Last night my friend (and perennial concert companion) asked me if I’ve seen the newly released All Points West festival line-up . I hadn’t, so I checked it out. It’s pretty fantastic.
Day 1 includes the Beastie Boys, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, the National and Ra Ra Riot.
The last time the Beasties played in the NYC area the tickets were $75 a pop for just them. A one-day pass to All Points West is just under $100 for about 20 bands.
Day 2 has My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello, Neko Case, the Ting Tings, Arctic Monkeys, Kool Keith and Tool.
Yes, that Tool. You know, the late 1990s metal band with the phallic-wrench logo, as seen on the t-shirt of every slightly weird longhaired dude sitting the back of your high school class (or as I liked to call them, potential dates).
Day 3 welcomes Coldplay, Echo and the Bunnymen, MGMT, the Black Keys, Lykke Li, the Gaslight Anthem, Mogwai and Janeane Garofalo.
Now, I’m not a big Coldplay fan (I won’t get into why, but suffice to say recent plagiarism allegations haven’t helped), but having Janeane Garofalo on the list makes up for that. She’s a feminist comic extraordinaire. Plus, Bill O’Reilly recently called her ”the worst celebrity liberal.”
The whole weekend is shaping up to be pretty great. I guarantee I’ll be at day 1; I’ve wanted to see the Beasties live since I was about 14, plus I was distraught to find out that this weekend’s Ra Ra Riot show in NYC is sold out.
Single-day passes are $89 and according to the website 3-day tickets are $199 for a limited time. It doesn’t say how limited the time is or what the price will go up to later. You can only buy the tickets online, so be sure and factor some extra fees into your concert budget.
I know, in these troubled financial times it seems like a lot of money to spend on entertainment, but I’m thinking of it as buying in bulk. Twenty-some bands for under $100? That’s less than $5 per band. It’s actually quite thrifty.
Go to the All Points West website to see the full line-up and keep up-to-date with ticketing info. The festival will be July31-August 2 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.
Photo via www.brooklynvegan.com
-Liza
