ruby Suns, Twisted Wheel.
For a one-day city festival costing just £25 it is as good as it gets.
