While Friday’s staggering lineup kept spirits pumped despite the slosh, Saturday’s sun was a fresh start with bikini tops and fedoras aplenty. We started the day off proper by discovering the backstage VIP Media area, as well as the VIP bathrooms and VIP booze. Kicking ourselves for not discovering this music Mecca when the monsoon hit the day before, we didn’t hesitate to take shade when invited to enjoy a refreshing Grey Goose with Mr. Kool Keith himself. Wrapped in a silvery-sequined-babushka and sporting a deer-in-headlights vibe, Kool Keith, Dr. Octagon, and all of his multiple personalities of dysfunction and smut, mingled backstage with Ice-T who made a special appearance during Keith’s set. Adrian Grenier chilled out back there before his set with The Honey Brothers, as well as members of My Bloody Valentine…and all their kids.
Lured by the sounds of sweet St. Vincent, we ditched backstage and caught Annie Clark making beautiful noise. It seems as if only she can make distortion seem elegant. Then we moved on to Chairlift, a band which has unfortunately ended up being a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. While I really like their debut, I couldn’t help but feel kind of silly as tweens, in their braided headbands and high-waisted stonewashed short shorts, bum rushed the stage. Maybe it was the iPod commercial (look what happened to Santigold after her Coors commercial) or maybe it’s the fact that there are lots of bands, past and present, making dream pop with a synthesizer and a Brooklyn-based siren doing it a lot better, but I lost interest after the third song and headed over to the Main Stage for My Bloody Valentine, with a brief stop off to check out Neko Case.
I can only describe My Bloody Valentine’s set as a music geek’s wet dream. If you didn’t do your homework, you just won’t get it and I think it’s safe to say many Tool fans played hooky that day. There’s a certain danger to the music. It’s challenging, both physically and mentally. It’s deafening, ear bleeding, soundscape is an almost violent experience, yet there’s something thrilling in the sheer destruction of the sound, something refreshing in the utter obliteration that the music promises.
Crystal Castles hands down stole the night for me. Everyone showed up to see Alice Glass and Ethan Kath blow the big top off All Points West including John Norris and the MTV crew who were broadcasting from the side of the stage. Dear Alice & Ethan: please don’t do a beer commercial no matter what Norris and his ridiculous turquoise skinny jeans tease you with. Wielding a strobe as her weapon of choice, Alice fired and screeched from the top of gigantic booming speakers and revelers gave over to the piercing thrash of electronica’s reigning king and queen. Worship I did.
Educated by Tool as a teen and never having seen them live, I was hungry for a peek at Maynard James Keenan’s mug and wanted to feel the Undertow. Unfortunately, the notoriously private troupe denied photo privileges and Maynard remained cloaked in shadow throughout the entire set. While I understand that graphics and visual art play a large part in the band’s schema, there was definitely an element of disappointment. We came to Jersey to see you, not a video of a stone baby melt into some sort of unidentified arthropod. We rode the subway for an hour and a half, took the stank PATH train, a shuttle, and then walked 1.5 miles in the sulfur-simmering mud to see you. You. There’s nothing wrong with giving fans what they want. You wanna rock about transcendence? Show Your Bones, like Karen O.
Photos: Dese’Rae Stage
