All Points West - Saturday Recap

There’s nothing like perfect weather to get you in the mood for some kick-ass live music. When the blue skies and cool breezes are traveling across the bay and weaving through a New York City skyline in the distance, it almost makes you wish you brought that old t-shirt that says “Proud To Be An American.” Almost.

The first ever All Points West kicked off this weekend at Liberty State Park, and I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to the soon sold-out Saturday show. Why was the Saturday show sold out of single day tickets in June while the other two days never did? Poor planning on the festival’s part, which I and the rest of the crowd benefited from. Not only were most of the bigger names clearly relegated to Saturday, but they were all (with the exception of the Roots) shoved onto the same stage.

This helped to avoid time conflicts somewhat but effectively created a giant weave of concertgoers stitched together with sweat and rolling papers in front of the Blue Comet stage. It was all well and good, though, even before first act Chromeo took the stage. Those who plopped down early were treated to a sound check by Metric, which was sadly more impressive than Chromeo’s whole set.

Things picked up, though, when Metric took the stage again, this time for the real thing. Emily Haines (featured in the leading photo), the vixen with the voice, marched her band through a pounding set of electric rock grooves while she fluttered up, down, around and off the stage, eventually disappearing somewhere into the masses as Metric finished their set.

The only thing the sun wasn’t nice to was Animal Collective. The experimental rockers’ interstellar overdrive really deserves a night performance. With some lights. And lasers. And giant lava lamps…yea, lava lamps. Despite the lack of atmospherics, the band managed to churn out a set of their usual helter skelter mania and zombified trance rock.

Perhaps a bit like the ugly ducklings of the day (and I mean that only figuratively, as I’m sure these southern boys have no trouble in the female department - no homo!), Kings of Leon brought their twangy, arena blues to New York in a performance that was most noteworthy for the inclusion of some new material like “Sex On Fire” and “Crawl”.

Of course, let’s just cut to the chase and get to what everyone really came to see - Radiohead. Under a thicket of multi-colored fluorescent lights, the band galloped through an epic, two-encore set with nary a hiccup or delay, even as the roadies played musical chairs with the grand piano, synthesizer, multiple drum sets, and other goodies the band used to sexify the crowd’s ear drums. Heavy in In Rainbows material, the band did manage to showcase fan favorites from everything post-Pablo Honey, a visceral performance of “Fake Plastic Trees” being one of the highlights.

It was nearing 11 when the crowds shuffled like fatigued sheep towards the exit of what turned out to be a well-executed debut for All Points West. The bands (mostly) delivered, and sanity was retained amongst the dehydrated and the tripping. It was a good day.

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