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.