Kevin Bronson on November 17th, 2008

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Also see: Part Time Punks, Part IV; Part III; Part II, Part I

As buzz for reunion shows go, A Certain Ratio’s appearance at the Part Time Punks Festival probably made waves only with the most passionate of Factory Records fans, and maybe some folks who saw the group referenced in discourses on bands like the Rapture and !!! (Chk Chk Chk). But for an hour at the Echoplex on Sunday, the Mancunians [above] — forerunners in fusing soul and funk into post-punk — played like a band that should have been dearly missed.

The tight, purposeful headlining set, the band’s first in the U.S. since 1985, included ACR’s better-known tracks such as “Shack Up” and “Do the Du,” as well as material from “Mind Made Up” — its first new album in 10 years, due in 2009. You wouldn’t go so far as mistake the Echoplex for the legendary Hacienda, but the onetime labelmates of Joy Division showed they were a force, playing to a crowd divided about 50-50 between their contemporaries and acolytes.

ACR was one of three veteran acts that I felt put an exclamation point on the festival.

Preceding the Manchester band at the Echoplex were Athens, Ga., art-punks Pylon [right], a band once championed by R.E.M. It broke up in 1983 and has had on-again, off-again reunions. With DFA Records re-releasing some of its catalog, the quartet is on the road again, with good results. Vanessa Briscoe Hay’s shouty vocals were arresting, and backed by tight rhythms and riffage from Curtis Crowe, Randy Bewley and Michael Lachowski, she quickly won the crowd over. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs revisiting their early catalog in the year 2022? Maybe.

But perhaps the Nightingales earned the evening’s highest score for sheer intensity. Frontman Robert Lloyd cast a hulking, glowering, swaggering presence as he dispensed his nervy, occasionally histrionic rants to the Echo crowd. The Fall? Yes. Lloyd has discarded and reconfigured the Nightingales several times, but this incarnation packs a lot of punch thanks the dual guitar attack from veteran Alan Apperley and newbie Christine Edwards.

Some longtime fans were there too. When, during one pause, an audience member blurted out the next lyric, Lloyd glared. “Shut the [heck] up,” he said, then mocked, “And by the way, don’t take a photograph of me ever again when I’m holding a Bud Light.”

Below, Lloyd chats after the show with Heavenly Records honcho Jeff Barrett.