All Points East 2022

All Points East is an annual 10 day festival held in Victoria Park, in east London, with several different events, including a festival weekend and 4 days of free entry. It is an indie and rock festival with headliners in the past including Björk, LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, and Bring Me The Horizon. This year the headliners included Gorillaz, The Chemical Brothers, and Tame Impala. I went on the final day, the 28th of August, which had Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds headlining.

The first show I saw was Party Dozen. It was quite surprising seeing only two people walk onto the stage, a saxophonist and a drummer; however, this didn't stop them from being one of the noisiest bands of the day with big heavy drumbeats and a piercing saxophone. Perhaps the most interesting part is how the saxophonist sang, putting her face into the bell of the saxophone and just screaming. This mixed with the max reverb created a great atmosphere that overtook your ears.

I left Party Dozen maybe 20 minutes in to go catch the very end of Hurray for the Riff Raff, who was interesting enough to make me question whether I should have left Party Dozen a bit earlier. Hurray for the Riff Raff had a very different kind of music, bordering on folk and singer-songwriter but with something else lurking in the shadow of this, described by them as "Nature Punk".

After the end of Hurray for the Riff Raff I quickly sprinted across the festival to catch Joan as Policewoman on the main stage. Having heard The Magic by her, a song I quite liked, I was very interested to see what other material she had. Unfortunately, many of the tracks felt a bit boring and didn't have enough change, with the exception of the odd moment and the entirety of The Magic.

After Joan as Policewoman there wasn't anything I wanted to check out so I decided to walk around the festival a bit. It was on this journey I found a tiny stage in front of the main stage where this small indie band were playing called Attawalpa. They had a lot of really nice elements but at the end fell short in all of them, however they did impress me enough to keep an eye out on what work they will put out.

After this I went to see Tinariwen. I only saw a short amount as I wanted to go to the main stage however what I saw of them was quite interesting. There were 6 members, most of which were playing a guitar or a bass with 1 member doing percussion. While it was very guitar based it had some very clear eastern influence creating a very interesting sound; however, I think with some more percussion it would have given it some more life.

On the way to the main stage I came across a band that wasn't on the went by the name of The Dinner Party. This all girl band, with the exception of the drummer, I found to be very impressive, with the right mixture between grit and glam and a very charismatic lead singer. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have any songs on streaming nor even YouTube, except a few bootlegs people have uploaded of them.

Now after the brilliant surprise set of The Dinner Party, I headed on to the main stage to see the final 3 artists of the day as close to the stage as possible, and indeed I managed to get to the very front. The first artist was Anna Calvi. I had never heard of her before I saw her name listed for this festival, and having checked out some songs by her I determined she'd be quite good. Her hour set was only composed of five or so songs; however each one was far longer than the studio versions. You could see a lot of influence from Hendrix as whenever she wasn't singing she was riffing. Her vocals were very nice, providing a contrast to her guitar playing which made for a good concert, which maybe felt a little bit bloated.

Next up was The Smile. This band is composed of Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, both from Radiohead, and Tom Skinner, from Sons of Kemet, and released their debut album A Light for Attracting Attention this year. In general they sounded much heavier than on the record but more refined at the same time, they also included a stunning instrumental between Free in the Knowledge and A Hairdryer, which involved Johnny Greenwood playing guitar with a bow. Thom Yorke seemed a bit distant in his delivery but I think that was a mix between it being daytime and them not having the freedom of being a headliner. They also played the new song Bending Hectic. It wasn't really my style of song, much slower and acoustic; however, halfway through, Greenwood just started playing heavy chords as Thom Yorke shouted "You weren't expecting that, were you?", this made the song infinitely more interesting. I can't wait to see how it sounds on their sophomore record, hoping that they do make it.

After saving the spot at the front for an hour after The Smile ended, The Bad Seeds finally took their places on the stage and, seconds after, Nick Cave came running towards the audience shouting "Get Ready for Love"; and from that moment you knew it was going to be something otherworldly. Every aspect of this concert was perfect. The musicians were as incredible as ever, and Nick Cave more emotive than on any studio or live album. He released his set a couple months before as a Spotify playlist, but even with being familiar with the set he was going to play, as well as how the live versions sound, there was still a surprise in every track. No song felt out of place, and they would go seamlessly from faster, high-energy tracks to slower ballads capable of reducing anyone to tears. Nick Cave was constantly travelling up and down the stage, sometimes playing some notes on his piano, often sprinting to a platform right above the public, making direct contact with his audience, creating a very unique bonding atmosphere. But what was most memorable for me from here where these motifs he would create repeating short phrases all throughout the concert such as "cry cry cry, boom boom boom" from From Her to Eternity or "just breathe" from I Need You. All these things together made it a one of a kind concert that can only be described as an experience.

In general, it was a very satisfying festival with a well thought out mix of artists, from well known to unknown, and without any of those nasty clashes that happen so often in festivals. Throughout the day the acts generally got better, ending with Nick Cave playing his own time slot to make sure everyone attending could see him.