Soooo…. Yesterday I was in a post-gig trance and couldn’t write anything at all… even though I was asked to. Today, on the other hand, I can’t help writing this, even at the expense of my working hours and deadlines…APW2=INCREDIBLE – this would be the shortest blog ever; but it’s all about details… First, the weather. It was fucking PERFECT – high 70iesF (mid 20iesC) no humidity, no rain… it could have easily been in the 90ies and people would be dropping like flies!! There is a reason everyone leaves NYC in August… Andrea’s (http://www.waste-central.com/profile/AndreaDraperNoll) train from Philly arrived at 10am and she was at my place shortly thereafter. We took the subway to Path (NJTransit) which then brought us to Hoboken and jumped on a light Rail from there. … took $5 and less than an hour - score! Liberty Park grounds (was 12:30pm by then) were still quite laid back. Beer situation sucked, because Andrea having gotten her $9 Bud was not allowed outside that guarded area – whereas I miserably failed to produce an age-specifying government-issued ID and wasn’t allowed IN! I was told by the guards “This IS NEW JERSEY” – not sure whether that meant that NJ air instantly made me look 10 yrs younger, or whether in NJ, people graduate college at the age of 12 so that the letters “PhD” on my university ID were compatible with me being under 21… In a retrospect though, we were lucky NOT to be able to drink as bathrooms became off-limits as the day progressed. We made our way to the biggest of the three stages; it was obvious that it was THE ONE as I saw the infamous LED LIGHTS hanging on both sides. I think that THIS was the point at which it really dawned on me that …it was for fucking real. I mean – you guys are on my page and you know my obsessive-compulsive video posting FROM DAY ONE of the tour. I’ve been e-touring since freaking May, going thro' hundereds of videos – and here were THE lights. Hanging. shit.There were people sitting around already, but it was still quite easy to ‘park’ about 15 ‘rows’ from the stage. The ‘pit’ was broken into Ed’s and Jonny’s sides by the central passage guarded by the metal barrier. Same as the front of the pit itself, along the stage. So we sat down on the right (Jonny’s) side of the central corridor with some underage guys who were smoking so much pot that my regrets for not bringing my own quickly evaporated, and I quite enjoyed the role of the ‘passive smoker’. CHROMEO went on at 2:30pm for 45min. A fair number of people were dancing – it was ok, mindless. When it was over, we figured we needed to make a move. So polite but persistent, we’ve maneuvered to about 6th row from the stage and perhaps 3rd row from the central corridor. It was amazing how close we got already! Also, Andrea has a bit of an issue with being crowded in, and the new spot was so close to the stage that there was clearly open space only a few feet away. We joined two guys, one of whom had an umbrella for some shade (umbrellas weren’t supposed to be allowed, but there were quite a few) and who was doing his 4th Radiohead gig this summer. The other guy was there for Kings of Leon. That was clearly the epicenter for true Radiohead fans – lying around since 11am, reading New York Times, studying, sleeping – they were there for only one reason and whatever was happening before 8pm was entirely irrelevant. METRIC 45min gig started at 3:45pm. It was getting packed; the crowd has grown at least 20 times since we showed up. Andrea and I both felt that if a trip for water or whatever else had to happen – that was our last opportunity. Our new friends were out of water too, and were ready to keep our spots if we refilled their water bottles. We took turns; Andrea went first, and returned a while later with all this water; I was starting to get seriously worried, but no problem. I went next, in the middle of METRIC set, 100 ‘excuse me’ got me out, and 200 got me back in. If we were sitting farther from the magic central corner, there would be no fucking way for me to find ‘my people’! ANIMAL COLLECTIVE started at 5pm. My god, was that LOUD! We were already using pieces of napkins as earplugs, but what the hell was with their sound? I thought my stomach would fucking explode. 80% of people around me wore earplugs and some sweet guy gave me extras (god, everyone was just NICE!). Amazingly enough, the group next to us continued sitting around reading (!) despite all the noise and chaos – I really admire these guys ;-) By the time Kings of Leon appeared for their gig at 6:30pm, the place was fucking packed. We were somehow pushed another two feet forward and were now 3-4 rows from the stage. It was at that point, that two new faces – a girl and a very young guy - independently made their way to our corner. Both of them were there for Kings of Leon – in fact, the guy had no idea who was playing next. But his profound drunken happiness and uncontrolled dancing in the absence of any perception of space (personal or communal) hasn’t met much support – people were annoyed beyond limits and… somehow, this worked to our advantage. His rather unstable dancing and attempts to get ahead of the people in front of us bounced him right back at me… so I pushed the guy to the side and made it clear that should he continue, the security will be called. Amazingly enough, it sank in, he backed up and all the commotion created some space which we promptly occupied, now happily standing in the dead center of the pit, second row from the stage – exactly where the railing converged. Our group also managed to spontaneously reshuffle itself by height, so everyone seemed perfectly content. With the disappearance (where did they go??) of the two unwelcomed Kings of Leon fans, it wasn’t even dense! I mean we could totally move about standing just a few feet away from the stage.A few (too many?) nerve-wracking minutes followed. A set change. By now, even the purple boxes with Radiohead gear looked familiar to me. This was such a profound clash of my e-life with real-life – I felt disoriented. They came out at last – the crowd went nuts. I overheard one person, in addition to Andrea, say ‘red pants’ out loud. Now… I have to say, when I looked at the Day 1 set list I was bummed because several ‘infrequent’ songs which I physically crave had happened on Friday: Dollars and Cents, Climbing up The Walls, Jigsaw… And with two consecutive days at the same venue, the set-list was bound to change a lot. But it truly was a night of surprises (no pun intended…). The Bends and Planet Telex sent the crowd into frenzy. Some kids around me must have been 5 yrs old when the Bends came out! Jigsaw DID happen. Where I End... Reckoner as a set-opener was also unexpected. As was the lack of Paranoid Android ;-) God, it was AMAZING… I actually think thom got progressively happier through the gig. He looked it. Andrea noticed that too… One other thing which can make it or break it – probably, for them; but most certainly for us, is the audience itself. If you get some dumbasses chatting nearby, or signing out of key or screaming and being assholes… it could kill it. And Exit Music or FPT are so incredibly fragile…. But it WAS A BLISS – at least in our center-front section, NOT A SINGLE person was talking or singing… I’ve been doing this video hunt for months, can’t tell you how many I discard because of the audio-crap. And it was DEAD SILENCE around me through the quieter verses of both songs – all you heard was thom’s voice … was incredible. I mean, people seemed transfixed, even stopped pointing cameras at him! I wish I could personally thank the guys around us! Bodysnatchers rocked me out of Exit Music like a sledgehammer. A main set closer w/ thom storming off stage when there was still sound in the air. Both Encores UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE. Check the set-list on my page – I can go on forever… Thom’s dedication of ‘Airbag’ to Kings of Leon was hysterical “If we were that good-looking we would be famous”. Planet Telex in 2nd encore, just the sight of it, the light show was beyond anything I can describe! And I could bet $100 for the Idioteque as a set-closer 3 songs in advance – it SO TOTALLY MADE SENSE – it was a KNOCKOUT. The audience went insane. I certainly did!! And these guys did look happy, I swear. They all came to the edge of stage at the end, thom pointed the mic toward us and - fuck – I wish he didn’t, because we clearly were the loudest fucking bunch, nearly shot my ear-drums.And that was it. … I can go through the details of the rest of the night – but who the hell cares? ;-) sorry, it ended up so long… diary of a madman of sorts. Love, xo
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