it is now wednesday and i STILL have a headache.

All Points West - Part Tres

i woke up sunday morning, looked out the window and it was pouring rain. i was hesitant of whether i should get up or not. i then decided to go back to sleep, but was rudely interrupted by a slew of texts asking when/if i was going and if it was canceled or not. obviously, it would be absurd to completely cancel it, but because the rain was so bad, they had to delay opening gates by over two hours. people had been waiting in the rain and were already aggravated enough, i can't imagine how they felt when they were told they couldn't even go in until 3:40.
none of this applied to me though. because i had a field pass, i could go at any hour, waltz on in, and no one would care.
but i decided to sleep til 3pm and leave the house around 5:30.
i came equipped with my doc martens. i was ready for any amount of mud that day.

we got to the park just as silversun pickups were finishing and i snagged a spot in the second row for we are scientists.
i had been amped all weekend for them, and now that i was feeling better, i knew i could thoroughly enjoy their set, along with all the other bands i needed to see that day.
they have a ton of energy (especially for guys over 30 haha) ... you can really tell that they're doing what they love and they won't stop for a while. i love them. they even did a new song ... i'm totally psyched for more new material.
towards the end of their set, dev hynes aka lightspeed champion came out to play guitar with them. i got so excited when i saw him. it was completely unexpected and fantastic.












after their epic set, we headed to the blue comet stage to see echo & the bunnymen, but then decided to leave that stage and see lykke li instead, because obviously she is the superior act. she's just fantastic, and the crowd went absolutely insane when she did a cover of "a milli" ... yes, i couldn't believe it either. but anyways, she's lovely and swedish and wonderful and i want to be her. oh, and during her set, i ran into alice glass from crystal castles. she was dancing, and i, like a creep, stood and watched her for five minutes.






after her set, we headed back to the bullet stage to catch a little bit of the black keys ... ok, so i didn't really want to see them. i just wanted to attempt to get a decent spot for MGMT, which not so much to my surprise, was incredibly difficult. i managed to get pretty far up though considering how packed the crowd was.
MGMT came on promptly at 9:40. everyone around me was trippin' on something ... what else is new?
i got so excited when they played "destrokk," a song from an older ep, and it was clear that the australian men in my vicinity and i were the only ones who were singing along. of course everyone went insane when they did "electric feel" and "time to pretend." they "closed" with a new song, but then came back out to do "kids," obviously. ... it was basically a mud party by then. people were flinging it everywhere. it was great, they were great, they're just spectacular live. oh, and let me just say, their lead guitarist is a beast. that solo during "kids" ... wow, i was in awe.














when they finished, i realized that coldplay was still playing, so i met up with katie and we watched from the tent.
i only caught their encore, but from what i heard, they were good. not gonna lie. it was a nice way to end a truly phenomenal weekend. my feet were officially shot by then, and it was hard to walk, but i knew that with every step, i was closer to my bed and closer to the best sleep of my life.

so with that i say, thank you all points west. i had fun.

it's tuesday night and my feet are still sore.

All Points West - Part Dos

my middle toe on my right foot is a little numb, and it has felt that way since saturday morning.
saturday was an odd day. while it TECHNICALLY should've been my favorite day based on all the bands that were playing, i found it hard to enjoy anything fully because i felt so sick. the weather was beautiful, but i honestly felt like i was dying.
i have no idea why though.
i just woke up that day and thought to myself "crap, this is gonna be bad" .... my chest felt like it was caving in on my lungs, i had a splitting headache, and every second, i thought i was going to throw up. it was really quite tragic.
i thought i was dehydrated at first, so i drank some water. it didn't help.
i tried to take it easy most of the day, but found myself only getting weaker as hours passed.
i was towards the front for the cool kids, but i couldn't even stay where i was because i couldn't breathe, which killed me because i love them so much. oh, and the sound system got messed up halfway through their set, and the bass was making my stomach hurt even more. awesome.





i ended up sitting under the friends of liberty state park tent for the remainder of their set.
next up was gogol bordello. i scraped myself off of my chair and knew that if i wasn't able to have a good time during their set, that my day would just be the worst ever.
thankfully, i had enough energy to thoroughly enjoy their set. they're so much fun and clearly know how to get a crowd moving.
eugene hutz is a genius and he has a fantastic mustache.







i then had a little bit of free time to just sit and reenergize. though that was short lived and i had to trudge through the mud to the other side of the park for tokyo police club. i had to settle for a spot in the 5th row because there was no way i could squeeze any further and still be alive after their set. they were precious as usual. they never fail to impress me. though, it was clear that most of the people near my were just aching to see crystal castles and that they could care less about tpc.
whatever, i love them, and i managed to not pass out during their set from extreme exhaustion.








i moved up a little bit for crystal castles, but as the crowd got tighter, i had to get out to prevent myself from throwing up on everyone around me, which really bummed me out because i had been amped for crystal castles all week.
i felt so sick at that point that i could barely dance.
i ended up sitting down and almost bursting into tears because i felt so horrible.
i tried my hardest to enjoy them though. they did my favorite song, "black panther" and also a new song which was super great. i guess i'll have to check them out again another time, so i can get the full effect.

i stuck around for a little bit of the ting tings, whom i've seen before. they were lovely and if i wasn't so sick, i would have stayed longer. i had intentions of not even going on sunday, but we all knew that i'd come through and make it through yet another day of apw madness.

it's monday morning and i'm paralyzed, basically.

All Points West - Part Uno



so here i am. i woke up about 10 minutes ago because it's impossible to sleep when your feet feel like they're falling off.
all points west was a success, despite the rain. oh, and i didn't have to pay a penny all weekend.
except when i decided to buy some things from the renegade craft fair tent ... yes, it was just like the annual renegade craft fair in williamsburg, but scaled down to about 30 vendors. awesome, to say the least.
i got a couple of cute things.

but anyways, i worked on friday for a few hours until the rain came. it was pouring, so we were forced to close down the pretzel cart, and then i had the rest of the day off. i scampered away, with soaked clothes and all to see ra ra riot and vampire weekend, then met up with some friends for yeah yeah yeahs. it stopped raining during their set, probably because karen o is obviously a goddess and can do anything, i.e. make the rain stop.







jay-z killed it later on, but i was upset that he didn't have any super fantastic special guests. uhhh, hello, where the hell was beyonce? whatever, mad props to him. his band was phenomenal as well.






oh, and you thought that was the end of friday. noooooooo sir.
we then sprinted to the queen of the valley tent after jay-z's set to see mstrkrft.
it was basically a rave in there. i was definitely having a seizure and i didn't even realize it because i was just so hyped.
towards the end of the set, they mixed everyone's favorite club hit "satisfaction" by benny benassi into ... get this ... BOHEMIAN FLIPPIN' RHAPSODY! the crowd went nuts. i was thoroughly in awe.
we made new friends while singing at the top of our lungs, and went home satisfied, and sore.