The far eastern Twin Peaks stage of Outside Lands (photo by kelp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelp/4896077718/)
The second day of San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival was met with both tiredness and anticipation from the thousands of fans who arrived to see the remainder of the odd but interesting festival lineup. While the day began just as overcast and somewhat gloomy as it had when it faded out the night before, blue sky finally broke through the clouds in the early afternoon, treating those who arrived to warm sunlight and renewed energy (especially with those who had been drained of theirs the night before). With a handful of big acts to come in the evening, it was expected that the opening bands would parallel their predecessors of the first day and serve as appetizers to the eventual banquet of concert frenzy; today, however, things got off to a rather slower, smoother start, which caused thankfulness in some and restlessness in others.
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This probably looked this empty for about 5 minutes. (photo by Atom Ess: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atom_ess/2791709290/)
The official lineup for San Francisco’s third annual Outside Lands Festival caused some waves of bewilderment when it was first announced. Considering the lineups that had dominated Lollapalooza and Coachella this year, it was surprising that Outside Lands didn’t seem to step up to the same plate, while still remaining within the ballpark. Despite this, and the unusual inclusion of San Francisco regulars Furthur (featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead) as headliners opposite acts such as The Strokes and Kings Of Leon, a handful of excellent acts did make their way into the roster, attracting yet another slew of thousands of avid concertgoers to the first day of the festival.
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Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree
When a massive act plans a statewide, or possibly worldwide, tour, one of the factors involved is selecting opening bands for the tour. More often than not, the presence of a more famous and popular headliner will usually be a signal that larger, more well-known opening acts will come along for the ride. In the case of Porcupine Tree, however, their opening slot on Coheed And Cambria’s colossal new tour comes with the hope that at least a good chunk of the audience will be part of the dedicated following that they have carved out themselves within the states. As a nod to those fans, Porcupine Tree kicked off the tour with a special headlining show for one of their favorite cities (as claimed by frontman Steven Wilson on a few occasions): San Francisco, California.
Crowds of people wait for her: Skye Edwards of Morcheeba
Any sort of band that plays music that can be even remotely described as “downtempo” has, in some eyes, a serious disadvantage when it comes to their live performance. The energy and excitement and wildness that comes from a live gig is toned down, and re-formed into the fluid, organic compositions that make up the worlds of dub, trip-hop, and ambient performance. Often, an audience with great patience and love of such swell in a melody becomes the ultimate factor in a successful show, or act, that brings mostly slower, dreamier, and more wistful compositions to the live world of music. Tonight’s crowd at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco fit this bill perfectly, so to speak, so it was little surprise when Skye Edwards and the other Londoners of Morcheeba proclaimed the intimate venue to be one of their favorite places in the world to play. [read the whole post]
those damn blue-collar tweekers. (photo by Sassy Monkey Media)
In today’s concerting world, most shows are focused more firmly on spectacle than on musicianship. We expect the bands to be at the top of their game, of course, but in case they aren’t, we’ve got pretty lights, soaring lasers, mystifying fog, and, sometimes, hurricanes of confetti to wow us and give us something to rave to our friends about. While the spectacle can be rather fantastic from time to time, it’s always refreshing to see the band pack up their light show, deflate the floating spacemen, and dismantle the fog machines, in favor of a rock-solid performance that focuses on what a concert is, truly, about: the music. The bands that are able to take all of these steps, cast off the grandeur, pack themselves — and several hundred feral fans — into a club, and rock the foundations as hard as they would in an arena, are truly wonderful to behold, and tonight’s performance by Bay Area native titans Primus was certainly no exception.
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no one is innocent (photo by Shannon Hazelip)
I will preface this review by stating a fact which, while well known to my friends and colleagues, is not widely expressed within my concert reviews, given their number and the scale of the bands that I go to see. This fact is a simple one: I loathe arena shows. I’m more specifically referring to any venue that seats over 10,000 people, although 7,000 — the capacity of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium — is pushing my limit to a mild degree. The fact of the matter is, however, that there will always be certain bands that are far, far too big to play in small clubs, large theaters, or even modest amphitheaters, and these bands will be reason enough for me to go, no matter the size of the venue. These bands will be the driving force behind the show that they put on; this is no festival with twenty acts, nor a set of competing giants wrestling for the title of “biggest rock god ever”. This is a band that has been around for nigh-on twenty years; in fact, the singer was heard tonight saying, “Pop quiz: how many of you are under 21? Really? Well, you weren’t even alive when this song was written.”
Who would this be? Tool, of course.
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