Sunday, February 24, 2008

All Points West to Be Radiohead's Only NYC Appearance

All Points West to Be Radiohead's Only NYC Appearance








New Yorkers hoping to brag to future generations that they saw Radiohead on the In Rainbows tour at Madison Square Garden are shit outta luck. Looks like your only chance to see Radiohead on this tour will be at the All Points West Music and Arts Festival, as no other New York area appearances are planned. (Except for the private show they're going to play at Cake Shop just for me and my friends. Right, guys? Right??)

Not that there's anything to complain about. As you know, All Points West is taking place August 8-10 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, and Radiohead will headline both Friday and Saturday nights (Jack Johnson headlines Sunday). Other acts slated to perform include Animal Collective, Cat Power, the New Pornographers, Girl Talk, the Roots, Underworld, the Go! Team, Metric, CSS, Andrew Bird, Black Kids, Chromeo, Amadou & Mariam, Rogue Wave, and Mates of State. It's shaping up to be a pretty cool time.

Pitchfork spoke to festival organizer Paul Tollett of Goldenvoice, who filled us in on some of the logistics of All Points West. Although Goldenvoice is the company behind Coachella, Tollett stresses that APW is not Coachella East. For starters, it's a lot smaller. Tollett estimates that the festival's capacity will be "about half" of that of American behemoths like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza, meaning that they will cap attendance at around 30 or 40 thousand people.

There will only be three stages and about 40 bands, as opposed to the 100+ that swarm Coachella. This will allow bands to play longer sets than usual, thus letting everyone who doesn't want to see Jack Johnson leave super early on Sunday night and get a good night's sleep for work the next day.


But the biggest difference between Coachella and APW has to do with location. Coachella takes place on a polo field in the middle of the desert. It's beautiful and all, but it's very, very difficult to get to the festival without a car. (That will be changing this year, Tollett says, as they are partnering with Amtrak to set up a special stop for the festival.) APW, on the other hand, is in an urban park that's just a brief train or ferry ride away from Manhattan. That means less driving... plus getting to watch bands play against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Manhattan skyline.

Hmm... a three-day music festival that's relatively small, features three stages, is located in an urban park with a beautiful skyline backdrop easily accessible by public transportation, and features performances by Cat Power, the New Pornographers, CSS, and Girl Talk? What a great idea!

Since we had Tollett on the phone, we had to ask, even though we knew it was a stupid question: Any chance that one of the promised additions to the All Points West lineup might be My Bloody Valentine?

No. No chance at all.

Damn.

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