Radio Galaxy

All Points West at Liberty State Park/ckenney

I apologize in advance for the lateness of this post, but it has honestly taken me a few days to recover from the exhaustion of this three day music festival. Overall, I really enjoyed APW — the music and the scenery were amazing, but as Jacob mentioned in his post there were definitely some issues.

Friday

We got to Liberty State Park around 4:30 PM, after what felt like an unbearably long walk from the Light Rail to the concert site in the middle of the park. There were modest crowds at the gate, and we headed in to find some friends over at the Blue Comet Stage where the New Pornographers were performing. We caught the end of their set including a sweet cover of “Don’t Bring Me Down” originally by Electric Light Orchestra. After that we headed over to Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, who I never would have heard of if it wasn’t for the great assisted listen we did on the BPP.

Nice er....balloons./ckenney

This show was by far the most fun and energetic of the weekend’s performances. He had a million balloons floating in the air along with a ton of toilet paper (so much for the “green festival”) and loads of people on stage including a dude in a white jump suit who looked like a cross between a Geico cave man and Jesus. After hearing some truly amazing mashups, we decided it was time for a beer before settling in for Radiohead, and that is where things got ugly. While waiting in the momentous line to have our ID’s checked (Why didn’t they do it at the entrance gate?), we were told by a fellow festival goer that we were only allowed to drink inside the tented off beer garden and that each person was limited to five drinks per day. The bracelets they gave us even had little numbered tags on them to be ripped off when you ordered drinks. The line inside the beer garden was ridiculously long and once inside you had to quickly consume your drinks so that you didn’t miss any of the bands you wanted to see  — since the beer gardens were considerably far from the stages. I understand that this event was held in a state park, but seriously this was ridiculous. Festivals are all about freedom, and yes to a certain extent intoxication. I’m not some crazy drinker, but to not be able to stand and hold a beer in my hand while watching a band  was incredibly infuriating. I heard many, many people complaining about the strict alchol policy, and I expect if this event is ever held in NJ again, it will be a major topic of discussion. Anyway after the beers, we settled in for Radiohead. The band performed mostly songs from their new album, and Thom’s melancholy vocals kept the quiet crowd entranced for the entirety of their over two hour set.

Saturday

Exhaustion and high temps kept us away from the festival until later in the evening. This time the crowds at the gate were much larger and the walk from the Light Rail seemed even longer. Sia, was the first act I caught, and I really enjoyed her low key performance especially the Zero 7 song “Destiny.” Of course, she played “Breathe Me” for her last song and of course the crowd including me, swooned. Next up, was the Roots, with an amazing solo by “Captain” Kirk Douglas during “You Got Me.” After that we headed for the beer tent, where we found more frustration and angry words among the crowds. We missed a good deal of the Kings of Leon’s set all for some $7 Bud Lights…what a shame.

Radiohead Day 2 All Points West/ckenney

We secured a close spot to the right of the stage for Radiohead’s second night, and it was an incredible show. The lights and video alone were worth watching, but it was of course another drool worthy set list including “Kid A,” “The Bends” and “Fake Plastic Trees.” I couldn’t feel my legs below the knee on the walk home, but it was totally worth it.

Sunday

It was raining when we arrived, but we thought for sure we could stick out to see all of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s performance.  They were strumming like crazy but the rain kept falling harder, and so we went in search of dry ground. We found shelter under one of merchandise tents were predictably they were out of all things that involved hoods. Eventually, we bought some ponchos for $4 a piece and headed back out to catch Cat Power. She was great – as wild and crazy as ever. After her show, we stuck around to see Ben Harper relax the crowd with some favorites including “Diamonds on the Inside” and “Fight Outta You” which he performed on the BPP earlier this year.

Jack Johnson carried the main stage for the last show of the festival. He played a mix of old and new songs and brought out special guests Trey Anastasio for “Mud Football” and Matt Costa for “Fall Line.” He ended the show on a poignant note, admiring the beauty of the Statue of Liberty in the distance, he dedicated “Times Like These” to the families of 9/11.

Liberty State Park/ckenney

-- Filed by Caitlin Kenney

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 5:21 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.