Best Coast Perform for 'Attractive' Crowd at Escape to New York

Posted on Aug 6th 2011 11:10AM by Theo Spielberg
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Tim Mosenfelder, Getty Images

The inaugural day of Escape to New York music festival culminated with a formidable one-two punch: Best Coast and Patti Smith. As the former took the stage, the fledgling festival began to fill up. Until then, the grounds at Shinnecock Reservation in South Hampton, N.Y., had been relatively quiet despite the pretty stacked lineup. The biggest attraction seemed to have been the automated Zen bells station, nestled in a shallow spot about 12 steps into the forest that surrounds the clearing where the main stage is situated.

See Southhampton Patch's Escape to New York Photos As Best Coast began to play, a baby wearing headphones immediately earned the distinction of "most enthusiastic crowd member." Upon further questioning, we discovered that the mother of this fledgling rocker went into labor while listening to the Best Coast album. It was pretty apparent that this baby was born for this stuff. The rest of the crowd was similarly enthusiastic.

Best Coast blazed through their set, relying heavily on their smash self-titled debut album, as the sun burned low in the sky. The power trio delivered a muscular sound considering their sparse instrumentation, and the festival atmosphere had a pretty solid hippy vibe. Two vendors dressed as Adam and Eve walked around selling German condoms, kiosks sold hair-feathers and a rickshaw shaped as a toad circumnavigated the grounds carrying a DJ booth behind it.

Singer Bethany Costentino told the crowd members they were the most attractive ones she'd ever seen, "except for in Sweden," reassuring that "festivals always have attractive people." Ironically, she was probably able to see individual faces better in the thin crowd on a festival ground that could've easily held thousands.

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