08/10/08: All Points West Day 2, Liberty State Park, NJ

Animal Collective, Main Stage

Animal Collective, Main Stage

The Roots

Main Stage (During Kings of Leon)

The Black Angels

The Black Angels

Animal Collective, Main Stage

The Roots

The Roots

The Roots

Radiohead

The 2nd day was lots of fun, but also more frustrating. It took me over 3 hours to get there, i waited in line for the ferry for about 40 minutes, then the line to get into the venue was about 30 minutes. It was a total mess, they had about 3 people padding the crowd as they walked in, all 30,000 of us were padded down by the same 3 people. This trend would continue the entire day, as the lines for everything were very long. I passed on the beer area because it would have meant waiting at least an hour to get an awful beer anyway, they only had bud when i was there Friday, all out of the Stella, no surprise there given the options.

Despite leaving my housing at 2:00 i did not get inside the venue in front of the main stage until 5:20. At that point i had missed 20 minutes of the band i was mainly paying to see, Animal Collective. I was not going to let that bring me down, and I really enjoyed the next 40 minutes. They did a fantastic version of "Fireworks", which is such a great song. They are totally interesting live, lots of ambient noise, lots of what appears to be improvisation but somehow it all makes total sense and often its song driven. Some people were not impressed, but I think that was the case the entire festival. With such a diverse group of bands, most people did not seem to be very knowledgeable about each band, except for Radiohead. It was fun seeing them on such a grand stage, their sound and sounded great outside.

After they ended i made my way over to the "Bullet" stage to catch the last few minutes of The Black Angels. I've heard them promoted as part experimental, but they seems very straight forward to me, albeit with lots of delay and reverb on the main vocals. They were good, nothing very memorable, and a bit repetitive, but a good band. I might pick up their last CD. The singer would have sounded much better if he was not drowned out by the various effects on his vocals, but that was what they are going for i guess. That point is lost of me, but still enjoyable.

I went back to the main stage to check out Kings of Leon. I really did not enjoy them at all. I don't understand the logic of putting this band on after Animal Collective and before Radiohead. I really don't think they fit at this festival. Boring, pop hard rock music, i moved on after 2 songs.

I went and found a nice shady spot back at the 2nd stage before the Roots came on. I have seen them a couple of times a few years ago so i thought i knew what to expect. They blew away my expectations with an incredible show. Instead of mainly being what i would call a hiphop band, they have really transformed themselves into a funky jazzy act with an MC. Its amazing how tight they are and how good musically. I'm not sure how long it has been since they have added the guitar player (Cody Chestnut?) to the band as a full time member, but we was an excellent addition and a great guitar player. The addition of a Tuba player was also great, thu at times it may have clashed with the bass player. Very high energy set, with incredible attention to detail. They had the set of the weekend for me, i'm excited to pick up their latest CD which i hear good things about.

Then on to Radiohead, as i mentioned in my last post, i used to be a HUGE fan. When OK Computer came out i thought it was the greatest album ever, its still one of my all time favorites, so is Kid A. I tried to get a better view of the show that i had the night before, but there were what seemed like twice as many people, it was a bit much. It took me over 5 minutes to get out of the middle of the the crowd. I stayed for about 8 songs and it was just a boring as the night before for me. Way to many DOWN slow tunes for a headlining festival set. Maybe if i had a seat and it was at MSG, but after a day in the sun and some decent to great opening acts i was ready to rock, and unfortunately that did not happen. I did enjoy The National Anthem very much, and it was nice to hear the Bends, even from the way to the Ferry.

Overall i had a really nice couple of days. There were a bunch of things people were complaining about, such as the problems getting in, alcohol designated area's, and the lines for everything. Those were all valid complaints, but at the end of the day i still really enjoyed myself. I will be back next year if the lineups impress me, i really hope they learned from the many mistakes they made this year in the booking department and try and secure some good bands, besides just an impressive headliner.

Video of The Roots:

8/09/08: All Points West Day 1, Liberty State Park, NJ

Radiohead

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird

Great day! I was skeptical about All Points West since they announced the lineup, which in my opinion was pretty awful. Even the few bands i wanted to see barely made up for it, or were on the smallest stage. I don't understand the crowd they were going for at all, it's part jamband, part folk, part indie, and a whole lot of pop, especially the headliner on Sunday, Jack Johnson, who I think is just awful. Then they announced the schedule and i saw that i could see Grizzly Bear --> Andrew Bird --> Radiohead which really excited me, and thankfully i scored 2 tickets to the Friday show on Ebay for less then 1/2 price. 1st time seeing GB, 2 for AB, and 4th time for Radiohead.

For reasons beyond my control i ended up arriving late to the event and showing up to hear the last 2 songs by Grizzly Bear. The boat ride there was fast and easy, and i saw someone i knew on the boat, small city. The lines to get to the boat were non-existent, a real pleasure to get to, although it was really expensive at $30 round trip. I have to admit the boat ride itself was almost worth that price along, it was great to see NYC from that view and at night on the way back it was even move amazing. We were close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, nice experience on the way to the festival.

The walk to the venue from the dock was actually kinda long, but really nice as it was along the water. There was no line to get in and in minutes we passed the EDM area, which was extremely cheesy breaks, and to the 'Queen of the Valley'. Grizzly bear was good for the last 10 minutes that we saw them, but not great, and we did not see enough to really appreciate it. The crowd did not seem that into them. They ended 15 minutes early which really bothered me. We would have caught the majority of their set if not for the short ending. The crowd was not huge and i was a bit disappointed how not into the music they seemed. This was before i saw the other stages.

The park was beautiful and even thu they said on the website that blankets were not permited, many people did bring them including us. We sat down in the sun and waited for Andrew bird, the view of NYC and what i think is Hoboken from the park is great and worth a visit to see. Andrew bird took the stage i think 15 minutes early and played a fantastic 75 minutes. They added a bass player a few days before Andrew noted, he sounded like he has been playing with them for year, maybe he records with them. They sounded fuller while still maintaining the loop based formula. Wonderful tones, Andrew is a genius. He played 2 new songs, "Anonanimal" was excellent, i really enjoy that song. The other new song i missed the name of, it as alright. I think it was kinda of insulting to see him on such a small stage, he should at least played the 2nd to largest stage.

I caught a 10 minutes of Girl Talk, really not my thing at all. Not sure how a guy with a laptop i assume using apleton playing other people's music gets the bigger stage than Andrew Bird who played 4 or 5 instruments last night and had the crowd with him the whole time.

We waited forever to purchase a few beers at $7 each and downed them fast before heading to Radiohead because unfortunately you could not bring alcohol outside of the designated purchase/drinking area's. An unfortunate restriction.

There were plenty of people there for radiohead's set, i had very high expectations. Last time i saw them was 2003 or so, i have not really enjoyed their last 3 albums, i miss the days when they had verses and choruses and could write songs. Now most of their material to me is boring and repetitive with no direction. The set just confirmed that for me. That and the fact that they have mellowed out alot. The set was basically the entire new album plus a few old songs, mainly random ones. My company and I did not enjoy it very much and decided to leave, mainly to beat the rush home. The sound was fantastic, especially considering it was a outdoor venue. Nigel seemed to mess up a few times during Idioteque, mainly being off time with the electronic drum track, very noticeable. Besides that they were technically very good, Tom's vocals were great, thu somewhat whinnier then i remember. They did play a few tunes i loved, "Lucky" being the song of the night for me. Would have really enjoyed to have a high energy headliner, perhaps My Morning Jacket.

Overall even missing most of Grizzly Bear and not loving all of Radiohead, it was still lots of fun. So much fun infact that i decided to return the next day.