As you definitely know if you’ve spoken to me in the past month, I went to All Things Go NYC at Forest Hills Stadium. I’d never been to a music festival before, so this was a totally new experience for me. It’s been a few weeks now, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. This festival has completely reshaped my Spotify playlists, and I fear it has encouraged me to continue my rash spending habits with regards to seeing my favorite artists live.
The festival was for two days (the last Saturday and Sunday of September), so I drove to New York with my friend on Saturday morning, stayed in a hotel overnight, and drove back Sunday evening. Driving through the city to get to the hotel on Saturday night was low-key terrifying, but I reminded myself this was all sort of a learning experience — here we were, being adults, going on this journey we didn’t have to ask permission for, because we’d spent our own money (a lot of it) on this. And the festival itself was incredible, even in spite of the devastating last-minute Chappell Roan cancellation. Here are my thoughts on the lineup!
Towa Bird: We arrived right after the first set started, so we missed a few of the songs, and she was only on for about twenty minutes. I personally think it was a travesty how little time they gave her. I’d only listened to Towa Bird’s music a bit before the festival, but I definitely enjoyed her music and overall vibe. Before playing her final and best-known song “Drain Me!” she announced to the audience, “This song is about lesbian sex!” and the decibel of cheering made it very clear that she had reached her target audience. Also, it was raining — the forecast hadn’t warned us about that — so the lyrics like “waterfall, super soak, do or die, baby” were quite fitting.
We didn’t know the next artist at all, so we decided to go down to the area below the venue seating to get snacks and water. We wandered around looking at different tables that were set up in the area. One was a telehealth service for sexual health; another was a fund-raiser to open a lesbian bar. If you donated to the latter, you got to spin a wheel to win various free swag, such as nail clippers and carabiners. The venue wasn’t super crowded yet, since a lot of people only came later on for the bigger names. Although I’m generally a hater of crowds of any size, I found that I didn’t mind this one. Maybe it’s not crowds that are the problem, it’s just men. Not a lot of those present, and most of the ones I did see were in bright pink bedazzled cowboy hats.
Soccer Mommy: I’m going to be honest, this one was rather disappointing. I had listened to a bit of their music beforehand and liked it, but I feel like they didn’t really have much of a stage presence. Maybe it’s just that a lot of their songs are sad, but it felt very muted somehow. Also, the rain was starting to seep into my bones because I was not dressed for this weather at all. The forecast was lies. All lies. We were betrayed.
Del Water Gap: This was the first set I’d been really looking forward to, because I had actually been listening to his music quite a bit for the past month and really liked it. I was already hyped when he first got on stage. And actually, he was even better than I’d hoped. This man was running and jumping across the stage continuously with an unlimited energy that suggested he was actually several jackrabbits in a trench coat (he was wearing a black trench coat). Midway through the set, he started talking about how it was so great to be at a festival surrounded by “feminine energy” and added that “the only music I listen to is by women.” I found this kind of hilarious and kept picturing Rodrick Heffley’s infamous apology (“I’m sorry women”) for some reason. The fact that it felt like comical pandering can coexist with the fact that it still worked on me. He just had this infectious good energy. When he played “Perfume,” he took off the trench coat and the tie and unbuttoned the top of his white button-down shirt, and, you know, there’s a lot I could say. The phrase “the only man ever” comes to mind and is particularly appropriate in this setting. But I’m getting sidetracked and this festival was, in fact, about women, so I’ll just say I love his music even more now and will be lining up for barricade if he plays any shows near me in the future.
Holly Humberstone: This is another artist I’d only listened to a little bit before the festival, but I have definitely started to listen to her more now. She was really, really good. I was most captivated by her performance of “Kissing in Swimming Pools,” a sweet and subdued love song. I also have “Into Your Room” on loop now, not to mention “Cigarettes and Wine” with Del Water Gap, a song of theirs together which they performed at this show. All of these songs are about as far as possible from being relatable to my current life, but I’m just here for the vibes.
Chappell Roan tribute: My friend and I were borderline hypothermic in our cutesy little concert outfits now, because it still hadn’t stopped raining, so we gave in and bought $55 sweatshirts from the merch stand just to have something dry to wear. Then we came back to watch the drag performance that had been arranged as a last-minute replacement for Chappell’s set. It was rather chaotic — there were a bunch of drag queens dancing onstage and a couple of people in vegetable costumes, for some reason. They played all of Chappell’s most scream-sing-worthy songs (“My Kink is Karma,” “Pink Pony Club,” “HOT TO GO!”, etc.) and the whole crowd was singing along energetically. The crowd definitely got substantially bigger at this point — which is pretty wild, really, Chappell Roan being able to draw such a big crowd without even being there. It was still dreary and raining a bit and the sky was starting to darken, and of course we were still disappointed that the real Chappell wasn’t here with us, but honestly? The energy was still unmatched. It was loads of fun. Chappell Roan concerts are really just about a huge crowd screaming their hearts out with the onstage performers in an unabashed celebration of queer joy. I feel like I did still get a piece of that experience.
MUNA: They call themselves the greatest band in the world, and they are. No lies detected. They were absolutely incredible. Songs like “I Know A Place” and “Kind of Girl” will always hit different for me. I already feel connected to these songs in my own life, and MUNA introducing them with absolutely based political commentary just made me love them even more. The band covered “Good Luck, Babe!” in tribute to Chappell Roan, which made me incredibly happy. Also, I just about lost my mind when they played “Anything But Me” and threw mini inflatable horses into the crowd to be tossed around like beach balls. For context, the song starts with the lyrics, “You’re gonna say that I’m on a high horse / I think that my horse is regular-sized,” so Katie Gavin had introduced it as “a song about horses”. It was an excellent bit, in my opinion. Without a doubt, though, the highlight of the performance was the final song, “Silk Chiffon,” where Lucy Dacus came out as a surprise guest. I actually don’t think I’ve ever screamed so loud in my entire life. I believe Lucy Dacus is one of the absolute greatest artists of this generation and so dramatically underrated. So is MUNA, really. Obviously they are famous, but in the world of my mind they’re as mega-famous as Taylor Swift, so I was surprised when my parents didn’t know who they were. They should be a household name everywhere. These people deserve to be in the history books.
Reneé Rapp: By the time Reneé took the stage, it had finally stopped raining, but moisture lingered on every surface. She made sure to point out early on, with dramatic emphasis, that it was so wet out here. She knew her audience, calling out, “Gay people, how’re we doing?” to thunderous cheers. Then she said, “Straight people, how’re we doing? Just kidding, I don’t care,” and as I abruptly closed my mouth to cut off my cheer, my friend gently patted me on the back. Looking back, I find this perhaps the funniest moment of the weekend. Even if she did not have my personal well-being in mind for this performance, she did a hell of a good job. Her music never quite felt like it hit for me before, but after seeing her live, I’ve started to get really into it. I was totally captivated by her performance and especially enjoyed the moments when she performed directly in front of her own image on the big screen, creating an Inception-style infinite Reneé glitch. Screaming along to “Poison Poison” was a lot of fun, although now I’m a bit sad that I don’t hate any women enough to get the full catharsis of that song. I also loved that she brought out an entire choir for a couple of her songs, really getting back to her Broadway roots. And of course, she brought out Towa Bird and they kissed onstage, which everyone went absolutely wild for. It was an excellent end to the night.
Annie DiRusso: Day two and the forecast said it wasn’t supposed to rain, but of course, it was raining again. Onstage, she wore a bright yellow poncho in solidarity with us audience members. (I say “us” as if my friend and I were not the only ones still poncho-less, because we had foolishly believed the forecasts on the way here, and now we felt we’d come too far to give in to the weather conditions.) I’d never heard of Annie DiRusso before at all, but I did really like her vibe. She definitely got us hyped up for the day.
Indigo de Souza: The lead singer of the band started off by telling us that their hometown in North Carolina had been totally devastated by Hurricane Helene, so they would be playing us a lot of sad songs today. They proceeded to play a lot of very sad songs as the rain kept pouring down. They were really good, especially considering the difficult circumstances. I was really stopped in my tracks by their song “Younger and Dumber,” which I think is my new favorite. Positively devastating in the best way. I find hope in the fact that humans will always continue to make great music when it feels like the world is possibly ending. I can’t really look at the news anymore without thinking about how we predicted these worsening climate catastrophes and did nothing, and we still aren’t doing enough. Of course, I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the direct onslaught of the end of the world so far. It will find me someday and I’ll still have this music.
I was wearing my sweatshirt that I’d purchased the day before, but at this point, the rain had totally soaked through it and I was just as cold as I would’ve been without it. My friend and I went to the sheltered downstairs area to get some food and coalesce like frail Victorian children for a while. The weather app kept saying the rain was going to stop within the hour and then changing its mind. My fingers were all pruney and I couldn’t stop shivering. I don’t know if I’m being dramatic here or reading too much into things, but I think hypothermia was totally flirting with me. At this point I would’ve bought a poncho somewhere, but all my clothes were soaking wet and there was no way to undo that, so I figured the poncho would just be a waste of money. We simply had to compose ourselves and soldier on through the cold. All things considered, I think it was still preferable to getting overheated and dehydrated and passing out (which was what I’d worried about, since it seems to be a more common outcome at music festivals).
Samia: Her set was accompanied by some swimming blue sea creatures on the screen, which felt very appropriate as we were basically aquatic at this point. I vibed with her music even in spite of my utter drowned-rat status. She was doing a lot onstage movement-wise — I’m pretty sure she was lying down at some point — so that was also entertaining.
Maisie Peters: Now we got into the part of the day I was really excited for. Maisie is, in my mind, the archetypal girly-pop icon of the straight variety of girly-pop, if that makes any sense. She actually acknowledged that she was one of the only straight performers and said she was dedicating her set to the queer community. This was so real and I should probably start doing this kind of acknowledgement every time I hang out with my friends. Anyway, Maisie was awesome. I’ve been obsessed with her song “The Band and I” lately, as it’s just such a good song about love for a group of friends, and there aren’t enough songs like that. And absolutely nothing can beat the bridge and outro of “History of Man.” The blue-sky background of her set, reminiscent of the album cover of “The Good Witch,” almost allowed me to forget that it was still raining and miserable out. Her music is just so much fun.
Julien Baker: Look, I was suffering at this point. I couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be warm or dry. That was nothing but a distant dream. But suffering is exactly how you enhance the experience of a Julien Baker concert. While I adore all three members of boygenius, I’ve never been able to listen to Julien’s solo music as much as Lucy’s or Phoebe’s — not because I don’t like it, but because it’s so incredibly devastating that I get genuinely scared for my own mental health. I absolutely love songs like “Appointments” and “Faith Healer.” However, I don’t believe I could function in the world if I listened to them on a regular basis. So this set was really a religious experience in a unique way. I felt ritually cleansed and reborn. The crowd spontaneously sang “happy birthday” to Julien at one point, to which she simply responded, “I think I’ll do the singing here.” It was particularly special to me because I saw boygenius in concert last year for Julien’s birthday and was able to sing “happy birthday” to her for a second year in a row now. But anyway … I just think that Julien Baker and her guitar. That’s all. There’s a reason that Hozier, also known as the current embodiment of Jesus Christ, bowed down to Julien Baker onstage during the famous “Hozier-genius” show (which I’m totally not still bitter that I missed because I went to the New Haven show instead). She is a being from a plane of existence higher than this one.
Ethel Cain: I mean, it was a Sunday, so an appropriate day to have the most religious experiences of my life, right? Ethel Cain. ETHEL CAIN. I don’t know how to even put into words how incredible she is. “Preacher’s Daughter” is the best album of this decade, no contest. The rain stopped when she came onstage, because she can do that. I have no doubt that she has control over that. The moment I got to hear “A House in Nebraska” live, my soul actually ascended out of my body. Same with “Family Tree.” And she played an unreleased song from the upcoming album that she has since announced … No words. I don’t even know what to say. I can’t do her justice. I absolutely need to see Ethel Cain live properly at her own concert from the barricade. My only lament is that her songs are so long, she didn’t get to play nearly enough of them at this festival. I want to hear everything.
On that note, we departed from the festival with sincere apologies to Sunday headliner Janelle Monáe, because my friend and I both had early Monday morning classes and it was a two-hour drive back to campus. Overall, absolutely stellar experience. I’ve thought about it every day since. Fully in my concert obsession era. Do not expect me to stop talking about it anytime soon.