All Points West Review: Day 2

After wrapping my mind around the amazing first day of all points west, I was ready for an even better day. On Saturday I was ready to see bands that I was more familiar with. I knew my way around the festival now, and was ready to dive into another day’s worth of music!

First we caught some of Chromeo’s set. Heard a few songs from them and thought it was fun. Very danceable and easy to get into. A pretty nice way to start the day.

We walked around and ate lunch while listening to a little bit of Metric and The Felice Brothers sets. Sounded pretty cool but it was only background music for us at the time. Would have liked to give more attention to them. Hopefully sometime in the future.

Finally it was time to see The Virgins. They have been a band I have been following ever since I heard the gem “Rich Girls.” Their album is a bit over-produced but the songs are still very enjoyable nonetheless. It is a pretty good album. They came out and kicked off with tons of energy right away. They have a great stage presence, and lead singer Donald Cumming interacted with the crowd quite well. They played the songs very well live with a more dirty/garage rock feel. Most importantly they had fun playing these songs for the hometown crowd, and you felt this positive energy. They played Rich Girls as the finale, and I was able to record it. Video below.

I caught a bit of Animal Collective’s set and enjoyed it for the most part. The thing about the performance was, I only enjoyed the select songs I recognized. Everything else sorta sounded like noise to me. I feel that unless you knew the songs very well, you didn’t get a good grip of what was going on. The crowd seemed very polarized by them. The people that I talked to after them said that they either loved them or hated it calling it “dumb noise.” I will have to see them again after I listen to some more of their stuff.

Kings Of Leon were next for me, and I was quite excited. Their album “Because Of The Times” was one of my favorites of last year, and I feel they are quite underrated here in the U.S. They came on with a ton of confidence and played a great set with new songs and old. They premiered three tracks off their new album (Crawl, Manhattan, Sex On Fire) which including the first live performance ever of “Sex On Fire”. They are some pretty solid songs. Good sign for the new album. Caleb’s singing really does these new songs justice. They were a highlight of APW for me, and made me a even bigger fan than I already was. Video’s of the new songs below.

Then of course was round 2 of the magnificent Radiohead. They changed things up right from the start by opening with Reckoner rather than the usual 15 Steps. Then they charged into a mixed set from all of their albums including the rarities such as Kid A, Bangers & Mash, Exit Music and Faust Arp, the only track they didn’t play from In Rainbows the previous night. They played with even more passion the previous night because the crowd was just plain better. They had more energy, they sang to every word of every song, you felt you were at a Radiohead concert, not a music festival WITH Radiohead. The encore was special to with more songs we didn’t get on Friday like Planet Telex and Fake Plastic Trees. Man was the latter beautiful. It also included the great live track There There. My god does that song come to life live. They ended it with the danceable Idioteque and left us quite satisfied. Man when are they coming back!!

Radiohead – APW Night Two Setist (8/9/08):
01. Reckoner
02. 15 Step
03. The National Anthem
04. Kid A
05. All I Need
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. Where I End And You Begin
09. The Gloaming
10. Faust Arp
11. No Surprises
12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
13. The Bends
14. Bangers and Mash
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Exit Music (For A Film)
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. Pyramid Song
19. Videotape
20. Airbag
21. Fake Plastic Trees
22. There There

Encore 2
23. House of Cards
24. Planet Telex
25. Idioteque

---