All Points West Music Festival (Day 1)
The All Points West music festival is a 3 day festival taking place at Liberty State Park this weekend. I bought tickets to all 3 days a few months back after I did a search for Jack Johnson concerts and stumbled upon this amazing festival in Manhattan’s back yard! I originally planned to live blog the event with tweets and flickrs but for the most part that failed me in large part to AT&T and Twitter. I could not email any photos (apparently a few got through) and either Twitter or Tumblr (i can take a guess) is broken b/c my tweets are no longer showing up on this blog. So I’ve decided to write a retrospective of the first day. I will not live blog the next 2 days and will bring my real camera so I can get some better pics. Anyway, here goes…
I arrived at 2:40, which was 5 minutes before Little Brother was supposed to end. I really wanted to see them (they went on at 2) but left work later than I would have liked, and getting there took longer than I thought it would (hello 20 minute walk from train to park!). I saw them play exactly one song, and I didn’t even know what it was. There were no more than 100 people standing in front of the stage and I swear when I walked up Rapper Big Pooh looked at me and probably thought “look, the new guy!”.
After Little Brother, I walked over to The Go Team. I have heard a few of their songs here and there and don’t think I loved any of them. They did have a lot of energy on stage and the lead singer was dancing around like crazy (plus I loved her British accent). They had a lot of sounds and sometimes it didn’t work that well - it just sounded like noise.
After this, I met up with my friend Claudio and we wandered over to Mates of State. I blogged about them a few years ago and bought their album “Our Constant Concern” right after that. I guess I didn’t love it because I never listen to it. Well I am going to give it another chance. They were really good on stage. They are a husband and wife duo who look just like that. Definitely don’t have the Rock Star look. But they do have the sound.
At this point, Claudio and I decided to grab some beers. The alcohol policy deserves its own paragraph. There were 2 designated drinking areas in the park. Each was surrounded by a fence with an entrance and a separate exit manned by security. To get into the area, you had to have a green bracelet. To get this, you had to wait on a long line and show your ID. The ID is run through a handheld computer verifier. After you get the bracelet, they also mark your hand with a huge purple marker. More on this later. The bracelet has 5 tabs attached to it. We were informed that you must trade in a tab for every drink you get. Quickly doing the math, that means every person is limited to 5 drinks. Not that I probably would drink more, but still. You can not get another bracelet once you are finished. After you get in to the area, you are privileged to buy 16 ounce Bud Lights for $7 (Stella for $9). You could only buy 2 at a time. If you are wondering how they would know if you finished the bracelet and ripped it off - the damn purple marker! Oh and lest I forget to tell you, the beers must be consumed in the designated drinking area and last call is 8:30 (Radiohead goes on at 8:30). Now I am usually one to support drinking responsibly but you couldn’t drive to this festival. Not one person there had driven. Seemed a little draconian. Anyway, back to the show…
After getting a small buzz from the 2 beers, Claudio and I walked over to CSS. They were the only act to start later than their scheduled time. They came out wearing crazy neon colors and makeup. They were pretty good, but I don’t really see myself listening to their album. They did play “Music is my Boyfriend” from the iPod commerical which was cool.
At this point, I split with Claudio and went to see Andrew Bird. A mistake. I recently got into him and really like his album “The Mysterious Production of Eggs”. He is incredibly talented and plays the violin, guitar and whistles all while singing. But it was a mistake for me to go because 1.) his music is not very dancy and 2) Underworld was also playing on another stage.
After 3 songs (2 of which I knew), I left Bird and walked over to Underworld. I didn’t know who they were but my friend Jeff (who I later met up with) told me they have a song on the Train Spotting soundtrack which immediatelly piqued my interest. I heard 2 songs (the Train Spotting song was one) and really liked them. Will def check them out now.
Now for the highlight of the show - Girl Talk. I knew who Girl Talk was but never actually heard him before. Wow was I blown away (as I imagine the whole crowd was too). I commented to Claudio earlier in the day that I was not very excited to see him because I have been to a few “1 dude 1 Macbook” shows before and they were all kind of boring. Well I guess Girl Talk had been to a few too because he knew exactly how to spice things up. He brought on stage with him about 100 dancers. These dancers ranged from regular guy to stripper to drag queen. In addition to dancing, they were constantly throwing things at the crowd (toilet paper rolls, balloons, confetti, etc). It was awesome! The energy was so high and the music was incredible. He mixed Lil Wayne with 70’s songs, Biggie with 80’s music and everything in between. I will definitely see him again.
After Girl Talk, I went back to the beer prison and met up with Claudio, Jeff, Adam and a few of Jeff’s friends. We downed 3 beers and made our move to Radiohead (with a porta potty detour). Jeff is a seasoned Radiohead vet and pushed right through the crowd to get a spot decently close. I have never seen Radiohead but was aware of their legendary show and was really excited. My body had other feelings though, as my knees and back started bothering me after standing and dancing for nearly 6 hours. The set was great with incredible visuals and sound. I left a little early because I wanted to beat the crowds to the train. I am excited to see them again tonight.
I am going back today although will be doing some things differently. I am not going to live blog because the cell signal just isn’t reliable. So I will bring my better camera. I am also not going all day. I don’t know a lot of the earlier lineup, so am only going to see Kings of Leon, The Roots and Radiohead. I’ll post tomorrow about today’s experience.
