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Back in early April, I did as I have done many times for over a decade: I found info on a live show that I wanted to attend, I bought tickets way ahead of time (and on this occasion, also paid for a hotel room with room for me + 3), and then let all my concert-going friends know, so they would (hopefully) join me.
The tickets were for the All Points West Music & Arts Festival in Liberty State Park, across the harbor from New York City, and the hotel room was in a Doubletree Hotel, a one-mile walk from the park. We wouldn't have had to worry about parking or public transport (subway and/or ferry), and we'd have been spending each night in luxury! An advantage over my Woodstock '99 experience is that for this 3-day festival, each day begins at noon and ends at 11 pm sharp (no sleepover mayhem to worry about, and plenty of time each morning to enjoy breakfast, not to mention a shower), featuring each night's headliner: Beastie Boys, Tool and Coldplay.
Now, I have no interest in Tool, and I was planning on leaving before Coldplay's set on Sunday night to beat all the traffic, but the rest of the festival's line-up is amazing. If I had been able to go, today was going to be unreal. Granted, Beastie Boys sadly wouldn't be able to play after all (Jay-Z stepped up graciously to replace them, which was cool, and is probably going to be fantastic), but I would still have been able to see Fleet Foxes, The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Carolina Liar.
On Day 2 (tomorrow), seeing one of my all-time favorite bands, My Bloody Valentine would have fulfilled a dream I've had since college. Plus, I would have been able to hear a lot of current bands live that I might normally not have any (or just a passing) interest in (Gogol Bordello, Arctic Monkeys, The Ting Tings). And on Day 3 (Sunday), I would have gotten to see minor 80's icons Echo & The Bunnymen, current favorite Ghostland Observatory, and (I hadn't even noticed until today), a band from one of Christopher's recent album reviews, Akron/Family. How cool would that have been?
Anyway, the point of this story is this: I will never again shell out money for concert tickets, no matter how excited I am, until I have travelling companions already lined up. Unfortunately for this ill-fated excursion, Brian didn't like enough of the line-up, Gavin has Depeche Mode tickets for tonight (and has been travelling nearly every weekend this summer to boot), Rob is renovating a house, and Jay is too busy with work. All very good reasons not to go. And for the record, while I am disappointed, I would never be ridiculous enough to carry any ill-will toward my NLM bretheren. Thankfully in this case, I was fortunate enough to get my money back for the $360 hotel room (which was non-refundable, because it was booked so soon at a "locked-in" price). A girl who needed a last-minute room took it off of my hands (thanks Monica!) in an amazing "overnighted money-order" and "transfer the reservation name" operation. Sadly, as you can see by the photo, I was not able to recoup the $222 for the tickets. An expensive lesson, but one well-learned.
Hopefully, next year's line-up will have more appeal to (and better timing for) my Not Lame Minus cronies, and I'll be able to enjoy a 3-Day revel once again!
Ah, Day Two: the first full day of music. Because my musical taste didn't line up with that of the girls (Scott & I had a lot of overlap, but they all preferred hard rock & mosh pits to peace & love), I spent the bulk of the three days alone (in a crowd of 200,000 - nice trick) at shows the others had no interest in seeing, but which had been some of my main reasons for attending.
After a leisurely morning, and a breakfast of pretzels, a big apple & water, I wanted to see G-Love (who replaced Sugar Ray last-minute) at the East Stage, but he didn't start 'til a half-hour later, so I headed off to the West Stage with the rest of the group (vodka & cranberry juice bottles in hand) to see Oleander, one of Scott's favorite bands. They were pretty decent, and it was an enjoyable set.
When I finally left the others to head over to G-Love, I got distracted by the music coming from the Emerging Artist Stage (in a converted airplane hangar). I found myself at the Bijou Phillips show, and was enjoying the music (and my booze buzz) so much, that I volunteered to get up on stage to dance with her. Thankfully, she chose three other dudes instead, for she had them strip down to their skivvies, and today was the one day I had on colored briefs (brick red, if you care) instead of boxers. So they hammed it up for her, she sang her ass off, and I danced in the crowd and got a bit pickled. Fun was had by all.
It was SO hot and humid mid-afternoon that I spent the next ninety minutes in the movie tent next door, watching "The Mask", catching my breath, guzzling water, and keeping still in one of the few (relatively) cool spots at the entire event. The film was as funny as I remembered, and it was good to get out of the press of humanity for a bit. After the movie, and stops to fill my empty bottle with water from the fountain, eat a couple of five-dollar hot dogs (meat goooood!), and buy a cool silver ring, I finally made my way to the East Stage, just in time to meet up with Scott & Lisa to see Live (who were very good), and then Sheryl Crow, who was fantastic. The three of us had seen her at The Orpheum in Boston back on May 5th with Semisonic, and she was just as good today as she was back then, but in a different way (more raw & powerful, and more playful too). We spent part of the time watching from the middle-back of the crowd, and the rest watching her on the big round screen off to the side, so we could breathe, and make it out quickly after her set. Plus we got tired of all the meatheads bellowing "Show us your tits!" at her between songs. Weak. Highlights included "Favorite Mistake", "Everyday is a Winding Road", and "Sweet Child O'Mine".
On the way back to the tents we stopped at the Emerging Artist Stage again, and caught a bit of then "It-Kid" Ben Lee. He sucked. Maybe it was the heat (mid-nineties and high humidity all day), maybe it was his music (probably a combo of both), but none of us really cared for his voice, and we headed off to our campsite slightly deflated. When we got back to the tents, we all compared notes for a bit, and the other five all headed back out into the mob to the East Stage to see The Offspring and then Korn perform. Personally, I was wiped out. So I drank a lot of water, had another apple, popped out my contact lenses, and read part of the book ("Master and Commander" by Patrick O'Brian) I had brought for any downtime I might have. After about a hundred pages, and George Clinton playing off in the distance on the West Stage, I was out like a light (circa 9:30 pm!). I wound up sleeping for twelve straight hours. What a first day!
"Bitch & Moan" Excuses #3 and #4 Spoiled: T-shirts were $30, and I didn't think that was a good deal, so I didn't buy one (in contrast, the silver ring with imbedded black salamanders all around it was worth the $25 to me). And sure, the hot dogs were five bucks each, but we had brought plenty of food with us (apples, pretzels, sports bars, etc...), and by planning ahead yet again, we weren't "forced" to pay the high vendor prices unless we chose to.
Due to my upcoming long weekend at All Points West in a week, and the fact that it's the ten-year anniversary of Woodstock '99, I have decided to regale you all with true tales, untainted by media sensationalism & hearsay (and explaining why so many whiners were just lazy), from my experience at Griffiss Park in Rome, New York over the span of July 22nd through the 25th of that year.
On Thursday July 22nd, my friend Scott and I, along with four girls he was chummy with, all piled into a car, loaded with two tents and two coolers for three nights and three days of music and mayhem. After a long drive from Central Massachusetts, full of camaraderie and anticipation, we arrived at the giant parking lot, unloaded the car, and headed to the main gate to be admitted to the bacchanal. As we got closer to the gate, we noticed a large pile alongside the line of people waiting to get in. It was a tower of confiscated alcohol! Case upon case of beer, boxes of wine, and gallons & gallons of vodka, gin, rum, and other potent potables sat in a heap before us, stewing in the heat and humidity, while their former owners trudged dejectedly into the park. It was chest-high on me, and I am 6'3"! When our turn arrived at the entrance, I only felt a slight spark of trepidation. Before we'd loaded the car back home, Scott & I'd had a feeling we'd have to pass through a checkpoint just like this, so we'd bought some of our bottled water in Poland Spring six-packs (and not just gallon jugs). We'd carefully removed the middle two bottles of each of the four six-packs, drank the water, and refilled them with high-proof vodka, carefully rescrewing the tops on, and gingerly guiding them back into the plastic rings. Anyway, the security people asked us to open our coolers, took a cursory glance at our 'water' bottles, gallons of cranberry juice, and bags of apples, and waved us through. SUCCESS!! Not only did we have supplies for Cape Codders (vodka & cranberry juice for those of you who can't do the mixology) all weekend, but with the bottles, we also had portable carriers for them, as well as something to refill all weekend at the public water fountains.
We wandered around a bit, looking for good tent space, and using common sense, we found a spot on a small rise, close to (but not next to) two different porta-potty rows, and away from any well-travelled footpaths. We set up the tents (Scott & I, Lisa and another girl in the large one, and Missy & the last girl in the 2-person one), took our time unpacking, and eventually split up into pairs to wander around and explore for awhile. All the while, we could hear George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars in the middle of a phenomenal 4-hour "unofficial kick-off" set (it was George's birthday, and he wanted to celebrate in style). Also, before we headed off into the crowds, MTV wandered by our tent with a camera and mic, replied to our friendly hello, and then dashed off in another direction when they got close enough to realize we weren't their "desired demographic" (I was 30 at the time). We totally understood: I mean really, what "TRL"-watcher wants to listen to a pair of interesting guys, with actual personalities & life experience, yammer on about a (hello!) fun-for-all-ages event? We laughed it off and melted into the crowds, marveling at the wide variety of attendees from around the U.S., Canada and the rest of the world.
As the sun was setting, Scott and I came upon a group of hundreds of people outside the airplane hangar where P-Funk had finished their long set, and where emerging artists would be playing the rest of the weekend. Some of the event staff had wheeled out a couple hundred large cardboard boxes that turned out to be full of flying discs. Each box contained 199 yellow frisbees, and one blue one. People (including us) grabbed handfuls of them, and kept a continuous flight of them up in the air, quickly realizing that they were made of such hard plastic, that you had to snag them before they hit you in the head, shoulder, leg, arm or face, and left a mark. The darkening sky was full of an everchanging cloud of yellow plastic, streaked occasionally by the rare blue discs, and a lot of pent-up excitement and aggression were released in all that throwing and catching. Only a handful of idiots actually threw the frisbees at people, and they were soon dissuaded from their non-harmonious behavior by the rest of the crowd. It was a blast, and I walked away with no bruises, and three of the prized blue flying saucers! I still have two of them to this day ☺
Basically, the first day was an evening to set up, chill, and explore. There was the fantastic unscheduled music, the Great Frisbee War to participate in, and the colorful cross-section of humanity for people-watching, to keep our minds off the heat, plus the excited conversations and anticipation of the potential events of the next three days.
Random exchange overheard while setting up camp, between a girl and a surfer dude at a nearby tent: "Hey, are you coming with us to go see George Clinton?" she asked. "Nah, babe," he drawled, "I'm gonna go sell this pot, so I'll have some green to eat later...".
"Bitch & Moan" Excuses # 1 and #2 Spoiled: We brought our own booze, so we didn't have to pay for $7 beers. We brought our own water, as well as refillable containers, so we didn't have to pay for $4 bottles of water.
