All Points West Wrapup: Looks Like a Winner

The sets went off on time, the weather mostly cooperated, and the inaugural All Points West Festival has attracted good notices.

There was some griping, of course, mainly about the long walk to mass transit (the promised shuttle buses were nowhere in sight) and about the restrictive drinking policy (attendees had to line up to get wristbands to drink, then were limited to five beers a day, which had to be consumed in fenced-in pens). Other reviewers noted that for the price ($89 per day), the festival should have have more big-name artists, which I can agree with to a point. But seeing festival-length sets from a number of groups I'd been interested in, plus what was pretty much a full Radiohead concert, seemed like a fair bargain to me.

For a first-year festival with dozens of acts spread over three days, I thought the session I attended (Friday) was very well run. Entertainment Weekly offered a review of Friday's All Points West show, while reviews of Saturday's proceedings were available from sources ranging from The New York Times, Yahoo, and The Gothamist, which summed up Saturday's show as "more Radiohead, more crowded."

Friday's show did seem sparsely attended (walk-up tickets were available at least as late as 2:30 p.m.); I guess not enough people have summer hours on Fridays.

New Jersey's Star Ledger offered a hometown review of the festival, noting that the organizer of All Points West (and Coachella) is a Jersey native.

I'll have more later on the specific sets I enjoyed most.

Radiohead Tickets Now On Sale

Radiohead tickets for their first set of concert dates are on sale now; you can find them at the Ticketmaster page here.

Here are the cities and venues for which Radiohead tickets are available so far; check the link above for dates and ticket availability:

Cruzan Amphitheatre
West Palm Beach, FL

Ford Amphitheatre At the Florida State Fairgrounds
Tampa, FL

Lakewood Amphitheatre
Atlanta, GA

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte
Charlotte, NC

Nissan Pavilion
Bristow, VA

Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St Louis
Maryland Heights, MO

Woodlands Pavilion
Woodlands, TX

Superpages.com Center (formerly Smirnoff Music Center)
Dallas, TX

Radiohead U.S. Tour Dates On Sale On Its W.A.S.T.E. Site

Radiohead's U.S. tour dates were recently announced, and tickets are now available for presale (starting Feb. 14th) through the band's curiously named W.A.S.T.E. (or WASTE) Web site, the same site that sold its "In Rainbows" pay-what-you-want album download. The public sale starts on Feb. 16th.

NME.com lists the U.S. dates here, noting that the band will be adding more stateside gigs after it plays some dates in Europe.