All Points West, Day One

So this past weekend 3 buddies and I traveled out to beautiful New Jersey to see the second annual “Coachella East,” officially known as All Points West. In comparison to Bonnaroo, which I was fortunate enough to get to last year, APW is similar in many ways. Both festivals feature multiple stages with lesser known artists playing during the day, gradually moving towards the headliners at late hours. Also, both shows have interesting and overpriced food stands catering exclusively to the people with the munchies. Case in point:

The biggest difference is while Bonnaroo is a huge, privately owned tract of farmland, APW takes place at a public park. As a result, camping out at Liberty Park is strictly verboten. We had the distinct pleasure of trekking around super confusing north Jersey roads in search of the elusive Ramada Hotel as well as some much-needed après-show grub in the same vein as Harold and Kumar.

Anyway, on the the important part, the music!

Day 1:

Rain, rain, rain, great music and more rain. We started the weekend off with The National, an indie rock band from Brooklyn. I have heard a song or two of theirs in the past and thought they sounded alright. Seeing their set changed everything. Frontman Matt Berninger’s distinctive baritone laid over a talented band proved to be one of the best shows of the weekend. Witnessing Berninger jump out into the crowd, mic still in hand, at the peak of the final song showed that the relatively unknown band really means business. I am yet to give their recorded stuff a second try, but it is certainly on my listen-to list.

After The National, the already torrential rain really picked up, and my lack of any rain protection whatsoever was starting to get to me. That didn’t stop me from enjoying Vampire Weekend, everyone’s favorite New England-themed baroque rockers from NYC. They played through most of their debut album, of course finishing off with their lead single Walcott. Everything they played was good, although the two or three new songs were a bit lackluster. The highlight of the show unexpected. You know that song that everyone hates, Blake’s Got a New Face? Yeah, well that stole the show. I didn’t realize how powerful of a vocalist Ezra Koenig is until he belted out the usually obnoxious call-and-response chorus. I don’t know if it was the hypothermia kicking in, but I was stunned with joy the whole show. As a side note, right before MGMT on day three, we saw a guy in a drunken stupor hollering “BLAKE’S GOTTA NEW FAAAAACE!” at the top of his shithoused lungs. Now that’s entertainment.

We didn’t catch much of Pharcyde, but the few songs we heard certainly sounded good. Also, I got to tell them up close and personal how much I appreciated their work. Sweet.

Next up was the best show of APW, my favorite MC of all time, Q-Tip. FROM THE THIRD FUCKING ROW!!! His energy was unmatched. He started it off with some cuts from The Renaissance (see previous post), and gradually moved into his earlier Tribe Called Quest hits. Singing along to Scenario basically completed my life. All that was missing was Phife Dawg and maybe Busta Rhymes. Fortunately, the legendary DJ Scratch manned the turntables and laptop, providing Q-Tip with new and classic beats. To top things off, the rain had effectively stopped by this point, allowing me to enjoy the glory of the best rapper around working his magic from the third row. Did I mention I was in the third row? Oh yeah, I was in the third row.

Finishing off day one was Jay-Z, the replacement headliner. The Beastie Boys were supposed to be in his place, but Adam Yauch AKA MCA was unfortunately stricken with throat cancer. Hova paid his respects by starting off with an energetic cover of the Beastie’s No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Disappointingly, the show lost steam from then on. I’ve never been a big fan of Jay-Z, namely because all he raps about is himself. That gets boring after about five minutes. Everyone else in the crowd seemed to be having a blast, so who knows.

That does it for the first day of APW, more to come later!