Spinning Platters Interview: Comedian Paco Romane

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Paco Romane is one of the greatest Bay Area comedians. In addition to doing stand-up all around the Bay all the time, he hosts the Sup Doc Podcast with George Chen. He’s also performing at the Outside Lands Music Festival this weekend, where he has curated a set of his favorite comics to open the Barbary tent, and will also be doing a “Hipster Chef Roast” at the Gastromagic stage on Friday. If you can’t make it out to Outside Lands on Friday, Romane is doing a warm up show at Plate & Camera Productions on Thursday Night!

We had the joy of chatting with Romane. Sorry that we didn’t invite you, but you can read a word-by-word account of this conversation below!
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Top 10 Outside Lands 2016 Acts From The Bottom Half Of The Poster

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Yes, it’s that time of year again. Outside Lands is about to begin, and with it, a slew of great acts you love — as well as a bunch of bands you may have never heard of before. I know that your instinct is to sleep in and show up just in time to let Third Eye Blind know that you do, in fact, believe in science. However, if you do, you are going to miss some of the best music in the festival. The lower part of the poster is where the good stuff hides, so, who knows — you may just stumble across the next Black Keys or Ellie Goulding, both past lower-poster-graduates.

The schedule is out NOW, so you can start planning your weekend. I do believe it’s in your best interest to include some of these acts:

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Outside Lands 2015: 19 Instant Gig Reviews

Just a bunch of hippies in Golden Gate Park
Just a bunch of hippies in Golden Gate Park

Every year Outside Lands gets bigger and better. This year was a great year for a lot of reasons – it was an excellent, diverse and well-paced line up. They also switched up the set-up of the grounds this year, opening up walkways, adding more bathrooms and in general, making a much more comfortable festival experience. The weather was amazing, as well. None of the usual ice cold and overcast OSL, this year was all about having fun in the sun. I also got to see a slew of excellent sets of music & comedy!

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Outside Lands 2015: Eight Quick Questions with Jen Kirkman

Photo by Robyn von Swank
Photo by Robyn von Swank

Jen Kirkman is one of the funniest people out there right now. She’s also incredibly hard working… Her first book, I Can Barely Take Care Of Myself is a work of epic genius, and she seems to be the MVP of Comedy Central’s @midnight. She just premiered a special on Netflix called I’m Going To Die Alone (And I Feel Fine), which you can view the trailer to here.

Or, if you prefer to view people without a screen, she’s performing a stand up set at Outside Lands on Friday, as well as participating in Friday’s Uptown Showdown and Saturday’s ASSSCAT. (Click here for her Outside Lands schedule) If you aren’t coming out to the park, you can catch her on the road, as well. Those dates can be found here.

Spinning Platters had the pleasure of chatting with her recently. Continue reading “Outside Lands 2015: Eight Quick Questions with Jen Kirkman”

Outside Lands Journal: Day 3, 8/10/14

Photo by Paige Parsons
Photo by Paige Parsons

Ending a festival is always a little bittersweet. Because you had fun, but you are also tired. So tired that you will end up seeing fewer acts, but it’s OK. Quality over quantity, eh? And these were probably the best sets of the weekend.

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Outside Lands Journal: Day 2, 8/9/14

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Photo by Emily Anderson

Today was the cold day. Which was fine, because there were more than enough excuses to dance! Special thanks to Carl Pocket, Emily Anderson, and Paige Parsons for additional pics!

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Outside Lands Journal: Day 1, 8/8/14

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Thus begins my daunting task of compressing the highlights of 35 hours worth of music, comedy, and food into a mere three posts. It’s not easy, as this was definitely one of my favorite Outside Lands experiences ever, with the most even distribution of wonderful things to do that I’ve ever enjoyed from this shindig. Here’s how it all started:

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Top 10 Outside Lands 2014 Acts From the Bottom Half of the Poster

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There are a lot of great reasons to show up early to Outside Lands. It’s rather beautiful to walk around at noon, seeing the empty festival and taking in the peace before the chaos. It’s also a great time to explore the various different food vendors, especially the much more popular establishments. Instead of waiting 20 minutes in line to enjoy Farmer Brown’s amazing Chicken & Waffles, you’ll get your food in under 5, plus you can pretty much guarantee a seat at a picnic table while you get to enjoy some of the lesser known acts on the bill. This year has plenty of acts that are well worth crawling out of bed early to enjoy. (Also, the N Judah and 5 Fulton at 11am is way nicer than at 2:00, when most people show up.)

The full schedule has been released, but here are my personal Top 10 acts from the lower part of the bill. Trust me, you’ll be happy you came out and had breakfast in the park.

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Instant Reactions to the 2014 Outside Lands Lineup

The headliners took most festival watchers by surprise.
The headliners took most festival watchers by surprise.

I took to the internet this morning to start discussing the Outside Lands headliners and lineup with the Bay Area music nerds, and to get some instant reactions from the Spinning Platters staffers. The 2014 Outside Lands lineup doesn’t look like every other festival lineup happening this summer, and that’s no surprise. We’ve always been able to count on the festival to provide different headliners from every other festival. How else can you stand out when everyone else is booking the same ten bands? Continue reading “Instant Reactions to the 2014 Outside Lands Lineup”

Outside Lands 2013 Journal, Day 2: Saturday, August 10th

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Most photos by Jonathan Pirro. Ones without the logo in the bottom right corner were by me.

Day 2. A day that will live in infamy. Today I got to see my favorite local band play massive stage, my favorite band in high school make an epic comeback, and the greatest rap group of the last 20 years make a triumphant return to the stage. My life doesn’t suck…

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