All Points West Music & Arts Festival 2009 - July 31 to Aug 2 at LSP

[fasteddie]

My APW photo highlights are up! Click here.

That is stunning photography. Fine work indeed.

[HGPhotography]

My APW photo highlights are up! Click here for the slideshow.



Also, I walked around the park this afternoon. Save for some major structures (metal frames for the tent, porto potties, fences, etc) that are still being broken down, and large patches of dried mud and dead grass which will grow back in a month or so, the area was very clean. I was impressed.

Nice mud wrestling photo btw, Fang. There's a video of that on youtube.

[TheFang]

All Points West organizers say they will restore trampled ground at Liberty State Park
by Carmen Juri/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday August 04, 2009, 7:00 PM

Trampled grass and a sea of mud remained at Liberty State Park in Jersey City after last weekend's All Points West festival, but organizers say they are committed to restoring the park .

"We pride ourselves on leaving the park in better condition than how we found it," said producer Ken Tesler of Liberty Events Management. "When there's damage like that, we fix it."Because of the weekend's heavy downpour, the three-day rock festival, jam-packed with high-profile bands as My Bloody Valentine and Coldplay as well as lesser-known indie groups, turned into a muddy mess. The mud, combined with heavy equipment and over 70,000 visitors, destroyed some areas of grass.

The tremendous amount of rain in a very short time did not give the field time to recover, said Tesler.

"This was insane. We had more rain in two days, between the set up and couple of days of the event, than we've seen in a very long time. This was not a normal situation, but it's not something we can't deal with."

Tesler said a team of site restoration experts are surveying the damage and plan to begin to add seedlings and fertilizer to the areas that need to be reseeded.

"With the amount of rain, you get to the point where the park can only soak up so much rain," he said. "There's always wear and tear but this time there was more than the average."

Prior to the event, Liberty Events placed a protective covering mat under the stage, which flattens grass but does not kill it.

"Even in places where there is mud, my understanding is that there's still grass underneath that," he said.

"In a matter of days, you won't know a stage was there," he said.

Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, said the festival produces revenue for both the park, which gets a percentage of sales, and the state of New Jersey, which earns tax dollars from beer sales. It's also a good way to draw the public to the park, which is one of his group's goals.

Producers are donating $2 per ticket to the Friends group, a nonprofit dedicated to improving Liberty State Park, Pesin said. Ticket prices were $89 apiece.

"I am confident that these producers are extremely responsible people and I'm sure they will do an excellent job," he said.

For Pesin, the festival was the 1969 Woodstock rock festival all over again.

"The mud at this festival reminded me of Woodstock. Both (festivals) had really good music and really good people enjoying The festivals do give people hope for the future," Pesin said. "When people get together to have a shared positive experience, it's a worthwhile experience."



photo by me

[MCA™]

All Points West attendance: 71,500
by Jay Lustig/The Star-Ledger
Monday August 03, 2009, 2:46 PM

Attendance at this year's three-day All Points West festival at Liberty State Park in Jersey City was 71,500, it was announced Aug. 3.

This represents a dip from last year's attendance of 75,000, though the rainy conditions on July 31 and Aug. 2 undoubtedly played a big part in keeping the numbers down.

Attendees of this year's festival are posting comments about how it all went on the forum section of the festival's Web site, http://www.APWFestival.com, in hopes that organizers will see the posts and use them for feedback.

---

More APW pics at Spinner.

[jcpeace]

my reconnaissance mission there last nite revealed a number of interesting things. among them:

1)there was a good deal of weed being smoked, but it all smelled like shwag. that's just disgraceful!

2)security is pretty mellow to non existent, although there were three NJDOC vans there just in case music fans had a little to much hope and change.

3) the jacked up ferry was a big hit. i couldn't believe how many folks were headin there after the show. stupid fucking new yorkers.

[AmbushBug]

Pareles was standing in front of me during that set and unlike the guy from the JJ, he seemed to be totally digging it. Though he also had proper ear plugs in as well, and obviously had heard of the band before doing a write up of them.

Research? From a journalist? You expect an awful lot from the Journal.

[TheFang]

From the Ledger:

Coldplay closes All Points West

We Are Scientists, La Roux, Mogwai play All Points West

Crowds dismayed by long delays at All Points West

[TheFang]

NYT's APW wrapup:

Saturday’s concert was, literally, a blast when My Bloody Valentine performed. Its songs, which once layered distortion atop three-chord songs and lovesick lyrics, have turned even noisier since the band reunited last year. Unfortunately at All Points West vocals and melodies were almost completely buried in the exhilarating surge of chords. As usual at a My Bloody Valentine set the music culminated in a sustained roar — about 14 minutes long — as the full band strummed and pummeled the instruments on a chord dissolving into cacophony in “You Made Me Realise.” It conjured some elemental cataclysm, a purely visceral rock experience.

Pareles was standing in front of me during that set and unlike the guy from the JJ, he seemed to be totally digging it. Though he also had proper ear plugs in as well, and obviously had heard of the band before doing a write up of them.

[jcindahouse]

We watched the "live" broadcast of Elbow on the lappie plugged in to the hi-fi and I was pretty happy to be clean, dry and fed. We also saw the first few minutes of Echo and that was just painful!

hope all the mud has washed out!

[MCA™]

JJ:


5-hour delay, scratched acts on fest's last day
Monday, August 03, 2009
By JAMIE SCHUH
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The weather did its best to try and silence the All Points West Music and Arts Festival at Liberty State Park yesterday. But the third and final day of the rock/pop extravaganza slogged ahead, albeit five hours off-schedule, resulting in the cancellation of four acts, including the two from New Jersey.

Gates to the festival were supposed to open at noon. But it wasn't until around 5 p.m. that concert-goers were allowed access to the rain-drenched fields.

But late was better than never, especially for some who had traveled for hours to come to Jersey City to see their favorite band.

Marisa Loya, 19, made the trek up from central Florida to see MGMT. "I would have stood there all day to see them. They don't play the South very often, so it's big," she said.

Moira O'Sullivan, 17, from Connecticut, said the late start cramped her hotel plans a bit. "It was rough, because I had to check out of the hotel this morning, and had nowhere to go," said O'Sullivan, also a big fan of the indie band MGMT.

To make up for lost time, once ticket holders were allowed in, bands that were scheduled to play earlier - including the only two bands from New Jersey, Steel Train and The Gaslight Anthem - were simply bumped from the schedule.

Once inside, frowns turned upside-down, and soon music fans were dancing and singing along with their favorite acts. During Akron/Family's set they even blew bubbles.

"Considering the weather, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves," said Elizabeth Miller, 22, of Sea Girt.

Scottish ambient band, Mogwai, took the stage as the sun began its slow descent. Between songs, lead singer Stuart Braithwaite asked the crowd, "Are you glad the rain stopped?"

After cheers in the affirmative, he replied, "So are we."

Brooklyn-based art-rockers MGMT and French house music DJ Etienne de Crécy had the crowd hopping and prancing on the soggy fields.

But no group raised the temperature of the crowd more than Coldplay, the night's headliner.

Performing songs from their latest album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends," along with the older hits that brought them fame, Coldplay wowed the crowd.

"We came for Coldplay, and we would have done whatever it takes to see them," said Brittany Stewart, 20, of New York, who came to the concert with her brother Jonathan.

After a long, wet day, the siblings must have felt as Coldplay sings on their "Parachutes" album, "Everything's not lost."

[MCA™]

NYT's APW wrapup:


Rap, Rock and Rain at Liberty State Park
By JON PARELES
August 3, 2009

JERSEY CITY — The All Points West Music and Arts Festival aimed at separate sides of the brain for the first two of its three days at Liberty State Park here. Friday, headlined by hip-hop from Jay-Z and rock from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend, was for the left brain: verbal, analytical, conceptual. Saturday, featuring rock from Tool and My Bloody Valentine and Gypsy-punk party music from Gogol Bordello, was for the right brain: intuitive, holistic, more attuned to sound than to messages.

Friday was full of cleverness and constructed personas. (Its three headliners, along with the rappers Q-Tip and Organized Konfusion and the rock band the National, are all New Yorkers.) Saturday, from the three guitars and two drum kits of ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead in early afternoon to the pounding, droning, churning finale by Tool, was about reveling in the power of noise.

It was the second annual All Points West, the East Coast project of Goldenvoice, which produces the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The event, which was accessible from Manhattan by efficient ferries, is a work in progress.

Stages have been moved since last year but still aren’t ideally situated. Performers on the midsize Bullet Stage had to compete with sound from the main stage (the Blue Comet) as well as from a dance-music disc jockey nearby and from a sponsor’s speakers. Magnificent views of the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline were given only to the performers and the video cameras behind them; audiences faced away from the water. Prime viewing areas and the paths between stages became mud pits after the deluges, something Coachella doesn’t have to worry about in the California desert.

Saturday’s concert was, literally, a blast when My Bloody Valentine performed. Its songs, which once layered distortion atop three-chord songs and lovesick lyrics, have turned even noisier since the band reunited last year. Unfortunately at All Points West vocals and melodies were almost completely buried in the exhilarating surge of chords. As usual at a My Bloody Valentine set the music culminated in a sustained roar — about 14 minutes long — as the full band strummed and pummeled the instruments on a chord dissolving into cacophony in “You Made Me Realise.” It conjured some elemental cataclysm, a purely visceral rock experience.

Tool, by contrast, had mapped out every jolt in its music. While video screens showed creepy, death-white anthropoids in constant metamorphosis, Maynard James Keenan sang with baleful melancholy about dread, fury and desolation over music that clanged and churned, melding hard-rock brawn and progressive-rock precision in gorgeous bitterness. St. Vincent, led by the guitarist Annie Clark, had its own eruptions of noise as Ms. Clark’s enigmatic pop songs, tinged by turns with 1960s whimsy and minimalistic patterns, rode upheavals of distortion from her guitar.

Performers facing soggy crowds on Friday worked hard to entertain. Jay-Z was a last-minute replacement for the Beastie Boys; one member of the group, Adam Yauch (a k a MCA), needed surgery for cancer of the salivary gland. But Jay-Z brought his full tour production, including a band complete with rock guitar and horn section, his sidekick Memphis Bleek and a video display with montages of his rise from the Marcy Houses projects in Brooklyn to his current status as a hit maker and mogul.

It’s a triumphal tale that Jay-Z delivered with fastidious variations of meter, vocal tone and backup, whether he was keeping rap-rock alive or bouncing syllables off an exotic sampled vocal. He started the set graciously: rapping the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.”

Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs displayed the words “Get Well MCA” on her arm throughout her band’s set, while other adornments came and went: a glittery shawl that she wrapped around her face like a burqa, a black jacket with “KO” on the back in studs. Although the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ lyrics sometimes hint at strife, loss and longing, the songs were outright romps, with Ms. O skipping, strutting and twirling across the stage. The band socked out its grooves, switching frequently between its older post-punk guitar riffs and its newer synthesizer pulses, and Ms. O was all smiles. “It’s not wet enough up here!” she cackled.

Vampire Weekend remains nerdy and proud of it. In crisp, perky new wave tunes with an occasional hint of African guitar for embellishment, Ezra Koenig sings about collegiate characters, and a few songs that weren’t on the band’s debut album didn’t stray far from it; one was called “Ladies of Cambridge.”

Tucked into Friday’s lineup were two reunited hip-hop groups from the 1990s: Organized Konfusion, in its first performance in more than a decade, and the Pharcyde, which has been reconvened for a few years.

Organized Konfusion, the duo of Prince Po (from “poetry”) and Pharoahe Monch, was a connoisseur’s hip-hop group. Though it was never a commercial success — the reason, Prince Po suggested onstage, was that its songs were “too intelligent and too crazy” — its albums raised the ante on complexities of meter, rhyme schemes and wordplay. Prince Po’s voice has grown raspier, yet both rappers were bouncing syllables every which way in rhymes that were smart, funny and telling — like “Stray Bullet,” written from the bullet’s point of view. Unfortunately pelting rain kept the reunion’s audience sparse.

The Pharcyde’s easygoing beats and earnest aspirations — “I want to kick something that means something,” its members rapped — were neatly performed but soon overshadowed by the rapper who was next on the bill: Q-Tip, whose old group, A Tribe Called Quest, was very clearly Pharcyde’s model.

Friday also featured pensive rock from the National — with elegantly constructed, slow-building songs of disillusionment — and smart, sullen rock from Cage the Elephant, which revs up its sardonic frustration to the verge of hardcore. Friday’s lineup also included the festival’s demographic anomaly: Seasick Steve, a bearded, grizzled, foot-stomping slide guitarist born in 1941 who sings about his life as a hobo, although he also (as Steve Wold) produced indie-rock for Modest Mouse in the 1990s. In recent years he has become a festival regular in England, and a song about running away at 14 from an abusive stepfather — an accelerating, John Lee Hooker-style boogie — had the All Points West audience cheering.

In a more rigorous left brain/right brain separation All Points West might have scheduled Fleet Foxes — who reveled in wordless, cascading vocal harmonies — Saturday. And it might have moved Kool Keith — a rapper with off-the-wall rhymes and multiple personas, including the raunchy Dr. Octagon — to Friday. Ice-T, a fan, joined him onstage, rapping along with Kool Keith and stepping forward for a little gangsta rap of his own.

Sunday’s scheduled headliners were Coldplay and Echo and the Bunnymen. Perhaps, after the left-brain and right-brain stimulation, their kind of romantic pomp was meant for the heart.

[Soshin]

Okay so this afternoon sounds like a disaster.  The texts from Sue2dRescue say they have been in the old railroad terminal all afternoon and the gates have just opened at 4.30.  For those of us not brave enough to re-enact the battle of the Somme there has apparently been a stream up all weekend!  Thanks for telling us APW!!!

 

http://www.iclips.net/apw2009.php

Oh and I now have 2 tickets free to anyone who wants to swing by and pick them up.  All the cool people know where I live....

[AmbushBug]

Now that's music journalism.

[TheFang]

any star ledger reviews from ambush's bro?

A few:

Neko Case, Tokyo Police Club entertain the masses at All Points West

St. Vincent plays All Points West as overheated revelers try to stay cool

All Points West: Friday's rain problem becomes Saturday's mud problem

Day 2 begins with sunshine at All Points West

[jcpeace]

Though, I will admit to taking alot of glee in the clutched ears and confused faces of the Tool fans.  

go Fang!!

any star ledger reviews from ambush's bro?

[TheFang]

I'll admit that MBV set was intense. Real, real intense, like it made my teeth hurt it was so loud, but that's the whole point. I'm surprised that the JJ put someone at that show who apparently has never listened to the band, or heard about how loud they are before. They are famous for it. The whole point is that they are basically daring you to listen, and to tolerate it, it's called "shoe gaze" for a reason. And I'd say they lost about half the crowd, when the crane panned the crowd during the end of the note (which I timed and went on for much closer to 15 minutes and which they are also famous for doing) there were a whole lot of middle fingers in the air. I saw people peeling away from the crowd all thru out the set.  

In short, I thought it was great, but I also had heavy duty ear plugs in, (all those squishy ones do is make everything sound bad) was much further from the stage then I would normally be and knew what I was getting into. Though, I will admit to taking alot of glee in the clutched ears and confused faces of the Tool fans.  

[propscene]

wtf Jersey Journal- this is what you consider music journalism?!??:

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/08/ting_tings_fast_and_sweet_riff.html

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/08/my_bloody_valentine_gets_loud.html

For what it's worth, My Bloody Valentine, as far as I am concerned, were the highlight of yesterday's bands. No pandering there, although I admit I wore earplugs for the first time in my life. I'm a late learner.

[MCA™]

Jersey Journal:


All Pants Wet? Who cares when favorite bands take to stage
Saturday, August 01, 2009
By JAMIE SCHUH
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The skies opened, lightning flashed, thunder crackled and the rain came down. And it did little to dampen the spirits of thousands who danced and flailed through the mud yesterday at the All Points West Festival at Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

"The real fans are here and will obviously deal with the heat and the rain," aid Lauren Stritzl, 32, of Long Beach Island. Stritzl and her sister Kristen drove a couple hours to see Vampire Weekend, and bad weather wasn't stopping them from having a good time.

"It's fine," said Alice Handley, 34, from Connecticut, who accompanied her daughters. "We waited all day to see Vampire Weekend, so we're not going anywhere."

Still, organizers of the three-day event announced that tickets for yesterday would be honored today or tomorrow.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs seemed to be the biggest draw of the day, but that was before Jay-Z took the stage. As the band tore into hits like "Zero" and "Runaway," Danielle Pukala, 24, from New York City, and Kate Pluta, 24, from Boston, danced away happily in the mud. "We're just having fun with it," said Pukala.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O wore an armband that read "Get well MCA," a tribute to Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who canceled their appearance when it was announced that Yauch was diagnosed with cancer.

There was certainly something for everyone, with three stages - Queen of the Valley, Bullet and Blue Comet - named to pay homage to the park's railroad past.

Elizabeth Horowitz, 21, of Maplewood, preferred the grass of Liberty State Park over the blacktop of the Warped Tour, but she could have done without the rain.

"It sucks that it's been rainy and muddy," she said.

For those who sought a break from the music, there was plenty to do. PlayStation has a tent where one can sample video games and Prius has an area to see cars. There are several merchandise tents, dozens of food booths and even a craft fair.

There are also some large art pieces that give the grounds a fun, inventive feel. And the fashion trend of the day had to be ponchos. Nearly everyone had one.

With the price of a one-day ticket $89, some music fans found a way to get in for free - by becoming a volunteer at the APW.

Allie Treske and Greg Kulaga signed up for the Work Exchange team, and they're at the festival for free, working the VIP tent. It's not a bad gig since, according to the pair, most of their duties are just making sure the VIPs are comfortable.

Volunteers work five-hour shifts a day, which comes out to about 15-18 hours for the weekend. Plus, they get to see live music for free.

"The bands will be really cool, and this is such a great venue for a festival," Treske said early yesterday.

Over at the information tent, Dan Paresh, 20, of Wyckoff, and Scott Moore, 30, from Cincinnati, got away with what they call "a pretty easy job."

"Tomorrow I'll probably be picking up garbage," said Moore, who drove 11 hours to work at the festival. He's originally from Ridgefield.

Paresh said he heard about the volunteering opportunity through an e-mail he received. "I just wanted to go (to APW) for free."

JOURNAL COLUMNIST Troy Dreier contributed to this report.

[elgoodo]

The rest of the festival, well, at one more day of it anyway, is free for anyone with a ticket or ticket stub for Friday. 

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/07/friday_all_poin.html

[CeeDub]

Um,
slide thru the Village to jersey, head south across the pedestrian footbridge and then follow the hipsteratti thru LSP (rhymes with?) to the Gates of Heaven.

 Just a llittle over 2 miles
Pay no attention to the blue line - that's for cars which can't cross the Morris Canal

[elgoodo]

So..if I was gonna walk to this thing from, let's say, the Italian Village, could someone maybe map me out a route?  TIA.

[jc_insomniac]

An APB on All Points West
Our guide to surviving—and maybe even enjoying—New Jersey

Ninja please. Didn't read past that subtitle.

http://www.nypress.com/article-20136-an-apb-on-all-points-west.html

[shahaggy]

http://www.nypress.com/article-20136-an-apb-on-all-points-west.html

[Soshin]

Set Times:  http://www.apwfestival.com/schedule/

[elgoodo]

9:30 AM this morning:  an ad ran on 101.9 RXP prominently featuring the Beastie Boys name and music.