Festival season is well and truly underway and this weekend we were lucky enough to sample the musical delights of East London's newest sun-drenched gathering, All Points East. After silencing most of their critics with their inaugural weekend headlined by LCD Soundsystem, The xx and Björk, it was the turn of the standalone APE: Presents shows headlined by Catfish and the Bottlemen and The National on the Friday and Saturday respectively.
The first band we caught on Friday were Sheffield indie boys RedFaces opening the North Stage. Ignoring the Alex Turner stance and speaking voice, Redfaces were surprisingly good. They were incredibly tight, highly professional and their anthemic indie rock tunes set the day up brilliantly.
Next, it was the turn of Not Another Music Blog. favourites Sports Team on the sweltering JägerHaus stage. The heat didn't stop frontman Alex Rice from tearing through his signature Jagger-esque dance moves as the band played crowd favourites 'Camel Crew', 'Stanton' and their newest pop hit 'Kutcher'. It's been a while since we saw Sports Team last and they've definitely grown as an outfit since then with their delivery proving to be sharper than ever before.
On the East Stage (main), The Magic Gang continued the success of their debut album by serenading the growing crowd with their soft rock indie tunes. Unfortunately, they came across as rather quite boring (a bit like their album) so, it was time for us to head to the bar.
After feeling suitably fed and watered, we headed back the short distance from the main stage to the ever sweaty JägerHaus to watch South London punk prodigies YOWL. Despite a few lineup changes since we last saw the 5-piece, they were predictably brilliant. Once again, 'Saturday Drag' had the rather large crowd up in arms and new track 'Warm', went down a storm.
Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes lit up the North Stage next. Their blend of anthemic rock and punk was lapped up by the ever-growing audience. The part when Frank facetimed his mum whilst performing was particularly heartwarming. Also, massive shout out to Frank's incredible leopard print coat.
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| Frank Carter and that lovely jacket. Credit: Patrick Gunning |
Catfish and the Bottlemen closed the brilliantly sounding East Stage on Friday night. It's worth mentioning here how good the sound on the East Stage actually was. Everything was as crisp and clear as you would want considering the size of the stage and audience. Other than playing one new track titled 'Fluctuate', the lads from Wales played a setlist full of all their hits including 'Kathleen', '7' and 'Cocoon'. The audience loved it and we did too. It definitely got us excited for new music arriving sometime soon.
Saturday saw the arrival of the scorching sun and some pretty legendary indie bands too. First up for us was the ever-changing and growing Broken Social Scene. Their experimental and grandiose indie lit up the North Stage whilst the festival slowly but surely filled up. All female group Warpaint followed with their shoegaze influenced rock. Tunes like 'New Song' and 'Elephants' captivated the crowd even though they played a relatively short eight-song set.
The weather got even better as Future Islands took to the main stage. Songs like 'Ran' and 'Time on Her Side' went down a treat but the biggest cheer had to be for the modern classic 'Seasons (Waiting On You)'. Samuel T. Herring's stage presence and vocal delivery have to be seen to be believed, but his infectious moves clearly caught the imagination of the packed London crowd.
Up until this point, All Points East seemed to have got everything right. Unfortunately, they slipped up massively booking The War on Drugs to headline the smaller North Stage. Being stood near the back meant the sound didn't travel that far and it was unbelievably rammed. Everyone seemed to have the same idea; watch Future Islands on the East Stage, dash over for The War on Drugs on the North and then head back to the East for The National. The War on Drugs would have been much better suited playing the East stage before The National. Despite this slight error in judgement, The War on Drugs looked brilliant from afar. Their setlist was concise and they played all the bangers, it was just a shame that we couldn't really hear it.
Closing out the Sunday was The National. The excitement was clearly brewing for the indie legends from Ohio as the crowd grew to be a lot bigger than the previous night's headline. The band opened well with 'Nobody Else Will Be There' before tearing into 'The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness' but from here on in it seemed to go rapidly downhill. An overwhelming feeling of boredom washed over as the band played monotonous track after monotonous track. It's safe to say that frontman Matt Beringer's vocal does not translate well live, especially over a ridiculously long two-hour set. Despite this, there were a few lovely moments, like when the band dedicated 'About Today' to the late Scott Hutchinson of Frightened Rabbit. Unfortunately, as a whole headline show, it lacked that magic and wonder that's so often what's needed on a massive stage like the one at All Points East.
Overall, the festival was a triumph. For a first time, it seemed organised, well thought out (bar The War on Drugs fiasco), and thoroughly accessible. The facilities were great, a load of bars, a load of food stalls and also many stages to keep peple interested. The sound was magnificent on the main stage and could have been improved on the second stage but these teething problems will hopefully be ironed out in time for next year. We'll see you again All Points East, that's for sure.
Saturday saw the arrival of the scorching sun and some pretty legendary indie bands too. First up for us was the ever-changing and growing Broken Social Scene. Their experimental and grandiose indie lit up the North Stage whilst the festival slowly but surely filled up. All female group Warpaint followed with their shoegaze influenced rock. Tunes like 'New Song' and 'Elephants' captivated the crowd even though they played a relatively short eight-song set.
The weather got even better as Future Islands took to the main stage. Songs like 'Ran' and 'Time on Her Side' went down a treat but the biggest cheer had to be for the modern classic 'Seasons (Waiting On You)'. Samuel T. Herring's stage presence and vocal delivery have to be seen to be believed, but his infectious moves clearly caught the imagination of the packed London crowd.
Up until this point, All Points East seemed to have got everything right. Unfortunately, they slipped up massively booking The War on Drugs to headline the smaller North Stage. Being stood near the back meant the sound didn't travel that far and it was unbelievably rammed. Everyone seemed to have the same idea; watch Future Islands on the East Stage, dash over for The War on Drugs on the North and then head back to the East for The National. The War on Drugs would have been much better suited playing the East stage before The National. Despite this slight error in judgement, The War on Drugs looked brilliant from afar. Their setlist was concise and they played all the bangers, it was just a shame that we couldn't really hear it.
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| Matt Beringer of The National |
Overall, the festival was a triumph. For a first time, it seemed organised, well thought out (bar The War on Drugs fiasco), and thoroughly accessible. The facilities were great, a load of bars, a load of food stalls and also many stages to keep peple interested. The sound was magnificent on the main stage and could have been improved on the second stage but these teething problems will hopefully be ironed out in time for next year. We'll see you again All Points East, that's for sure.
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