Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Jay-Z...that camera crane was quite annoying
Jay-Z
Only shot i got of MSTRKRFT
Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Q-Tip
Flying Lotus
Crowd During YYY's
Crowd During YYY's
The National
The National
The National
The National
The National
The National
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Shearwater
Shearwater
Shearwater
Shearwater
Shearwater
Awesome day! I went to APW last year (pictures and review below), this was much better for many reasons. There seemed to be much more to do this year, more food, more activities, a larger layout and more places to explore. Also the Dj setup was in the middle this year which was nice. Travel to the festival was easy, no wait for a ferry, 30 minutes latter we were inside the grounds.
Got there at about 1:00 and being one of the first couple hundred fans in the venue, we got to go upfront for the Blue Comet stage, and saw 15 minutes of The Knux. It was great being so close tot he stage, seeing the big screens live, and just the size of the stage with the screen behind them was exciting. Unfortunately we did not enjoy this set at all, just not into this style of hip hop.
Next we walked to the Bullet stage to see one of my favorite bands Shearwater, who played my favorite set of the day. Incredible tight, intricate music. Kinda folky, slightly indie, deep layers of melody with each artist switching instruments a few times. Lots of strange small instruments, with some electronic elements added, lovely textured. I think they played about 45 minutes, but it felt like much longer. Got to speak very very briefly with the lead singer after the set, nice guy. Such an underrated band. Musically the highlight of the day.
After they finished we relaxed under some kinda blue mirror art instillation, very cool, heard some of Seasick Steve's set from the distance, nothing to interesting, strange small blues. Eventually made our way over to the Blue Comet stage for Fleet Foxes, another band i enjoy very much. One thing i realized right away, was that there was nobody there compared to last year. Might have been the weather, or the original headliner canceling, and while i was happy to be very close to the action, it was a bit disappointing not to see 40,000 in the crowd for the bands i love. Their performance was alright, not as good as the last time i saw them (October 5th 2008, Webster Hall), i think they were having sound problems. The mix down for the vocal mics was not great, the backup members were to high at times. Robins guitar seemed to be going in and out a couple times. Set list included I believe 3 tunes from the EP including Mykonos, the bigger songs from the album and 1 new one that i personally did not enjoy. It started raining during one of their songs, and seemed to stop a few minutes latter, at this point we were not sure what the weather would do. Overall very good, excellent music, fun set.
By this time i expected to turn around and see the place packed, it was about 4:30, but still it was empty just 50 feet from the stage. Really surprised at the lack of turnout at this point. The National is probably my favorite band right now. Their music is mostly simple, but its deep with gorgeous melodies, and the lead singer writes great lyrics. His delivery is dry, memorable, and , i seem to be singing a National song in my head every few hours of every day. I've seen them 3 times, and this was by far the best i've seen them. The played with a lot more energy then i remember them having. Good set list of mainly stuff of the last album (Brainy, Fake Empire, Squalor Victoria, they opened with Start a War) and a few songs off Alligator (Mr. November, Secret Meeting) and once again a new song that i did not enjoy. During their set the rain started to pour. Thankfully we were prepared with ponchos, most people were not and ended up being soaked. The lead singer Matt, went into the crowd and got soaked during the last song (Mr. November), seemed to be having a real fun time. Crowd loved the show. Excellent set. One of the highlights of the day for me was when during Fake Empire, Matt pointed at NYC which was in site of the stage when he sang "Tip toe thru our shiny city..". Awesome.
Since it was raining hard at this point and i had no interest in seeing Vampire Weekend, we grabbed a Falafel with Hummus and chilled under a tent for a while, eventually making out way over to the Queen of The Valley tent. We were not familiar with the group on (Carolina Liar) but we enjoyed them and it was a good opportunity to try and dry off. It continued to rain heavily for the next hour or so. Carolina Liar played a good intense set of what i would call rock music. Slightly popy, kinda hard rock at times, but played well with high energy. Not a big crowd to watch them, under 100 people, but those who were there seemed to really enjoy it.
Next up was Flying Lotus. I've enjoyed his last online mix, and dig his style of jazzy downtempo, clitchy, sorty dubsteppy music. But i was disapointed to see him playing on apleton. I expected a true Dj set. Very small crowd for him, under 50 people, but it seemed be growing as i left about 30 minutes onto his 90 minutes set. At one point he stopped the music to talk about drug use, kinda strange, kinda expected, kinda unnecessary to stop the music for that kinda dialogue, The Knux did the same earlier in the night.
By this point the rain had almost stopped so i went over to the main stage to check out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. At last year's APW, the single beer area was both very to small and located far away from either stage. This year thankfully the beer area was adjacent to the stage, providing a great view of the bands while having a drink. Very good change. I watched about 20 minutes of YYY's, decent stuff, nothing bad, just not really my style. They had huge blown up eye balloons they the crowd had a blast with. Fun set.
Next I went over to the Bullet stage for the final act of the day on that stage, Q-Tip. Excellent show! He had the most energy of any performer i saw the entire day. He was dancing, singing, running across the stage, generally hyping the crowd as both a good MC and a good rapper. Excellent selection of old school Tribe Called Quest tunes, and the best of his own original tunes. Fantastic fun set, huge crowd for him, he should have been on the main stage earlier in the day IMO.
About 1/2 way thru his set i get an email from APW informing me that i can get into either Saturday or Sunday for FREE due to the inclimate weather we experienced on Friday. HUGE win! I had not planned on going either to the other days due to the cost, and while i will still have to pay transportation and food/water cost, its a great deal to get a $90 ticket for free.
I left a tad early to get a good spot for Jay-Z in what had become a HUGE mud pit. Everyone's feet/shoes were covered in mud. Messy, but so much fun, and well worth it. Its not often, or actually ever that i get to walk around in mud for a few hours. Jay-Z ended up going on 25 minutes late, which was a tad frustrating as by that point i'd been there about over 8 hours and was starting to get tired.
Jay-z was great, one of the best performances of the day for sure. He came onstage with a 10 piece band, including a horn section, a drummer, a percussionist, key board player, guitar and bass player and a dj (playing serato as i could see from the video screens). The tunes all sounded full, crisp and fresh coming from a live band. I did not know all the songs, but i knew about 1/2, tons of hits, great selection of old and new songs. Crowd was with him the whole time, knew most of the lyrics. He was smiling and seemed to be having a great time. By the time I left there did seem to be lots of people there, just not quite as many as last year believe.
I left about 70 minutes into his set as i was tired and wanted to beat the traffic. Ended up listening to MSTRKRFT for about 10 minutes, had a decent sized crowd in the tent, still nowhere near packed, but the biggest crowd i saw the whole day there for sure. They were DJing on Pioneer CD's, might have been using serato, i dont think i saw them pull out a CD book, but i did not have a good view. They were playing really awesome high energy electro house, crowd was very very into it, they were djing very tight and if i did not want to get home and beat the crowd i would have stayed way latter. Good stuff.
Getting back was just as easy as getting there, I waited about 90 seconds for a ferry, boarded and 10 minutes latter we left. I was back home in queens in an hour. Super easy.
Overall very happy with the first day of this festival and look forward to Sundays. Lots of positives, music was outstanding, water was only $2, great selection of food at expensive as expected prices, tons of activities. Also the video screens were used perfectly. Steady, slow, broad shots of the artists so we could see what was happening. Then when Jay-Z went on, he has crazy visuals, with pictures and all kinda of effects, great viewing pleasure.
Video of Shearwater:
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