Festival Review: All Points East 2022 - Friday 26th August

After a summer of heatwaves and a day of festival action already, Victoria Park wasn’t exactly looking its green and pleasant best at All Points East this year. Nonetheless, it didn’t detract from an enjoyable time as the crowd descending for the introspective-indie-sadboy day of the festival – with The National headlining a line-up that included Fleet Foxes, Villagers, Kurt Vile, and Cassandra Jenkins among others. Unfortunately, big names Low and King Gizzard had to drop out, but guitars certainly weren’t in short supply. The only thing more plentiful than guitars seemed to be sponsors. In what seems to be a growing trend at APE, the surrounding areas of the stages were filled with opportunities to win a year’s free supply of this or that, crypto, deodorant, juice, you name it.  

BUT… we’re only here for the music. The music. Tune-yards gave an energetic performance to small crowd of early-birds. Sets from Cassandra Jenkins, drawing from her lovely 2021 release An Overview of Phenomenal Nature, and Dehd - pleasantly reminiscent of The Drums, with some groovy visuals to boot – also set the tone on the Ray-Ban West and North Stage.  Lucy Dacus brought her personal lyricism to an attentive crowd before Kurt Vile, nicely timed for the after-work arrivals, appeared next. His band were on form and the laid-back persistent groove slowly won over the crowd as the set continued, culminating in the long, winding wah-wah acoustic guitar solo on ‘Wakin on a Pretty Day’, which the cameraman seemed to have trouble deciphering from the electric guitars, causing a few giggles amongst the audience. Along with Kurt’s comments about all the ‘silly billys’ out in London.

Perfume Genius, draped in beige lace, played a joyous set to a loving crowd. On stage with Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, the Iowan performer’s dance moves were a sight to behold. A trip to the 6 Music DJ stage saw Veronica Vasicka play a set of analog synth wave gems and gave us a quick dance before heading to the highlight of the evening: Fleet Foxes on the West Stage. Joined on the current tour by a horn section, The Westerlies, Robin Pecknold and co put on a sublime performance. As one of, if not the only band, to transcend (overcome?) the slightly excruciating folk boom of the late naughties, they have grown bigger and are sounding better than ever. With an adoring crowd, singing all the words to old songs ‘Blue Ridge Mountain’ or ‘Mykonos’, and newer ones ‘Sunblind’ or ‘Can I Believe You’, the set left you buzzing. There was a guest appearance from collaborator Uwade, singing on the opener ‘Waiding Through Waist-High Water’ and taking Tim Bernardes’ spot for ‘Going-to-the-Sun Road’, the outro of which felt like a spiritual experience. It truly was life-affirming stuff, which very much placated any pre-set worries about the full-on clash with Parcels in the North Stage tent.

Then came The National, unsurprisingly attracting the biggest crowd of the day. Berninger was his usual entrancing self, swimming across the stage from side to side. The set somewhat frontloaded the bands biggest hits, with ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, ‘I Need My Girl, ‘The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness’, and ‘This Is the Last Time all played in quick succession. The stage production was loud, black and white, almost strobe-like, broody but triumphant visuals throughout. Berninger then sweetly dedicated ‘Pink Rabbits’ to his parents on their anniversary, saying he asked them how they got to 55 years together: “find someone kind and it’ll all work out”. Robin Pecknold joined onstage for new single ‘Weird Goodbyes’, and they then finished off the set with ‘About Today’, leaving the dispersing crowd with smiles on their faces.