Plaid & Mark Pilkington

Manchester's 'Victoria Baths' was definitely an 'odd choice' of seated venues for the festival. Inside the walls had been coated in black cloth to absorb the sound. The pool (now empty, obviously!) had been lined with seats, the gradient towards the deep end offering a perfect angle on which to hold a show. As I entered calls of 'well, it's a bit weird in here' came from across the room An enormous AV screen had been set up at the deep end, displaying the FutureEverything logo, and the glitchy opening of Mark Pilkington proved to be interesting. 
The show had to be delayed for half an hour, due to the sun (and heavy reliance on AV was needed). So, starting the show early, Mark Pilkington played us in (sat in a cold and rapidly filling venue). Although as the venue filled, something very odd happened. The audience seemed completely unaware that the first act was on. The majority of the audience talked, progressively louder as his set went on, until Mark finally stopped playing, the audience clapped and then went quiet, as if waiting for something to happen, not realising that it just had and they had missed it! Very Unfortunate, because Mark's set was actually brilliant, just a shame it was spoiled.

Plaid played an awesome set, astounding visuals, drifting from abstract views of aeroplane con. trails, to glitchy and distorted fractals. I also found out that Plaid did the Warp "Pig Corp" video, which I think everyone should watch at least once :). Half way through their set they got very heavy and 'warp' esc. At this point, supprisingly quite a lot of people left! (including the family that had brought at 10 year old boy! - well what did they expect!). I realise that this gig wasn't supposed to be a "Plaid - Gig" but have somthing to do with Reindeers, but that guy pulled at the last minute.
In bed at six, back to work at four!