All Points West 2009 Flooded Jersey City With Mud and Music

Mud, mud, more mud, and music. That pretty much sums up the All Points West festival for 2009. Even before it started to rain on Friday, the ground was already a bit soggy, so once it started to pour, it was a 5 year old’s dream playground of slushy, gooey, mud.  Kind of like Woodstock all over again, right?

Sunday was partially rained out, with doors only opening sometime after 3 or 4pm and all the bands scheduled to play before 5pm out of luck.  I guess “rain or shine” really means, “just a little bit of rain or shine.”  Someone should teach the people putting on these shows that they should have plans already set up for these things.  We live on the east coast—it rains, plan ahead. 

(More photos here.)

I got to see (and shoot) a lot of bands—some I’ve heard of but never listened to, and some I had never even heard of.  (Yes, I’m living in my own little music bubble.)  Fleet Foxes are one of the bands I had never even heard of.  They were good--pretty mellow and melodic—something that I would probably only listen to if I wanted to fall asleep, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Ra Ra Riot was an interesting site.  Only hearing the name, but not knowing anything about them, it was a surprise to find so many different instruments being played.  Standing out in the rain without an umbrella (even if I was smart enough to bring my raincoat and wear my rain boots) is not my idea of fun, so Vampire Weekend in the pouring rain was an experience that I do not wish to ever repeat.  Couldn’t tell if the rain was actually making it’s way on stage, but you can definitely see it in the photos.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have one of the coolest backdrops that I’ve ever seen.  I’m not sure what it actually has to do with their music, but nonetheless, it’s sparkly and blue, with a giant eye, so you can’t really go wrong with that.  Karen O has a sort of mysterious way about her, and is actually one of the few female singers I don’t mind watching. I LOVE shooting Lykke Li, so I was glad she was on the bill for Sunday.  She has such a unique style.  Her show is more like performance art than a rock show, and I think the music world needed something like that. 

Best and worst of the weekend: 

Worst—My Bloody Valentine.  Ignoring the style of music, they are THE most boring band I have ever seen!  They just stand around, barely moving.  I have a short attention span—with the exception of 1 or 2 bands, I need to see bands that have high energy and move around.  If you’re just going to stand around and not move, I might as well just put on the cd and be nice and comfortable inside instead. 

Best—Gogol Bordello and Coldplay.  I had never heard of them before, but OMG, they are AMAZING!  High energy, fun music, categorized as Gypsy Punk—how did I not know about them before this????  The energy of lead singer, Nikolai Gogol’s reminds me a bit of Butch Walker, who is one of my favorite artists.    I am not a super huge Coldplay fan, but I am so glad I went back after shooting MGMT to watch the rest of their set; it was so worth it. Chris Martin has so much energy and they put on a fantastic, fan friendly show.  Moving from main stage, to a smaller stage off the side, and then back to another stage in the middle of the crowd for a few songs, they made sure that everyone got a close up experience.  At one point, they set free thousands of paper butterflies into the crowd, creating a rainbow of color.  The only sad part is that Chris Martin ended the show by saying “See you in a few years.”  Years?   Really?  Must we wait that long?  How about you keep touring and making new music and we send Creed back into music oblivion instead?

All and all the festival was a great experience. The rain makes it hard to find the bright side of things, but through the thick of it all - I at least got great pictures!