930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: wml7 on July 08, 2009, 12:40:00 pm
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I'm in for all three days ;D
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i'm def in for sat & sun, might make it in time for friday evening.
i had a lot of fun last year camping out for rail. guess this year i'll spend more time wandering about and bouncing between stages. i'm hoping to get myself backstage - tbd.
i sincerely hope that they've remedied the beer situation this year. by the sounds of it, the ferry situation will be much improved (although i'm planning on staying on the NJ side).
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I hear it's pretty easy to get back stage, if you've got mad people skills....
http://www.930.com/forum/index.php?topic=8011.30
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Ill be there on Sunday. Going the even cheaper route and taking the PATH to lightrail. Im sure itll be a nightmare either way. But since Im already on the westside and path is so convenient might as well make use of it.
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Im sure itll be a nightmare either way.
only nightmares that i heard of last year were all associated with the ferry: people spending up to 2 hours waiting after the show on saturday. as i said above, they claim to have addressed the problem this year by adding a lot of ferries. supposedly VIP ticket holders have their own dedicated ferry.
i agree that path + light rail is the way to go, especially in the evening. that's what i did last year and never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride. it did get a tad crowded on the LR, but that's to be expected... 35k people are pouring out of the festival all at once. folks that aren't happy sharing public transit should get themselves a limo :) from NYC, the ferry will be faster if there are no crowds, AKA going to the festival in the early afternoon. going back to NYC at night, path + LR will be faster unless you leave for the ferry a good 15 minutes before the headliners finish.
also, last year they had a DJ area where they continued spinning toons after the rock stages shut down. dancing for 45-60 minutes to some really good beats was an excellent way to kill time while the crowds died down.
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My friends had nightmare situations with the LR. There was a lot of confusion on day 1, but Im sure that will be rectified. I know a lot of people had problems with both, but yeah - its to be expected. Im used to the crowds unfortunately, so thats one thing Ive gotten used to dealing with. Good to know about the DJs spinning.
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set times are finally up, not too bad with conflicts
http://www.apwfestival.com/schedule/
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scheduling plus:
- DJ/dance acts continuing after the headliner finishes up. means that instead of waiting in line to get out, i'll be killing time to some beats.
- minimal conflicts, for me
scheduling minuses:
- why are they starting so late on sunday?
- breaks between sets are too long. less breakdown/build-up time and more music please!
- 50 minute (or less) sets for everyone except headliners (ok MBV & YYYs get a whole hour... wow ::))
- as a consequence of the above points: i would have preferred that they trim some of the fat off that line-up and give everyone slightly longer sets.
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anyone need a free ride to the festival?
leaving Friday early morning, getting back Sunday night
ideally looking for a place to stay there, but not necessary for the ride
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Is there a worse run festival than All Points West? Last year was a nightmare at every turn and I didn't even take the ferry. Long lines to get in, long lines to get a bracelet for beer, having to wait outside the beer garden because they're at capacity and not letting anyone in, a clusterfuck once you get inside, a lack of portapotties creating long lines once you do find them, and long lines at food vendors. Planning on driving in and then taking the light rail from one of their designated parking lots? Good luck getting out of there and back on that train. This is by far the worst festival I have ever been to, but at least Radiohead rocked.
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hmmm I didn't have any problems with the festival last year then again I only went on the Friday. Yes the lines for beer and that beer garden was stupid but everything was good. Light rail wasn't too bad.
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anyone need a FREE megabus ticket?
leaving DC 7/31 at 7 pm
coming back 8/3 at 11:30 am
Of course, this is only for anyone doing the last 2 days of the fest. PM me.
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The first year they had Lolla back in Chicago wasnt the best. I dont recall it being that bad, but there was a lot of work for improvement. And since then the festival has been improved. Now if its worse this year - that'd be a good indicator that they fixed nothing.
And hearing from my friends - the only problems they had were insanely crowded trains and long lines for beer.
Is there a worse run festival than All Points West? Last year was a nightmare at every turn and I didn't even take the ferry. Long lines to get in, long lines to get a bracelet for beer, having to wait outside the beer garden because they're at capacity and not letting anyone in, a clusterfuck once you get inside, a lack of portapotties creating long lines once you do find them, and long lines at food vendors. Planning on driving in and then taking the light rail from one of their designated parking lots? Good luck getting out of there and back on that train. This is by far the worst festival I have ever been to, but at least Radiohead rocked.
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ANTICS is teaming up with Goldenvoice, Bud Light, Mean Red, and FILTER Magazine to party in New York, Friday July 31st and Saturday August 1st at the Red Bull Space! Special guest DJ Sets by Crystal Castles, LA Riots and Tokyo Police Club. Doors are open at 11pm and entry is FREE! All you need to do is RSVP by clicking below.
Red Bull Space
40 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10013
11PM - 2:30AM
RSVP at http://www.uptheantics.com/allpointswest
(http://www.uptheantics.com/images/uploads/APW_FLYER_7_400x587.jpg)
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(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkHUd7ZK2I/AAAAAAAAF1c/dmjxx0LjNOc/s640/APW09%20003.jpg)
a few random musings on APW before they fade from my mind.
APW 2009 was, in one word, MUDDY. several days of rain transformed liberty state park in to a huge field of thick mud (occasionally topped off with a big puddle). this sludge transformed the nature of the festival for me: usually, i'm stage-hopping all day and walking mile after mile as i bounce from one peformance to the next. at APW, the mud made getting around a daunting task and you had to *really* want to see someone on another stage to make the trek worthwhile. no more taking a chance on a band "just to hear what they sound like". i think i bounced between stages 2 times all weekend, otherwise i'd stay put on whatever semblance of dry land i was on and waited for the next act to come on. once the act hit the stage, everyone would lose their fear of mud and you'd be pushed forward into 2 inches of yuck... spent the jay-z set unable to dance, the mud was so thick it was really hard to lift my feet out of it with any semblance of grace or speed. oh, and did i mention that at times the mud stank like manure? yup, the festival occasionally stank like a barn.
right then, on to the music. got there late on friday, as thedirector and i swung through NYC to catch the silversun pickups' "secret" radio gig. unfortunately we got there too late but i did get to meet the band... what a great bunch of people. this was arguably my highlight of the weekend. made it to the festival in time to catch the YYYs who were predictably excellent. karen o is such a kick-ass front-woman. considered bouncing over to q-tip but didn't. next up was jay-z: fun times. he started off with a cover of the beasties' "no sleep 'til brooklyn" which went over exceptionally well. his band was ridiculously tight. the man is a great showman. heard mstrkrft on our way out but were too muddy/wet/tired to trek in to the tent to check them out. friday was such a disaster because of the mud that the organizers let people with a friday ticket come back on saturday or sunday for free. nice move.
weather on saturday was relatively nice, warm and cloudy, but that did nothing to change the muddy conditions. st. vincent was down-right impressive, neko case was really good too (amazing pipes!). MBV met expectations, which were pretty high. they played at high volume and there was no one competing against them on the second stage (wise move, i suspect that MBV would have drown them out anyways). vocals were annoyingly absent - i know they're supposed to be low, but you couldn't hear them at all. between the hype, the build-up in my mind, and my general aversion to all things "noise", i thought i was going to hate the holocaust section - but it turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. you really do start to hear things in the noise, "brain massage" is an apt description. i was shocked at how suddenyl and tightly they emerged from the holocaust into the refrain. where we were, there appeared to be as many hating tool fans (giving the band the middle finger) as MBV lovers (two-finger peace sign or thumbs-up in the air). MBV really don't belong in this type of festival, they don't click with the average music fan. tool was really fun and they light and lazer show was beyond cool. again meant to check out the late-night dance tent (the ting tings) but didn't.
woke up sunday to rain, so we hung out in the hotel waiting for it to clear up. good thing we did: gates didn't open until 4 pm. some poor saps were invariably there before noon, spending 4 hours in line under a downpour must have been delightful. by the time we made it there, the sky cleared up and we had a beautiful sunny afternoon/evening. due to the late opening, there was a backlog of several thousand people trying to get in when we arrived. would have taken an hour to get in, luckily some crafty moves through the VIP entrance got us inside in under 15 mins. the late start meant that the bands at the bottom of the line-up lost their slots - must have pissed them off. silversun pickups were awesome. new songs sounded GREAT live. during "lazy eye" some kids started to do the roll-in-the-mud thing - funny. elbow was downright delightful, perfect "lazy sunday afternoon" listening with funny crowd banter to boot. echo and the bunnymen were a surprise, i didn't expect them to rawk as much as they did. coldplay did as coldplay does. their set was a "biggest hits" compilation - played all their singles and any songs that have ever gotten any airplay. we had a spot on the rail in front of the side-stage where the band played twice, so got some pretty ridiculous pix. chris martin's solo cover of "fight for your right to party" was interesting. they had another "side-stage" set up behind the soundboard at the back of the crowd and popped up back there for a segment which included a cover of "billie jean" which sounded good but the band didn't know how to end it, so it dragged on a little too long.
organizationally, APW fixed a lot of issues. i had ZERO transpo problems on the light rail even when we left immediately after the headliner finished. no idea how the ferries fared. the beer-per-person-per-day limit was upped to 7 this year, which is fine with me (given the difficulty of getting around this year, i had exactly one beer at the festival all weekend. back at the hotel, tho...). i saw some long lines to get your ID checked, but otherwise things seemed to be operating smoothly. the fact that you're confined to enclosed "beer gardens" sucked, on the upside they had several of them throughout the festival.
APW is a festival in search of an identity. the location and backdrop aren't cutting it like they do for coachella. it doesn't have the history of lolla. the line-up is sorta all over the place. it still hasn't developed any sort of vibe, it's just a big rock concert.
for me, APW is a festival of convenience: i'll go to it as long as i'm close by. i can't say that i hated the festival, but didn't love it either. my main problem this year wasn't something the organizers could have done much about: the weather. here's to hoping that next year's APW has better luck with mother nature.
too many pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/sweetcell/APW2009
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkHYo9iTZI/AAAAAAAAF1o/HdtLfg67bGI/s640/APW09%20006.jpg)
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkHlm4CtsI/AAAAAAAAF18/35HYk5B7AZM/s640/APW09%20018.jpg)
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkINB7oMUI/AAAAAAAAF2o/NQiren8l8EY/s640/APW09%20026.jpg)
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkIQbx-FoI/AAAAAAAAF20/RfH2DzkDh18/s640/APW09%20035.jpg)
(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkI3dL9gfI/AAAAAAAAF3c/lxNL8qVhYT8/s640/APW09%20045.jpg)
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkKF8Wi3CI/AAAAAAAAF5A/n5Ky9ZmV-jU/s640/APW09%20095.jpg)
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkKtGHbkMI/AAAAAAAAF6Y/f3eqKVleaM4/s640/APW09%20132.jpg)
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkKuyymBHI/AAAAAAAAF6c/xL106GYc7H8/s640/APW09%20133.jpg)
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Qxw9aviuBNA/SnkP-7WqIwI/AAAAAAAAF-I/Bz0eAV8bJmU/s640/APW09%20215.jpg)
mo' pix... (http://picasaweb.google.com/sweetcell/APW2009)
and yes, i know: TL;DR. that's why i included the pix :P
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Great post. Nice camera work. Damn shame about the rain.
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thanks. thanks. yup - every set that i heard at APW was very good to excellent, but the weather still put a damper on the experience.
Spin pictorial: http://www.spin.com/gallery/best-all-points-west-festival
Spin's day 1 coverage (http://www.spin.com/articles/best-worst-all-points-west-day-1), Spin's day 2 coverage (http://www.spin.com/articles/best-worst-all-points-west-day-2), Spin's day 3 coverage (http://www.spin.com/articles/best-worst-all-points-west-day-3)
RS pictorial: http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/29491715/all_points_west_2009_jayz_yeah
RS's coverage of APW (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29462395/rolling_stones_essential_all_points_west_coverage)
both sets of write-ups are excellent, but i slightly prefered spin's. it's funny to read all the praise for coldplay's set.
someone made a good observation: our tickets read "rain or shine" - so why did they hold the doors until after 4 pm on sunday? festival-goers lost about half of the day's entertainment. will we get half our ticket price back?
and in one of the articles, they identified the source of the horrible smell: liquified goose shit. ewwwwwwww. gross gross gross.
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I'd feel really bad if APW had to be put to rest after this year due to problems that were beyond the organizers' control (weather, headliner dropping out nearly last minute). Seemed like they did a good job in tackling all of the obstacles that were thrown at them.
Also, I'm not sure why, but I'd really pissed if last year's borderline piss-poor lineup was more successful than this year.
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Photo number one reminds me why I fucking hate Chris Martin and Coldplay. My co-workers computer speakers just re-affirmed that hatred.
RS pictorial: http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/29491715/all_points_west_2009_jayz_yeah
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Thanks for the details. Damn shame about that puddle RIGHT in front of the stage.
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Photo number one reminds me why I fucking hate Chris Martin
because you both go out in public wearing rag-tag patchwork, but he looks better in it than you do?
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Oh, vicious fashion-related smackdown! Go sweets!
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I've sown tons of early 80's metal patches to my jean jacket, but no one seems to care :(
Photo number one reminds me why I fucking hate Chris Martin
because you both go out in public wearing rag-tag patchwork, but he looks better in it than you do?
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I only went Sunday and got there with plenty of time to see Gaslight Anthem. Showing up around 2pm was just awful. There was no communication, most of the time we were being told the show was going to be cancelled, and it was bad just waiting in the rain. I fully expected a rainstorm and was prepared, but the waiting to find out what was going on/if it would happen was pretty painful.
Wanted to see The Gaslight Anthem and they canned their show. Some of the other stages were going through most the earlier bands and trying to figure out who was playing when - and hopping stages became cumbersome.
Saw part of Silversun Pickups which just bore me live. We were in the beer tent at that point and had a great view and was less muddy over there, but we all took off to see We Are Scientists - which was actually Akron/Family. Then WAS came on and their set was very energetic. The stage was packed. I managed to leave early enough to see most of Elbow's set which was easily the highlight of the day for me. They sounded so amazing and you could tell they play a lot of the festies. I def need to see them in a club. I was pleasantly surprised to realize I knew much more of their music than I thought I would.
Took off to see some of Mogwai with friends but getting back and forth at this point was painful. It was beyond muddy, and there was nowhere to walk without sinking in mud. The puddles were beyond disgusting and the smell makes me nauseous thinking about it.
Checked out part of Echo & The Bunnymen and can't say Im much impressed with Ian & Co. anymore. I loved their set at Radio City, but I feel theres something lacking for him and festivals. At least this time he played the festival as at WHFS he was too gone to sing a thing. It was a decent setlist with mostly greatest hits songs. The crowd was so not into them with everyone wanting Coldplay.
The Coldplay set is the same stuff they've been playing since they've toured for VLV. It was to be expected down to the balls during Yellow, and the butterflies falling during "Lovers in Japan". GPASUYF is still pretty good. I love Will's song. Overall, Coldplay is doing more of the same. Prob since Ive seen this tour a lot (more times than one needs to), it seemed pretty boring at points. And before anyone goes off on me, Im a huge Coldplay fan. Just looking to hear different stuff.
Set list as follows:
Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Yellow
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
God Put A Smile Upon Your FacePartial Techno Remix
You Gotta FightChris piano (Beastie Boys cover)
Viva La Vida
Lost!
Green Eyesacoustic
Death Will Never ConquerAcoustic, sung by Will
Billie JeanAcoustic (Michael Jackson cover)
Viva La VidaRemix Interlude
Politik
Lovers In Japan
Death And All His Friends
Encore:
The Scientist
Life In Technicolor ii
The EscapistOutro
Overall - I only did the one day and it was a pretty miserable experience. The music overall was ok, but from what Ive heard Friday and Saturday were much better. APW really needs to come up with a better communication system. My friends were getting their info from radio stations, twitter was a huge FAIL and half of us were relying on BrooklynVegan. Another friend got stuck at the ferry terminal drop off in NJ and they kept them locked down for 2 hours. The pictures are painful to look at - its like cattles being shoved into a tiny crate.
Cant wait to see how Lolla holds up with the rain and mud. Its got to be better than this, because for the price tag that is on APW, I wont be going back.
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Also, I'm not sure why, but I'd really pissed if last year's borderline piss-poor lineup was more successful than this year.
how do you define success - # tickets sold? by that measure, i suspect that last years was a tad more successful: with a more consistent line-up this year, attendance was more consistent but probably over-all lower (vs. last year's 2 days of OMFGRADIOHEAD!!!11 and no one on sunday).
Wanted to see The Gaslight Anthem and they canned their show.
FYI, if you bring your sunday APW ticket to the G.A.'s show at T5 (in november?), you'll get a free drink. nice move.
Overall, Coldplay is doing more of the same.
gotta disagree a little. obviously their set was heavy on viva la vida, but the show was part of the VLV tour so to be expected. compared to the other VLV show i saw in philly, there were a bunch of setlist changes - the most notable being the reappearance of "fix you", a whimpy song that always sounds great live IMO. we got 2 covers that i haven't heard before and the will song. arrangements were tweaked: "god put a smile" was re-worked with more synths and "the scientist" intro was almost unrecognizable. i was expecting just another coldplay set and was relatively surprised.
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Yeah sweetcell, that'd be how I would measure it. This years lineup seemed more like a complete and consistent festival. Last year was, yeah, just Radiohead + other bands. I love Radiohead, but I feel like more effort was put into this one and deserved better.
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overall I thought it was a decent festival. they can't help with mother nature. I know one thing everyone sure as hell destroyed that park with the rain and mud ;D would suck to be a grounds person. My pleasant surprise of the fest has to be St Vincent. Very talented and sounded great. I thought all she did was play piano and she didn't even do that. I didn't catch any of the comedy or any shows at the first stage. Only things I caught was the late night sets after all the headliners finshed their sets. I saw MGMT instead of Coldplay. I've seen Coldplay plenty of times and MGMT only once. I figured I give them another look and see if anything has changed. Nope, not a thing. I just don't understand what all the hype is about them. They played some new songs which all the hipsters loved. ;D Overall the whole experience was fun just like any other festival. Hopefully it will be back next year.
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oh yeah here is a vid of My Bloody Valentine with the Holocaust Section and with Tool fans being haters ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1sQmZXt4Qs&feature=channel_page