Ate a lot of food. Got a lot of steps. But it was mostly Janet Jackson.
Outside Lands reached its 11th birthday this year. I’ve been to ten of those eleven installments. This year, the folks booking the festival decided it was time to take some risks… They added an extra stage for acoustic sets and magic, called “Cocktail Magic.” They added a whole pot awareness area (not that folks at a music festival need to be *more* aware of weed).
I started out the day by heading to Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos for my usual Outside Lands breakfast, an ice cream taco covered in dark chocolate and almonds. (They have a wide menu, and I’ve tried it all, but you really need some protein for breakfast.) I then enjoyed a pair of gin cocktails where the cucumber garnish was cut by a giant, bike powered machine. Now that I am full of ice cream and booze, it’s time for some music!
Shannon and The Clams
Oakland was nicely represented today at OSL. And the sizable crowd for 12:40 on Friday for the reigning queen of garage rock proved that SF is ready for the Oakland invasion. Shannon and her band played a loose, reverb-heavy set that was mellower than usual, but still managed to get a little pit going.
Emily Catalano
A wonderfully dry stand-up set; it may have been the first time in history I laughed at that many basketball jokes. Especially when she used basketball to describe how to perform cunnilingus.
Taylor Tomlinson
Taylor Tomlinson has amazing delivery. She can tell a joke like few people can. However, I wasn’t really into the material. She wasn’t bad. I just couldn’t really connect. It’s fine. Not everyone is made for me to enjoy.
Eliza Skinner
Eliza Skinner, on the other hand, was perfectly in tune with me. A lot of lovely absurdity mixed in with some incredibly relatable lines. (I, too, would ball up bread and freeze it as a kid. Delicious!)
Michelle Wolf
Michelle Wolf has been in the press a ton lately. Her show on Netflix is biting, and brilliant. And who can forget the White House Correspondents’ dinner? However, if you were looking for biting satire, you didn’t quite get that version of her. We got some excellent, feminist-slanted relationship humor by a genius comic that can really do whatever she wants.
Caleborate
First- I had so much trouble with the way this artist spells his name. Once I let that go, however, I was able to embrace this Bay Area rapper’s smooth, bright delivery that got the tiny Panhandle stage moving.
N*E*R*D
For folks that only know N*E*R*D from the handful of pop hits they’ve had, it’s hard to think of them as a “heavy” act. However, their performance at OSL was one of the heaviest, hardest sets I’ve seen at this festival. And, yeah, I’m including Metallica here. The core of Pharrell, Chad, and Shay were supported by a masked metal band and some ferocious dancers, hitting some of the hardest beats in hip hop. There were a few confused audience members, including one I overheard saying, “I can’t figure out what’s happening here… Are they a punk band? Rappers? Singers? I don’t get it.”
It really didn’t matter: the fact remains that they were incredible. They worked the crowd into an insane frenzy — so much that they had to stop the set a few times just to calm the crowd before anyone got hurt. They were also the first act I saw to make any political statement — a profound plea for immigrant rights.
Lucy Dacus
After the blistering metallic hip hop of NERD, I thought I’d calm down with some folk music. Instead, I got a full on electric storm from Lucy Dacus, layering her stunning, country flavored folk music with delicious fuzz. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was exactly what I needed.
Shangela
Headed over to The Barbary to see not one, but two listed acts getting canceled. Sadly, no Sam Jay or James Acaster. However, an all too brief appearance by RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Shangela was a more than adequate replacement. She told a handful of jokes, then did a great parody of Uptown Funk that had everyone in the room red-faced. Especially as she danced throughout the entire room singing it.
Al Madrigal
The most local act, Al Madrigal was a super last-minute addition, as Acaster was stuck at the airport due to visa issues. Madrigal grew up in the Sunset, the same district OSL takes place in. So he managed to do the most local set you can, bringing up high school rivalries and favorite restaurants. It was such a joy.
Chelsea Perretti
Chelsea Perretti is so deeply underrated. This set was the most effortless stand up set I’ve ever seen. She kept rolling brilliant and honest punchlines about pregnancy and motherhood. She did a whole stretch about post-partum depression. She also fixed her hair for my camera as I was shooting her. Perretti is a genius, and if you weren’t already aware, now you are. Don’t sleep on this one. She’s gonna be playing arenas in no time.
The Weeknd
I was surprised to see The Weeknd headlining festivals this year. I’ve always felt he was a little too mellow to hype a field. Especially at the end of a long day in the sun. I was way wrong…
From the stage to the picnic tables in the back of Lands End, the crowd was ecstatic. The Weeknd cranked up the energy tenfold, and the crowd gave it back.
Jessie Reyez
When I arrived on Saturday afternoon, I didn’t really have a game plan. I just started walking… I ended up at Twin Peaks, and heard the gentle bounce of an acoustic guitar and, well, I didn’t like it. I decided to keep moving and give Jessie Reyez a chance. This was a smart decision.
When I got closer to the stage, she introduced a song she wrote for Dua Lipa, and the crowd went nuts when they played “One Kiss.” Followed by that was a bit of a monologue about record label execs only signing women who “suck dick” and how she won’t get signed if she doesn’t. Then she sang one of the most profoundly angry songs I’ve ever heard. She put everything she could and more into it. By the end of the song, called “The Gatekeeper,” I was in tears. Jessie Reyez was stunning. You gotta watch this one.
Lizzo
This was another star-making set. Lizzo had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand before she sang a note. The entire field knew every lyric, every piece of choreography, and she exuded a cool confidence, knowing damn well she deserved the accolades. We got a ballad cover of “Snap Yo Fingers” by Lil Jon. We got twerking with chairs. We got dance lessons. And the only time when Lizzo kind of lost that cool was during her set closer “Good As Hell” when the crowd was louder than she was, and knew every line. She had a look on her face that was “Whoa! This is really happening!”
Broken Social Scene
Nobody should have to follow Lizzo. It’s not fair. Broken Social Scene, a veteran band with little to prove in normal circumstances, realized they needed to prove their worthiness. So they upped the intensity of their already massive anthems and gave us a glorious sunny afternoon of big, well-orchestrated, and, ultimately, very catchy pop songs. New singer Ariel Engle was in fine form, taking over a spot previously held by Emily Haines, Feist, and Amy Milan, and holding her own nicely. My only problem with their set was that they started taking requests, and ended up removing “Lover’s Spit” from their set, despite it being on the set list. That hurt.
Chvrches
Chvrches began somewhat atypically. The normally very warm and upbeat band instead sounded a little robotic and emotionless at first. It felt weird, until they addressed why: last time they were booked for Outside Lands, they got held up at the airport and weren’t able to play. It was, to quote keyboardist Martin Doherty, “The most stressful day in the history of the band.”
Once they shook out the tension, it was back to the old Chvrches, a high energy, highly personable band. Lauren Mayberry was especially chatty, expressing her distaste of the current American president, as well as admitting that Brexit was also scary and terrible. It felt good hearing that from a Scottish band. All in all, it was an great set.
Eddie Huang Breaks The Internet
This was billed as Eddie Huang cooking with the excellent r&b band The Internet. Sadly, bandleader Syd The Kid didn’t show up, so we had 3/5 of the band making Rice Carbonara (tip: add a few chicken wings when you make rice), serve it up, and then bassist Patrick Paige took over Syd’s vocals to play a short, sweet set of chilled out, funky grooves.
Florence and The Machine
Finally. After eleven years, Outside Lands finally has a female headliner. If you thought a harp couldn’t make 50,000 people move, you were proven wrong by this set.
Florence has one of the most passionate, soulful voices around. And she brings that passion in full when performing. She is a larger-than-life performer, making each move both big and intimate at the same time. Even when she crawled into the audience to sing directly into a audience member’s face, it felt like she was singing to everybody directly.
Durand Jones and The Indications
There is one thing that Outside Lands pretty consistently does, they always book a nice healthy dose of vintage soul on Sunday morning. This year we got Indiana’s Durand Jones & The Indications. Jones has definitely studied up on Otis Redding, singing with passion, and a lot of the same moves. The real MVP of the band, however, is drummer Aaron Frazer. Not only is he a killer drummer, but the man has one of the sweetest falsettos I’ve ever heard, picking up the high harmonies.
Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers
I know what you are saying…. How could EVERYTHING be good? Fear not… There was definitely something that was not quite in the realm of “Good Taste” at this year’s festival. I am speaking of Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers. They play what is basically joke screamo, only unnecessarily angry, and kind of sexist. They are the rock band equivalent of the “can’t you take a joke?” guy. Or, as a friend of mine put it, “Every few years, a band comes out that people 16-21 think is funny, and older people don’t. And when those folks hit 21, they realize that how bad that band was. This is that band.”
Dick Paul
I only caught a few minutes of Dick Paul over on the new Cocktail Magic Stage. He hypnotized two audience members into dancing to “Mr Roboto.” I don’t think this was actually hypnosis, however. Who doesn’t spontaneously start dancing to “Mr. Roboto”?
Red Room Orchestra
I love this band. They are led by former American Music Hall member Marc Capelle, and they are a supergroup that pays tribute to the music of cult film and TV. This set was a reprisal of a performance they did earlier this year, as part of SF Sketchfest. A rotating cast of singers, doing songs from the films of Wes Anderson.
The whole set was good, but a few sets stood out above the rest: A duet of Dina Maccabee, and former Dance Hall Crashers singer Karina Denike, on “Concrete & Clay” by Eddie Rambeau. Hether Fortune of White Lung, belting out Nico’s “These Days” (a song that changes keys in unexpected moments, making it really hard to sing). Denike, returning for a biting, pained reading of Elliot Smith’s “Needle In The Hay.” Capelle himself, doing a blistering trumpet solo for Love’s “Alone Again Or.” It was a set of amazing musicianship, where they didn’t just play songs, but plenty of incidental music, too. The closing number, however, was about as epic as a closing number could get. Former Iggy & The Stooges’ guitarist and all around rock legend James Williamson came out, along with Hether Fortune returning to do a searing rendition of “Search and Destroy.” Fortune went into full Iggy mode, pummeling the crowd, while belting out one of the greatest songs ever written.
BØRNS
I try to be hip to what the kids are into these days, but occasionally I miss a few things. Such as BØRNS. I was heading to the Lands End stage to try to get a good spot for Janelle Monae, and was treated to some glam rock goodness, reminiscent of T Rex, or more recently, Mika. Excellent hooks, great singing, and the crowd was hanging on every note. His set closer — a song that I believe was called “Electric Love” — had the entire field singing and dancing along. It’s a little strange to feel like the one person not in the know about a major hit while it’s being played live, but, by the end of the song, it had become one of my favorites, too!
Janelle Monae
I didn’t take notes during Janelle Monae, because every moment of this set was so utterly captivating that I couldn’t find a time to pull out my notepad. She rarely spoke to the crowd, but every note, every move, was so precise and filled with so much energy that you couldn’t pull away. She performed a sizable chunk of this year’s genius Dirty Computer. Her band was so tight that at some point the guitar amp gave out, and the trombonist jumped on a keyboard and played the guitar part on keys while the guitarist fixed his amp.
Monae sings. She plays guitar. She dances. My god, does she know how to dance. Her message, in both lyrics and melody, is a message of both supporting each other and defying what’s evil in this world. She is unapologetically herself, including a mention in her lyrics about how hard a time people have with someone presenting as so femme and androgynous at the same time. For the penultimate song of the set, “Make Me Feel,” she moved between playing tribute to Michael Jackson, Prince, and James Brown, all while continuing to be herself. Oh, yeah, she also revealed that she was dealing with food poisoning and almost didn’t make the set. I can only imagine how good that would’ve been if she was healthy!
My only complaint about Monae’s set was that it happened at the exact same time as Katey Red and The Internet’s sets. It’s rare to see queer women of color play a music festival. I’m sure there was some reason why this happened, but it would’ve been nice to have been able to enjoy all three of these sets. Let audiences have more of what they want: representation and bad ass queer women!
Portugal. The Man
This was probably the most diverse Outside Lands in the history of the festival, which makes me really happy. OSL is typically pretty heavy on the classic rock, and this year, it seemed like Portugal. The Man was the closest we were going to get to that. The band also seemed to know this; it didn’t feel like a typical set for them. At least, not like any Portugal. show I’ve been to before. Here, they were fleshed out by a string section and back up singers. They opened with an instrumental cover of Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” and segued that straight into a few minutes of “Another Brick In The Wall” by Pink Floyd. The rest of their set was all squarely in the “big classic rock” vein, stripping out the more experimental tendencies of their early catalog, and even lacking the R&B flavors of their extremely popular recent stuff. They kept bringing out portions of classic rock songs, playing portions of “Gimme Shelter” and “Children Of The Revolution” during their set. When they closed with their massive hit, “Feel It Still,” they sounded like such a different band, that I wasn’t sure they were still playing. Another audience member said, “I didn’t need to hear this. I hear this three times a shift at the Italian Restaurant I work at.”
Salt-n-Pepa
Another new-ish Outside Lands tradition is dropping a classic hip hop set on a tiny stage right outside of the Heineken Dome. Last year was Big Boi, and this year we were treated to Salt-n-Pepa, with DJ Spinderella on the turntables! They only got about 25 minutes, and wasted no time. They dove head-first into the hits, complete with buff, male dancers who both Salt ‘n’ Pepa flirted with while performing. My only complaint here was that the stage was way too small for them. Their show is a big show, and really deserved to be presented as such. Next year, I’d love to see Salt-N-Pepa get their due and play the big stage.
Janet Jackson
When Outside Lands announced its line up, the message boards were filled with people who were either angry, or just plain confused by Janet Jackson’s presence on this bill. It seems the kids simply didn’t know who she was, and people just weren’t convinced that Jackson had the credibility needed to headline a festival. That’s fine, because the haters decided to go home early, and the rest of the crowd was treated to a performance by one of the most important, most innovative figures in modern music.
She opened with Rhythm Nation 1814-era b-side, “The Skin Game Part 1,” a defiant track about racism, complete with images of modern protest, and names of unarmed persons killed by police on the screens. The tone was set that this wasn’t going to be simply a fun dance party. This was Janet Jackson in protest music mode. She focused heavily on the more aggressive portions of her catalog, leaving the lighter dance pop numbers as extended medleys. This did mean that some of her biggest hits like “What Have You Done For Me Lately,” “Miss You Much,” “Nasty,” etc, were abbreviated. In fact, “Escapade” was only played by her DJ during a costume change, and “Come Back To Me” and “Let’s Wait Awhile” were performed by her back-up singers while they were prepping a second stage in the middle of the field for “Funny How Time Slips Away (When You Are Having Fun)” and “I Get Lonely.”
I wanted to be upset about these moves, but it meant that her 90-minute set included as much material as possible. We still got plenty of songs that were given full breathing room, including a sweet tribute to her recently deceased father, in the way of “Together Again.” We also managed to get songs off almost every Jackson record, save her two early records that few people know about.
The best part of the set was the final third, where Jackson went from simply angry, to full-on ferocious. Jackson is not happy about the way things are going in the world right now, and isn’t afraid to express it. She sang “What About,” a nearly industrial song off The Velvet Rope, with the kind of intensity that would humble Trent Reznor. “You Ain’t Right” was treated with the same gusto. “If,” possibly my favorite Janet Jackson song, may not be overtly political, but still wonderfully aggressive. Then, her duet with her brother Michael of “Scream.” This all lead up to the set closer, “Rhythm Nation”: a performance so powerful, with lyrics so relevant to this modern world, that I actually started legit tearing up.
God bless you, Outside Lands. That was such a beautifully cathartic weekend that was very much necessary. Thank you for taking so many risks this year, and filling my belly, my ears, and my heart with so much goodness. I can’t wait to see what you pull off next year.
