Tuesday, August 12, 2008

All Points West - Oh Yeah

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Does it gets much better than spending a beautiful weekend with friends, listening to awesome music & hanging with Lady Liberty? Saturday started out with hearty brunch at Jules Cafe > a gorgeous ferry ride to Liberty State Park - where the All Points was being held. Upon arrival, we were shocked to find there was a (5) beer person limit / per day. Ouch. Undeterred, we guzzled what beers we could in a few and looked forward to the sets of music about to unfold. Our crew really came to see two bands... Kings Of Leon & Radiohead.

The Kings were phenomenal. Diving into their catalogue of tunes, they dropped all the hits on could want including "On Call, Molly Chambers, Fans & So Night So Long. Hells Yeah!

Up next: Radiohead. Somehow I lost my crew right before the band went on & spent the first two songs walking around looking for em. Once I realized the effort was futile, I turned my attention towards the music & visuals pouring off the stage...and what a sight / sound it was. The only way to describe it: AMAZING. Best band in the world??...Prob-ab-ly. Everything was going swimmingly until I was forced to leave by the crew I had lost earlier in the day (they showed up midway through). Apparently, they felt it was time to go at 10:20 and we ended up missing over 10+ songs. Needless to say, I was & will never be happy about it.... Buuuuttt we digress. We ended back in the city early as a result - where we continued the party into the wee hours.

Sunday. Me and my girl (yes u read that right) got to the show around 2:30 just in time to catch Rodrigo y Gabriela play during the first of many rain showers. Their music felt quite appropriate with the rain falling down I must add. As the precipitation grew heavier, we grabbed a couple garbage bags and headed to the beer tent to put down (3) out of our (5) beer allotment. As things got funnier / more ridiculous, we were def. stoked to have the rain stop right before Ben Harpers set. He ended up starting a little late, but was gracious enough to avoid a Kanye / Bonnaroo debacle by apologizing to the fans and his crew. I've seen Ben a few times before & and like shows I've seen previously, he seemed right at home. My personal favorite song during his set was "Don't Let em' Take the Fight Outta You". Very nice indeed.

We then cruised over to the see Trey Anastasio open up shop. Now I'm the biggest Trey fan out there, but this time around I was a weeee bit bored with most of the songs. After a flailing "Drifting", where the jam really went nowhere, he started up "Gotta Jiboo" & all was right with the world. Midway through, we walked back over to the main stage to catch Jack Johnson. I stand by my statement both before and after watching / listening to him. His music is best appreciated through speakers / headphones / early day set. Too boring for a close out festival slot.

All in all......one hell of weekend.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring on Bob Dylan tonight!!1!!!!

Anonymous said...

You know what pal?

A + review. Though the kid was in Maine HAULING smallmouth by the DOZEN, I was there in spirit. 5 beers on the ferry ride over is par for course... at the venue though? We would have problems. Kid is back from the north country and your biggest critic will be popping off again very soon. Keep your looks up. And HELLO fans, I've missed you all too. Keep YOUR looks up and looking special, and we'll be just fine.

"That's just the way it is baby"