Sunday 02/08/09 All Points West, Day Three @ Liberty State Park, New Jersey

Sunday morning downpours churned the ground into an inexplicably foul-smelling sea of mud that worsened as the day went on. My long-suffering friends and I caught the end of Silversun Pickups, who were unexpectedly high-energy given their laid back album vibe. Underwhelmed, I left after ‘Lazy Eye’ and sloshed off to We Are Scientists, whose older tracks got the most crowd response. ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’ was by far the favourite and I could have stayed longer, but a late start abbreviated them to six tracks.

Mud rising steadily, I trekked to the main stage. With the rain over, the crowd sprawled on ponchos and raincoats to see Elbow, Echo and the Bunnymen, and headliner Coldplay. I arrived to find Guy Garvey introducing ‘Grounds for Divorce', perhaps the perfect festival song. ‘Divorce’ combined with sweeping, violin-tinged closer ‘On a Day Like This’ put Elbow in competition for the technically strongest band of the weekend.

Brooding Echo and the Bunnymen seemed incredibly subdued in comparison. Opener ‘Lips Like Sugar’ was my stand out track, although the pair in front of me enthusiastically doing yoga (yes, seriously, not a euphemism, actually doing yoga) preferred a sparkly version of ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses'. They closed with what Ian McCulloch called a “holy trinity” of classic songs including ‘The Killing Moon’ and wonderfully dark ‘The Cutter'.

The sun set before Coldplay, who opened with booming ‘Violet Hill', followed by a gorgeous display of angular lasers against Manhattan’s skyline during 'Clocks'. Chris Martin proclaimed APW “the strangest smelling festival”, altering the lyrics of ‘Fix You’ to “When your feet get wet at a Coldplay show/ What could be worse?” (The answer, from personal experience: Losing a shoe at a Coldplay show and going barefoot on the New York subway.)

They included a gorgeous take on ‘Lovers in Japan’ and a cluster of acoustic songs played in the crowd, including  a decent but unremarkable cover of ‘Billie Jean’, while ‘The Scientist’ was an ideal encore, with the crowd singing along as the festival concluded.

I skipped the middle of Coldplay to see MGMT. Ankles submerged in disconcertingly warm mud and surrounded by bandanas and paisley, I caught the second half of ‘Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters’ splendidly psychedelic guitars, the terrific crescendos of ‘Weekend Wars', and new track ‘It’s Working'.

‘Kids’ was sharp and catchy, and ‘Electric Feel’ was enjoyable, although it suffered from unfortunately nasal vocals. I rejoined my friends and we made our way out through the mix of bog and murky, oceanic puddles. As we crossed the central swamp my sandal was ripped apart by the sticky mud and became my final apparel casualty. I headed back to Manhattan soggy and shoeless but satisfied.

All Points West 2009