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.
