My writer friend got me a free ticket to the All Points West festival held in Liberty State Park, in New Jersey this past July. As much as I hate the big concert experience, I was not about to pass up a chance to see Radiohead for free. And I was up for an adventure. My friend picked me up and we drove across Manhattan and into Jersey. We then got all kinds of lost trying to find the damn train that took us to the park/concert. We then had to walk for what seemed like an hour, to get from the train station to the concert entrance. We finally arrived at the press check-in, got our passes and headed into the "show". The All Points West concert area was huge. I mean immense. There were thousands of people everywhere, as far as the eye could see. We had a map of the grounds, but it was impossible to figure out where we were or where we needed to go. We tried to find the press area, figuring it would be a sanctuary from the masses. We wandered around behind stages and dressing room trailers, looking in vain for at least an hour. We asked several APW staffers where to go, and not a single one had a clue. In the end, we gave up, and headed out into the crowd. We worked our way along the side and toward the back of the main stage field, several hundred yards from the actual stage. It was here that we spotted the VIP area. We eagerly entered, but were shocked to find that the VIP area was nearly as packed and crazy as the non-VIP area we'd just left. Only it was a fraction of the size. We stood in line for about 30 minutes to get a beer, drank the beer within in a few minutes and then got right back in line for a second one. At APW, you were not allowed to take your beer out into the crowd, but had to stay in the beer "garden", which was so packed with people that it felt more like a beer prison. Also, the drinking wristband that they issued had three little tabs that you had to tear off and give to the cashiers as you paid for your drinks, which limited your consumption to just three ALL DAY LONG. Worst of all, you couldn't see or hear the bands from the beer prison. Needless to say, we didn't feel very important at all.
We spent a few hours at All Points West, and I'll the music I had seen or heard was from the back side of stages! When Radiohead finally took the stage, I headed to the VIP bleachers (located about 300 or 400 yards from the stage) in utter defeat. My friend went up front to take pictures, because he had to write about the event. I stayed back and found a nice little spot to relax in. I watched the little ants onstage and enjoyed the music, though it sounded so much like the albums that I didn't really feel like I was at an actual concert performance. They did have some awfully cool lights and staging though. Radiohead is a great band, so I was glad to have finally seen them, though it was tough trying to have fun at All Points West.
More recently, I attended All Tomorrow's Parties at Kutcher's resort in Monticello NY. My same writer friend invited me to join him and his gang as they had an extra ticket and space in their hotel room. I badly wanted to go, but boy was it expensive. I finally sucked it up (and saved up) and spent the money and I am oh so glad that I did.
My gang for the weekend was made up people I have known for a few years or friends of friends that I was meeting for the first time. It was a good mixture of the familiar and the new. We started by meeting at the 125th St. Metro North train station on 125th St. in Harlem. We got on our train and headed north to White Plains to pick up our rental van. The drive from White Plains to Monticello was quick (90 min) and easy. We arrived at Kutcher's in the early afternoon, got our wristbands, dropped our bags in the room, and then headed out to check the scene.
Kutcher's is a sprawling post -WWII vacation resort in Monticello NY. The surrounding area is sprinkled with resorts, summer camps and bungalows. Most seem to be in rather poor shape or abandoned altogether. Kutcher's is one of the largest and most well known. The look of the place is mid-fifties modern with a touch of casino. The grounds are huge featuring a small lake, a golf course, tennis courts, two pools, a baseball diamond, ski hill (with lift), playground and a mini golf course. The place is built for year round vacationing, with long enclosed hallways connecting all of the buildings. In addition to the main hotel there are several other buildings including banquet rooms, bars, dance floors, a convention center type hall and a full sized indoor theatre.
ATP took over the entire resort (except the golf course), and it made for a wonderful festival experience. You could wander the entire grounds and find something fun at every turn, whether that was having a drink in one of the many bars, lounging by the lake (or taking a row boat out on it), shopping at the merch store or art gallery, watching a movie in the Criterion sponsored screening room, playing ancient video games in the arcade, swimming, tennis, air hockey, ping pong, playing poker with Steve Albini (who was the house dealer), dancing to live DJs, chilling in your room, or checking out some amazing music.
Unlike most festivals, almost all of the activities were held indoors in small (or relatively small) rooms that were not overly crowded. You were free to go from place to place, beer in hand, and enjoy whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. There was also a noticeable lack of sponsorship that was quite refreshing. ATP also had a wonderful international flair, as you were likely to hear Japanese, German, Italian, or Spanish when strolling the halls. I also found the people gathered at ATP to be extremely friendly and easy going, polite even. I don't think I've ever had so many conversations with complete strangers as I did at ATP. The whole weekend felt more like some kind of retreat or convention than a rock concert/festival and it was all the better for it.
My only complaint was the food at the food court. The food was sub-par and expensive. One night I paid six dollars for a plate of cold and soggy sweet potato fries. They also seemed to run out of items frequently. It was sad.
Even though I partied pretty hard most of the weekend, I was coherent enough to jot down some impressions and memorable moments (sorry about all the changes in tense):
Meat Puppets in 2008 can't compete with my memory of them in the 1989. I saw them on the Monsters tour and they were GODS. At ATP, they are great, but not the titans of yore. They came close with their crazed version of "Lake of Fire" though.
Tortoise are boring even when playing their best album. They are incredible musicians, that fact cannot be refuted. Despite all of their precision and expertise, they are quite dull.
Thurston rocks. He plays his album out of sequence, reads lyrics off of big cards, makes false starts and steals the show anyway.
Steve Albini need never worry about a career. He can get a job dealing poker at Cal-Neva anytime he wants.
Wooden Shjips sound incredible. Still, they leave me wanting. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seems like they need to cut loose and bring the noise. And get that keyboard player a Farfisa, stat!
Harmonia was one the most incredible things I've ever heard. C'mon now. In a perfect world they would be headlining the entire festival. 'Nuff said.
Polvo plays new material, and it is GREAT. Then they play 90s indie rock classics that still manage to sound 50 years ahead of their time. Fantastic!
Les Savy Fav invent new ways to use a ladder. Check youtube, it must be seen to be believed. Oh, by the way, the band is tight as hell with tunes that stand up to front man's brilliant spectacle.
The guy from Rapeman has a new band and they sound just like Rapeman, only better. This was my first live Shellac experience and they were pretty fucking awesome.
We started out day three by spending 42 dollars at Dunkin Donuts. Certainly some kind of record. And something that should never be repeated.
Walked in on Wounded Knees just as J joined them on guitar for a 20 min jammer. Sweet.
The Lilys were fun. Kinks-y tunes, lots of good humor and a tight band.
Spectrum filled the air with Spaceman 3 vibes (of course). They conjured up some really hypnotic grooves. They were quite good. I felt stoned even though I hadn't even had a beer yet.
Yo La Tengo started their set off on the wrong foot with one of those slow builder things that had an annoyingly long "Ira Kaplan Experience" guitar "solo". Unfortunately, they never fully recovered and didn't really get cookin until the final moments of their last jam. Remember when they played actual songs, and it was awesome? I do.
In a surprising upset, Bob Mould won the "set of the day" award. Songs from Workbook, Copper Blue and a block of Husker Du songs that had the crowd surfing and pogoing. A spirited performance that pulled out all the stops. Bravo.
Dinosaur jr is loud. And J looks like some kind of pagan warlock standing in front of monolithic pillars made of Marshall stacks.
My Bloody Valentine is even louder. Too loud actually. They sounded amazing for the first four tunes (pretty much all the "hits") but then they hit a snag. The bass became so loud and distorted that it negated all the beautiful swirl. I moved back to the soundboard, where it definitely sounded better, but the mix never recaptured the stunning beauty of the first part of the set. It was also a bit disappointing to see that they played with backing tracks. A lot of the melodic lines were obviously sampled. All in all, it was great to finally see MBV, but for me it was a bit of a letdown.
We started out day three by spending 42 dollars at Dunkin Donuts. Certainly some kind of record. And something that should never be repeated.
Walked in on Wounded Knees just as J joined them on guitar for a 20 min jammer. Sweet.
The Lilys were fun. Kinks-y tunes, lots of good humor and a tight band.
Spectrum filled the air with Spaceman 3 vibes (of course). They conjured up some really hypnotic grooves. They were quite good. I felt stoned even though I hadn't even had a beer yet.
Yo La Tengo started their set off on the wrong foot with one of those slow builder things that had an annoyingly long "Ira Kaplan Experience" guitar "solo". Unfortunately, they never fully recovered and didn't really get cookin until the final moments of their last jam. Remember when they played actual songs, and it was awesome? I do.
In a surprising upset, Bob Mould won the "set of the day" award. Songs from Workbook, Copper Blue and a block of Husker Du songs that had the crowd surfing and pogoing. A spirited performance that pulled out all the stops. Bravo.
Dinosaur jr is loud. And J looks like some kind of pagan warlock standing in front of monolithic pillars made of Marshall stacks.
My Bloody Valentine is even louder. Too loud actually. They sounded amazing for the first four tunes (pretty much all the "hits") but then they hit a snag. The bass became so loud and distorted that it negated all the beautiful swirl. I moved back to the soundboard, where it definitely sounded better, but the mix never recaptured the stunning beauty of the first part of the set. It was also a bit disappointing to see that they played with backing tracks. A lot of the melodic lines were obviously sampled. All in all, it was great to finally see MBV, but for me it was a bit of a letdown.
Here's a link to some live sets from ATP NY 2008, free for downloading, courtesy of WFMU:
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