I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 26, 2025] All Things Go [Day 1]

My daughter and I went to All Things Go in 2023 and had a great time.  We didn’t go last year, but this year we decided to go again–for all three days (last time it was two).

The first day was a Friday and my daughter had a half day of school.  So we left after classes and got to MD in pretty decent time.  The early shows on Friday were great and I would have loved to see Lucius (having just seen them) and Sharon Van Etten (having seen them a few weeks earlier), but it was fine that we arrived too late for them.  But my huge YES was for The Last Dinner Party, a band I could have seen when they played Johnny Brenda’s but my wife and I had gone to a meh show elsewhere that not instead.  So I really wanted to see them!

We arrived, got good ADA parking (phew) and used our fast pass entry (yay).  We could hear The Beaches playing and they sounded great.  My daughter went for food and I grabbed a seat as we watched a video of The Marías playing. I was a little bummed we didn’t see them (although I hadn’t heard of them at all before this) because their set sounded really good.

In a bizarre coincidence, we ran into my niece/her cousin while getting food.  It was great to see her (she lives in DC).  She was really looking forward to seeing Noah Kahan.  Then we parted–thought we might see her at Noah but we didn’t.

Then we headed down to the Chrysalis Stage (which was pretty packed) in time to see The Last Dinner Party.  My daughter and I have different wants at a show.  I like to be really close and she is cool hanging out and letting the music wash over her.

So I snuck down as far as I could and enjoyed TLDP very very much.  I even got a photo of the setlist.

Then we headed over to the main Pavilion Stage for Noah Kahan.  I didn’t really have an opinion of Noah before the show and was expecting his set to be folkie, but it rocked pretty well and he was really engaging and funny.  I had lost my daughter before Noah started and decided to sit in the last row of the middle figuring she would spot me if she walked around.  She eventually found me and we went over to where she was sitting.  And two songs later, Noah walked literally right behind where I was sitting to get to the acoustic stage at the back of the Pavilion. Damn.

So I guess we drove three hours to see an opening act and a headliner.  But The Last Dinner Party were amazing AND we had two more days to go!

MISSED:
Caroline Kingsbury–had a great look on stage (kind of like Bowie), but I didn’t love her synth pop enough to try to get there so early.
Sunday (1994)–I don’t really understand this band name.  They have a potentially interesting sound–very dream pop–but they’re a little too slow for my tastes.  They seem like the kind of band that I might enjoy live, but I knew we’d never make this show.
Lucius–I’ve seen Lucius twice and they are amazing live.  It would have been fun to see them again.  And they played a song that they didn’t sing when we saw them.  But they only had 35 minutes and I knew we wouldn’t make it.
Joy Oladukin–I was surprised that Joy was higher up than Lucius since I hadn’t heard of her.  Her sound is interesting–genre defying–and she’s been around for longer than I realized.  But again, there’s no way we would have arrived on time.
Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory–my wife and I had just seen them ad they were great.  But we saw them headlining the XPoNential Festival and this was a midday 40 minute set. It was basically a shortened version of what we saw, so it’s fine to not have seen it.

WALKED IN DURING:
The Beaches–I had wanted to see The Beaches who have a poppy guitar based sound and the singer has a great voice.  They sounded great as we walked around and I’d definitely like to check them out if they come around again.  (I see they played Union Transfer on the night after this show–typical).

SAW:
The Marías [on video screens] I thought that The Marías were too poppy for me.  And they are more poppy than not.  But I really enjoyed the sound of them live.  They’re ethereal and very enticing.  I’d be curious to see them live properly.
The Last Dinner Party–will get their own post
Noah Kahan–will get his own post.