Fuck yeah!
Okay, so I only ended up going to one day of AllPointsWest but it doesn't matter because it was fucking amazing! Every band, except for My Bloody Valentine, was amazing!
We left my house around 9AM and got on the Light Rail around 11, arrived at the festival grounds around 11:30 and were let in around 12:30. The ground was ridiculously muddy because of all the people walking everywhere. The food was absurdly expensive, but that's to be expected and most of the people I met were great. After eating a cheese burger and some french fries Coy and I made our way to the Blue Comet stage, the main stage.
A band called White Rabbits was the first to play, they were actually pretty damn good. The performers continually switched the instruments they were playing, which was pretty cool to see and over all they did a fantastic job.
The next band to come on was Cage the Elephant. At first I didn't really like them because it was very clear that the singer and the lead guitarist were doped out of their fucking minds and I thought that that would have an impact on their performance. They quickly proved me wrong as they cranked out jam after jam that I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead singer jumped into the audience twice and got everyone all worked up. At the end of the last song the lead guitarist decided it would be a good idea to go crowd surfing, which wasn't so bad until he was thrown onto a group of girls who could not support his weight. Coy helped him stand back up and they exited the stage triumphantly.
The next act to come on was a group of comedic rappers called The Cool Kids. They weren't bad at all, they were damn funny and they got everyone moving around. They even did a tribute song to the Beastie Boys. On an other note, I heard that J-Z opened his set with a Beastie Boys cover yesterday. I think that's totally cool and I'm sure that MCA feels great knowing that so many people are hoping he gets better.
After The Cool Kids left the stage a band called Arctic Monkey made their appearance. They were pretty damn good but what really took me for surprise was how many fans they had. By this time I had worked my way up to the front row of the venue and for every song that the Arctic Monkeys played the audience started thrashing. I was happy with their performance but in my opinion they were completely humbled by the next band.
Gogol Bordello is probably one of my new favorite bands. Think eastern European traditional wedding music meets punk. They put on a serious fucking show. Their main drummer was fantastic, The lead singer had more personality than all of the previous artists combined, the violinist was ridiculously talented and the accordion player kind of looked like a rapist, but we can forgive him for that since he was so awesome. The bass player was a crazy looking black man wearing a hat that Sarah bought for me, the pointed gray one with the sickle and hammer over the red star. There was an other guy who... I'm not sure what he was. He was wearing a Mexican wrestling mask at times and playing all kinds of different instruments. And finally, to top it all off there were two ridiculously hot Asian back up vocalists who would run around stage in crazy outfits riling the crowd up and dancing around like lunatics while wearing intense eye make up. They were fucking amazing! I can't even describe what it was like to see them play. The audience loved them, too. Everyone was jumping up and down and carrying on like there was no tomorrow.
My Bloody Valentine.... How does anyone fucking like this band? It's not fucking music! Granted, I've never listened to their studio recorded albums before but it doesn't matter because they sucked so hard live that nothing could ever make up for it. I don't know how many times I have to say this, it wasn't fucking music.... It was strange noises that were so damn loud that even I had to put ear plugs in. One guy was rocking out hard to it, I couldn't understand him at all, I wanted to hit him straight in the face. I turned around at one point and saw an overwhelming majority of the crowd flipping the band off and when they finally finished their set all I could hear was people screaming about how much they sucked. I don't understand how anyone likes that crap.
Tool! Oh my FUCKING God! Words cannot describe the sheer awesomeness that graced that stage. Where can I begin? Before they came on people started to push up close. As the stage was being set up one guy asked me if I had ever seen Tool live before, I said no and assured me that I was "in for a fucking treat, sir!" One guy explained to me that I didn't understand that "as soon as Maynard walked out onto that stage a pair of twenty inch pythons would grab the bar right in front of [me] and [I would] feel 2000 lbs of pressure surging forward, disemboweling [me] on the bar." This was the same guy who continually tapped the people around him and told them that violence was encouraged, he said this several times. Tool came on a little bit late but it didn't even matter. It was difficult to hear Maynard's voice at times because pretty much everyone in the crowd was screaming along with the lyrics to every song that they played. Each and every song was extended and fucking amazing, I hope that the festival does one of those things where they recorded everything and allow you to purchase digital copies of the songs recorded. They opened with Jambi and then moved onto Stinkfist, after that they played Forty-Six & 2, then Schism, Rosetta Stoned, Flood, AEnema, Lateralus and they closed with Vicarious. It was fucking amazing! During Lateralus the band invited Frank Ferrer on stage to have a drum off with Danny Carey, Danny totally upstaged frank. Let me just say that I have never seen a fucking show like this before. It was INTENSE! Maynard sort of hid the entire time, posing like some sort of puppet with a few broken strings. The laser lights were fantastic and the images and videos frightening. The crowd was out of fucking control. I had to let go of the bar in front because I thought a bunch of people were going to snap my arm into thee separate pieces.
After the show we trekked through the mud with an army of Tool fans and got back on the Light Rail for about 10 minutes. Once we left the parking garage we got stuck in traffic before the Holland Tunnel for nearly 40 minutes but after that it was smooth sailing. We got home just before three and passed the fuck out! One hell of a day if you ask me, worth every penny.
We left my house around 9AM and got on the Light Rail around 11, arrived at the festival grounds around 11:30 and were let in around 12:30. The ground was ridiculously muddy because of all the people walking everywhere. The food was absurdly expensive, but that's to be expected and most of the people I met were great. After eating a cheese burger and some french fries Coy and I made our way to the Blue Comet stage, the main stage.
A band called White Rabbits was the first to play, they were actually pretty damn good. The performers continually switched the instruments they were playing, which was pretty cool to see and over all they did a fantastic job.
The next band to come on was Cage the Elephant. At first I didn't really like them because it was very clear that the singer and the lead guitarist were doped out of their fucking minds and I thought that that would have an impact on their performance. They quickly proved me wrong as they cranked out jam after jam that I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead singer jumped into the audience twice and got everyone all worked up. At the end of the last song the lead guitarist decided it would be a good idea to go crowd surfing, which wasn't so bad until he was thrown onto a group of girls who could not support his weight. Coy helped him stand back up and they exited the stage triumphantly.
The next act to come on was a group of comedic rappers called The Cool Kids. They weren't bad at all, they were damn funny and they got everyone moving around. They even did a tribute song to the Beastie Boys. On an other note, I heard that J-Z opened his set with a Beastie Boys cover yesterday. I think that's totally cool and I'm sure that MCA feels great knowing that so many people are hoping he gets better.
After The Cool Kids left the stage a band called Arctic Monkey made their appearance. They were pretty damn good but what really took me for surprise was how many fans they had. By this time I had worked my way up to the front row of the venue and for every song that the Arctic Monkeys played the audience started thrashing. I was happy with their performance but in my opinion they were completely humbled by the next band.
Gogol Bordello is probably one of my new favorite bands. Think eastern European traditional wedding music meets punk. They put on a serious fucking show. Their main drummer was fantastic, The lead singer had more personality than all of the previous artists combined, the violinist was ridiculously talented and the accordion player kind of looked like a rapist, but we can forgive him for that since he was so awesome. The bass player was a crazy looking black man wearing a hat that Sarah bought for me, the pointed gray one with the sickle and hammer over the red star. There was an other guy who... I'm not sure what he was. He was wearing a Mexican wrestling mask at times and playing all kinds of different instruments. And finally, to top it all off there were two ridiculously hot Asian back up vocalists who would run around stage in crazy outfits riling the crowd up and dancing around like lunatics while wearing intense eye make up. They were fucking amazing! I can't even describe what it was like to see them play. The audience loved them, too. Everyone was jumping up and down and carrying on like there was no tomorrow.
My Bloody Valentine.... How does anyone fucking like this band? It's not fucking music! Granted, I've never listened to their studio recorded albums before but it doesn't matter because they sucked so hard live that nothing could ever make up for it. I don't know how many times I have to say this, it wasn't fucking music.... It was strange noises that were so damn loud that even I had to put ear plugs in. One guy was rocking out hard to it, I couldn't understand him at all, I wanted to hit him straight in the face. I turned around at one point and saw an overwhelming majority of the crowd flipping the band off and when they finally finished their set all I could hear was people screaming about how much they sucked. I don't understand how anyone likes that crap.
Tool! Oh my FUCKING God! Words cannot describe the sheer awesomeness that graced that stage. Where can I begin? Before they came on people started to push up close. As the stage was being set up one guy asked me if I had ever seen Tool live before, I said no and assured me that I was "in for a fucking treat, sir!" One guy explained to me that I didn't understand that "as soon as Maynard walked out onto that stage a pair of twenty inch pythons would grab the bar right in front of [me] and [I would] feel 2000 lbs of pressure surging forward, disemboweling [me] on the bar." This was the same guy who continually tapped the people around him and told them that violence was encouraged, he said this several times. Tool came on a little bit late but it didn't even matter. It was difficult to hear Maynard's voice at times because pretty much everyone in the crowd was screaming along with the lyrics to every song that they played. Each and every song was extended and fucking amazing, I hope that the festival does one of those things where they recorded everything and allow you to purchase digital copies of the songs recorded. They opened with Jambi and then moved onto Stinkfist, after that they played Forty-Six & 2, then Schism, Rosetta Stoned, Flood, AEnema, Lateralus and they closed with Vicarious. It was fucking amazing! During Lateralus the band invited Frank Ferrer on stage to have a drum off with Danny Carey, Danny totally upstaged frank. Let me just say that I have never seen a fucking show like this before. It was INTENSE! Maynard sort of hid the entire time, posing like some sort of puppet with a few broken strings. The laser lights were fantastic and the images and videos frightening. The crowd was out of fucking control. I had to let go of the bar in front because I thought a bunch of people were going to snap my arm into thee separate pieces.
After the show we trekked through the mud with an army of Tool fans and got back on the Light Rail for about 10 minutes. Once we left the parking garage we got stuck in traffic before the Holland Tunnel for nearly 40 minutes but after that it was smooth sailing. We got home just before three and passed the fuck out! One hell of a day if you ask me, worth every penny.