All Points East 2023

[Levitz]

I'm in Shoreditch and it was hailing, lightening and thunder.  Awful, puts the downpour yesterday (i missed as at Warmduscher) into more perspective

Edited August 26, 2023 by Levitz

[she bangs the drums]

I'm glad some people on here enjoyed it, though the reality of the situation is thousands of people were leaving from 60 mins into the set. When I walked out with 5 songs to go, there was a mass exodus taking place. I've not seen that many people leave a headliner set since Gorillaz at Glastonbury 2010. 

I watched the Strokes last year at Lytham and no one was leaving the set as the sound was good and everyone could feel connected to what they were watching and listening to.

[xxialac]

I don’t understand the intense criticism of The Strokes on here. Shouldn’t it be aimed at the sound production crew as that’s what the majority have been complaining about?

[northernangel]

1 hour ago, Levitz said:

I'm in Shoreditch and it was hailing, lightening and thunder.  Awful, puts the downpour yesterday (i missed as at Warmduscher) into more perspective

I think people have just had enough of the summer we've had this year.

37 minutes ago, she bangs the drums said:

I'm glad some people on here enjoyed it, though the reality of the situation is thousands of people were leaving from 60 mins into the set. When I walked out with 5 songs to go, there was a mass exodus taking place. I've not seen that many people leave a headliner set since Gorillaz at Glastonbury 2010. 

I watched the Strokes last year at Lytham and no one was leaving the set as the sound was good and everyone could feel connected to what they were watching and listening to.

I wish I'd gone to Groove Armada on JP as I actually think Gorillaz are dull except for a couple of songs. I wasn't as into my dance music of that status though. I was 21 then so I don't think I probably had a clue who they were.

[more matey]

51 minutes ago, xxialac said:

I don’t understand the intense criticism of The Strokes on here. Shouldn’t it be aimed at the sound production crew as that’s what the majority have been complaining about?

Sound issues aside, I think The Strokes suffered from a few variables beyond their control. Of the 50k people who attended, roughly 15k parked themselves at the East Stage for a good spot for The Strokes. They had a good view/sound of the band and only bought their ticket for them and prob went away happy with the performance.

 

The problem is the other 35k were spoilt by the riches on offer on other stages. I had front row for The Walkmen, Amyl and the Sniffers and Black Midi. All were at least good (Amyl superb). The scheduling and 15k parked at East Stage meant all the crowds were well spread up to this point and so getting near the front easy. Then on masse we all turn up for The Strokes to find ourselves half a mile away. The relative intimacy and high bar from bands earlier meant that The Strokes just felt detached. Factor tiredness kicking in and the crowd got bored and restless.

[essjay2009]

I'm going to disagree with some of the comments. I thought the sound on the second stage was also pretty bad. At one point during Amyl it completely shut off (albeit during the downpour), but I'd already commented a couple of times to the Mrs that the mix was off and the audio muffled. I thought it was particularly bad for YYYs. 

I didn't find it too bad for The Strokes, but we were right next to one of the speakers. Julian's vocals were pretty muffled throughout though. Not that unusual for him (I've seen them quite a few times now, first in 2002 - yeah I'm old) and he can definitely have his off days. This wasn't the worst, but definitely not his best last night. Good set list though.

I've been to APE a few times now as I'm local, and I think the audio is highly location dependent. A couple of metres either way can seemingly make a massive difference, so I'm assuming they're having to do some too clever sound shaping stuff to stop it propagating too far and pissing off the residents. It definitely seemed overall worse this year, as did the Lads Lads Lads culture and the pretty dire food choices (would you like a burger and chips, or chips and a burger?).

I feel for the people there today. It was already getting a little moist yesterday after the downpour but today was much worse. Full on storm conditions.

[gregory]

Sound for Erykah was loud and clear/balanced where I was. Wasn't sure about the 15 minute intro, but the 40 mins she was on stage were great,

[collectivisedfarming]

Despite the weather disrupting things enjoyed today a lot more than yesterday's debacle. The diverse and largely pleasant crowd a nice contrast from yesterday too. Giving Erykah Badu only a hour clearly a ridiculous decision. Plenty heading to the exits after her great set. Although Jungle looked like they had a decent crowd and weren't affected too much. 

[RaphPH]

I stood at the front for both the 2023 shows and 2019 Strokes shows. I noticed after last night that when I got home my ears weren’t ringing like they usually do at concerts. Both Girl In Red and The Strokes sounded quite quiet even from the front. 
 

in 2019 I could understand what Julian was saying between songs but last night all just sounded muffled. 
 

Personally, I think APE is getting tireder and skankier every year. 

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, gfa said:

Yup

APE has the 11pm curfew at least. APE is particularly bad i think because of just how close it is to houses. Hyde and Finsbury are much ‘deeper’ vs ape literally next to a road (with houses on the opposite side). Bet it would look awesome from one of those flats

There may be a point there. Comedian Josh Widdecombe lives in that area of London and was asking on Friday night for things to watch on TV to drown out The Strokes.

[charlierc]

6 hours ago, xxialac said:

I don’t understand the intense criticism of The Strokes on here. Shouldn’t it be aimed at the sound production crew as that’s what the majority have been complaining about?

That was my view of the 2019 show tbf. I'd already felt the sound was weak for Interpol on the second stage before The Strokes and much as I liked The Strokes' set that evening, I felt it wasn't loud enough. Although weirdly the best sound was right at the very back.

[Charch]

A much better day today, despite torrential rain and thunder for a good 40 mins, the blessed Madonna’ set was pulled, and no music for a good hour. Erykah was great, despite the dragging 20 minute intro, a huge crowd for her and many left after that. Jungle were excellent, got in the front section too, sound was great and the vibe was so friendly/hippy. A far better crowd than the strokes day!

[Mr Boo]

Got free tickets for the Saturday and due to already having plans during the day, the first band we saw was the Gabriels (wonderful).  

Everything sounded great this evening . Really impressed with Raye and lots of people (including us) dancing along to Jungle.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Mr Boo

[Tamzaghi]

Living in Glasgow, I have a totally different perspective on crowds I think! Compared to your average Glagow crowd at an outdoor gig, Fridays crowd was absolutely fine. No one blind drunk, no one falling about and zero fights.

 

Thought the food options were pretty good as a vegetarian, though I'd be having chips and nothing else, but found there to be plenty of choice.

 

Finally, on The Strokes, they just weren't very good, poor sound or not. Thought their performance had zero energy, too many lulls between songs and Julian was garbage. That muffled singing thing he does grates very quickly. We ended up leaving about 10.30 as we were so bored with them.

 

All in, Thought it was a great day, well run and even a wee bit of rain (that was a wee bit of rain for Scotland!) didn't put a dampener on things.

[gfa]

21 hours ago, northernangel said:

I agree. But lads will buy a ticket for ome band and spend the day drinking there because they cantbe arsed to love. I honestly can't see many strokes fans even liking yyys but maybe I'm wrong there.

Strangely on lineup, it was a year we were least looking forward to, the rain certainly didn't help that. I saw pigeon, seasick steve, tdcc, jew, pulp and the strokes. The National nor Madness are my thing. JEW weren't at their best.

YYYs are from the same scene as the strokes, theres definitely crossover

20 hours ago, she bangs the drums said:

Also @gfaive been to APE three other times (Bring Me the Horizon, Gorillaz and Chemical Brothers) and had no issues with the sound which has been great. Yesterday was shocking 

Sounds like you got lucky before more than anything - there’s always issues. I have fared well it seems by making sure to get a decent spot. I only got to the strokes about 10 minutes before though saying that, its not like i camped at East for an hour

[gregory]

Who's bright idea was leaving a gap of no acts at all before the headliner tonight? 35 minutes gap between SG Lewis and Dermot.

[Rohigh]

21 hours ago, gregory said:

Tove Love has pulled out. Wonder if they'll be replaced. Girl in Red could do a third set..

Yeah I hope they can find a replacement. Currently there’s showing a gap on that stage on the app

[Fleetwood_Mac_And_Cheese]

Curious about how busy it is today for Dermot Kennedy, the only name on the entire bill that interested me was Aurora.

Really excited for the HAIM day tomorrow! Mae Stephens, Snail Mail, Romy, Confidence Man, Girl In Red and HAIM is a pretty decent run all in all to be honest! 

[Jonathan Jonathan]

On 8/26/2023 at 6:45 PM, more matey said:

Sound issues aside, I think The Strokes suffered from a few variables beyond their control. Of the 50k people who attended, roughly 15k parked themselves at the East Stage for a good spot for The Strokes. They had a good view/sound of the band and only bought their ticket for them and prob went away happy with the performance.

 

The problem is the other 35k were spoilt by the riches on offer on other stages. I had front row for The Walkmen, Amyl and the Sniffers and Black Midi. All were at least good (Amyl superb). The scheduling and 15k parked at East Stage meant all the crowds were well spread up to this point and so getting near the front easy. Then on masse we all turn up for The Strokes to find ourselves half a mile away. The relative intimacy and high bar from bands earlier meant that The Strokes just felt detached. Factor tiredness kicking in and the crowd got bored and restless.

Think this hits nail on the head, plus the added factor of a mediocre crowd, as indie oriented festivals seem to attract for some reason? Whilst The Strokes are known to be inconsistent live it didn’t feel like their fault especially. They did what they always set out to do. They’re a relatively no frills live band, so as long as the band (mainly Julian) are tight than that's realistically a good gig from them.

 

My main criticism of The Strokes was perhaps setlist pacing. Between track 6 (YOLO) and 15 (Someday) they went pretty heavy on album tracks. Given that sound improved a bit around YOLO they had opportunity to regain crowd but lost it. I’d normally love deep cuts but think they needed to throw a higher energy song in at some point, because crowd had begun chatting. This isn’t entirely The Strokes fault but whilst their song choice was good the setlist pacing was less so.

 

I think they should have put the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the same stage to get people more hyped and minimising mass movement, especially because it’d have suited those camping out for The Strokes better and created a better ‘vibe’ for lack of a better term. I went from the pit for the YYYs to pretty far back for The Strokes despite a rush from stage to stage. Ended up feeling like I went from an exciting high energy ‘gig’ to a low energy festival show in large part due to the sound.

[gfa]

8 hours ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

Think this hits nail on the head, plus the added factor of a mediocre crowd, as indie oriented festivals seem to attract for some reason? Whilst The Strokes are known to be inconsistent live it didn’t feel like their fault especially. They did what they always set out to do. They’re a relatively no frills live band, so as long as the band (mainly Julian) are tight than that's realistically a good gig from them.

 

My main criticism of The Strokes was perhaps setlist pacing. Between track 6 (YOLO) and 15 (Someday) they went pretty heavy on album tracks. Given that sound improved a bit around YOLO they had opportunity to regain crowd but lost it. I’d normally love deep cuts but think they needed to throw a higher energy song in at some point, because crowd had begun chatting. This isn’t entirely The Strokes fault but whilst their song choice was good the setlist pacing was less so.

 

I think they should have put the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the same stage to get people more hyped and minimising mass movement, especially because it’d have suited those camping out for The Strokes better and created a better ‘vibe’ for lack of a better term. I went from the pit for the YYYs to pretty far back for The Strokes despite a rush from stage to stage. Ended up feeling like I went from an exciting high energy ‘gig’ to a low energy festival show in large part due to the sound.

London crowd more than anything ^^^ always full of talkers

re yyy placement, they always put the second biggest act on the opposite stage for whatever reason - maybe to encourage food/bar sales as people walk back and forth?

[gregory]

Tove Lo hasn't been replaced, they've shifted everyone on that stage along one. I have updated the clashfinder, hopefully correctly. Nice little money saver for them there!

[Gingerfish79]

I went to the Strokes day. Thought the whole thing was a thoroughly terrible experience.

I thought the scheduling was bad, having both Amyl and the YYYs on the same stage meant that queues for food/drinks/toilets were impossible. The food was also incredibly expensive. The sound was bad on both main stages. Also seemed to encounter a lot of people who clearly don’t go to gigs and showed zero consideration for anybody else.

I won’t be going again!

[collectivisedfarming]

Can't be arsed to go today. They could easily have got a replacement for Tove Lo. They did this when First Aid Kit, a significant name on the lineup, pulled out of the Bon Iver (boring as sin) day, just bumped everyone up. 

[charlierc]

18 minutes ago, Gingerfish79 said:

The food was also incredibly expensive.

Feel like that's just a broad festival problem anyway, even moreso after inflation in 2021/22 was just so bad.

[charlierc]

10 hours ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

I think they should have put the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the same stage to get people more hyped and minimising mass movement, especially because it’d have suited those camping out for The Strokes better and created a better ‘vibe’ for lack of a better term. I went from the pit for the YYYs to pretty far back for The Strokes despite a rush from stage to stage. Ended up feeling like I went from an exciting high energy ‘gig’ to a low energy festival show in large part due to the sound.

This is similar to the criticism Reading gets with its mapping of two big stages at either end of the field alternating who has acts on. I prefer things like Lollapalooza Paris or Mad Cool (at least the 2018 version) where the two main stages are adjacent.