All Points West
Summer has been upon us and how better to watch it fly by then running around in the muck and mud of our nations beloved music festivals.
All Points West has come and gone with well over fifty bands performing on three separate stages in Jersey’s breathtaking Liberty State Park. The grounds were adorned with several artwork installations including tiki huts to lounge in and strings of numerous balloons floating through the sky. And what a sky it was with Manhattan’s skyscrapers just on the other side of the Hudson river and Lady Liberty’s outstretched arm urging all us fellow festival lovers to “rock on”. Rock on we did. Friday night, despite the thunder and lightning and delicious downpours, was a great way to begin the festival.
Fleet Foxes brought out the folk in all of us and as they started the third song from their set, English House (from the Sun Giant EP), it was as if by sound alone they controlled the winds, ushering in a sprinkling breeze that rose and fell with each “whoa my love”.
Ra Ra Riot was popping away on the bullet stage setting the mood for dancing. The strings really give this group the extra dynamic to set them apart. They are like the heart. There is always a constant and solidly strong beat while the strings of emotion play through it.
If you wanted your heart strings pulled, The National was the group to see Friday night. Matt Berninger’s voice is deep and mysterious and on the live stage sang so intensely from the depths of his soul that you held your breath and yes, even tears would form. ”Walk away now, you’re gonna start a war.”
By Saturday afternoon the rains had died and the clouds had moved on yet the grounds were still sopping wet with muck and mud.
St. Vincent, perhaps the best performance of the weekend, almost made you forget where you were. Her short curls and red lips lured you in visually and her raw ingenious talent pulled you in aurally. Laughing with a Mouth of Blood has such an intense build starting with the flutes and ebbing with the violins that slowly grow more violent while Anne Clark sings “You’ll Have to Shout Even Louder”. Suddenly it stops.
Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek’s style is wacky and adorable and she has one of the best singing shrieks. Her presence is undeniable on stage and with Aaron Pfenning they together write some beautifully catchy songs, both unbeat and down.
A running animation video of elephants and cars played on the screens while Neko Case performed her set. ”It’s all quite satisfying”, she said, “I hope it was satisfying for you too.” She was a refreshing act, one to relax and allow yourself to be somewhat nostalgic for a moment in time.
Just when you started to feel the coming down from the days events Crystal Castles took the stage and revived all who were within ear shot making us all feel like this was where we belonged. The tent was packed and it didn’t matter whether you were standing front row or hanging out in the back, you still couldn’t help but move it, move it. Alice Glass held a microphone in one hand and a strobe light in the other while exclaiming from the stage that we all looked “like a garden of hands”!
Sunday started out quite stormy but mother nature was kind and let up just before Elbow took to the big Blue comet stage. Guy Garvey was so tender with the crowd and really pulled you in from the start with his gentle ballads. The way I felt about elbow can be best described by the lyrics they themselves sing. “You are the only thing in any room you’re ever in.” He goes “straight to my head like the first cigarette of the day”. The group was real with us, like we were all just hanging out in his back yard in Manchester. The band took a shot of whiskey on stage and continued on graciously thanking and encouraging the fans to “fall in love, fall in love, FALL IN LOVE.”
Lykke Li dance, dance, danced the crowd right through her set. Punching the air and waving her hips, she just wanted to have a good time with everyone else. I enjoyed her closing song, “Tonight”, which brought the audience in and quietly pleaded, “don’t you let me go tonight, let me go tonight.”
The moon had been settled in the sky for hours at this point and the VIP ticket holders were piling in to the packed bleachers while the rest of us crowded in on the grounds waiting for a moment that doesn’t come around every day, a moment that one would like to say they were there for, even just once. Coldplay. Chris Martin was funnier than I expected and they played the hits that would surely please the ultimate fan.
Sneaking away from Coldplay (although no one really seemed to notice) was a great choice. MGMT was on at the Bullet stage and they were playing some of their new works that will be on their upcoming album “Congratulations”, expected out sometime in early 2010.
