Outside Lands 2019: Instant Gig Reviews

These are the days of miracles and wonder…

It’s been a tough couple of weeks as a nation. Mass shootings in Gilroy, Dayton, and El Paso were not particularly well timed with Outside Lands. In the days leading up to the festival, many people were debating whether or not it was safe to go. Maybe we were next? I had a long talk with my partner about going this year, which included a plan for alerting each other to our safety, and talking about all of the steps that I’ve observed in my years attending this festival that have made me feel safe. In fact, I think I feel safer in Golden Gate Park during Outside Lands than pretty much anywhere else on Earth.

I’m also a firm believer in “not letting terrorists win.” We can’t let these folks scare us off from living. And, seriously, if you don’t have communing with friends and strangers to appreciate live music, is life really worth living? I’m going to keep going to shows and supporting life music because, well, I really think my life depends on it.

The Red Room Orchestra

I’ve never seen The Big Lebowski. Yet, I decided to check out The Red Room Orchestra doing the music from this film because, well, this band is fucking fire and gets everything right. Band Leader Marc Capelle and his Orchestra, complete with horns and strings in addition to a full rock band, are one of the most versatile bands around. So, I just wanted to listen. And we got beautiful torch songs, experimental classic pieces, hard 60’s rock, and even Tony Danza telling a story about how he got to introduce his mother to Dean Martin before singing the lounge classic “Standing On The Corner.”

Miya Folick

If you look up “raw blistering emotion” in an encyclopedia, I’d like to think Miya Folick’s picture would be right there. This woman exudes raw passion in each performance, and this mid afternoon set had the audience giving it all right back. I’m still feeling goosebumps.

Adam Durtiz, Susan Feniger, and Russell Baven

I was going to go see Tony Danza do a set of “soft shoe and crooner classics” but instead found myself distracted by, um, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows making salsa? He was up there with famous chef Susan Feniger showing how to make the perfect carne asada taco, and the tacos looked amazing, but I was distracted by winemaker Russell Baven, who claimed he was giving out “grape juice” to audience members from a carafe. Only it was, um, fermented grape juice. And NOT AUTHORIZED ON ANY WAY. Prompting a very serious man to take away his carafe and scold him. He sat down on stage, and kept complaining about how much wine he brought to share but couldn’t, and his tantrum was far too entertaining to look away from.

The Marias

Dear god, The Marias are good. Like, so good it’s unfair. It’s like they took in all of the best music, no matter the genre, and turned into a menage a genre that never feels forced. They played a delicious blend of tropicalia, funk, psych rock, soul, trip hop, lounge and disco that is effortlessly cool and party starting. Lead singer Maria owned the crowd without breaking a sweat, playing some blistering guitar when she felt like it, and simply being amazing behind the mic when she didn’t. Trumpet player Gabe Steiner was an excellent “second in command” and seemed to be the secret weapon anytime the band needed to take things to the next level. It was such a solid set that their sultry read on “…Baby One More Time,” though clever and well done, wasn’t necessary for owning the crowd.

Lil Wayne

I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Lil Wayne’s set. I admit that he’s put out far more records that I’ve listened to than haven’t. I think I stopped at the mess of a rock record, Rebirth, that he put out in 2010. To my surprise, he didn’t stop experimenting in rock music. If this set showed anything, he finally figured out how to blend the druggy, twitchy rhythms and sly delivery into the rock world. It didn’t hurt that his band was amazing, but we experienced a set of blistering, acid rock not unlike what we would’ve heard in Golden Gate Park in the 60’s. Lil Wayne has been studying up on his Sly & The Family Stone and Band Of Gypsys for this set, and it showed. Even his big hits like “Lollipop” and “A Milli” sounded a little bit stoned and a little bit spacey and a little bit melt your face clean off psychedelic goodness.

blink-182

I’ve been listening to blink-182 so long that I still think of Travis Barker as “the new guy.” When they released their self-titled record in 2003, I thought of it as the record where blink-182 lost the plot. So much so that, after my first listen, I didn’t go back to it for a whole decade. In fact, I was even feeling uninspired by this set until I learned that the band was doing Enema of the State in its entirety on this tour.

When they band started their set, they opened with “Feeling This,” the song that initially turned me off “modern” blink-182, but has proven itself to be an excellent set opening number. The call and response vocals of sole original member Mark Hoppus and “even newer” new guy Matt Skiba (of Alkaline Trio fame) sounded equal parts anxious and optimistic, sounding more like Sleater-Kinney’s most jittery moments than a band on Warped Tour. With barely skipping a beat, the band finished a fiery four-in-a-row opening set that got the crowd pogoing up a storm with “The Rock Show” -> “What’s My Age Again” -> “First Date.” Although “What’s My Age Again” meant that we were getting Enema front to back, it was nice to see them in a super punky mood. They played some of the shortest songs in their canon, including “Family Reunion” from the legendary compilation Short Music For Short People. It was also nice to see several legit circle pits break out in the field. I think the band enjoyed it to, as they don’t often get to play for GA audiences anymore.

Later in the set, the band moved to some of the more emotionally direct material, including one of the most profoundly beautiful Outside Lands moments when the entirety of the Land’s End stage sang all of the words to “Adam’s Song,” in unison. I may have teared up a little. It also got me contemplating a lot of blink-182’s catalog… There are very few bands that have written about mental illness in the way these guys have. They are have multiple songs about confronting depression and anxiety, and they all have a little bit of a sense of humor, but it feels very warm, real, and honest. A lot of the newer material expresses this a bit more bluntly, but always makes sure there is a light at the end of the tunnel when expressing darkness. Their newest single, “Blame It On My Youth,” was performed with the lyrics projected behind them, and it was a lovely tale of regretting the kind of person you once were, and learning how to grow from that. I may have teared up a bit here, too. Also, it looks like the next blink-182 album may end up being, um, great?

Cherry Glazerr

Considering the time of day and the level of heat (when is the outer Richmond hot!?!), Cherry Glazerr opted to play a big and searing set instead of their usual punky freneticism. It worked well, and the masses woke up to some blistering guitar that’s arena ready.

Mavis Staples

Staples is a living legend. She played a tight set of classic Staples Singers material and hyper relevant new material that proves she hasn’t lost her activist roots. This was the first real political commentary I observed this year, and she was fiery, referring to the “man in the White House” as someone who “never knows nuthin” and called out inaction on gun violence and really laid down the hypocrisy of Christians being so hardline on immigration that they allow families to be disconnected from each other.

The Free Nationals with Anderson .Paak and Roy Choi

When Outside Lands released their schedule and I saw that Anderson .Paak and Paul Simon were pitted against each other, I was devastated. Obviously, I was going to pick Paul Simon because the guy already retired once, so I doubt we will see much of him again. Then I perked up and saw that .Paak was bringing The Free Nationals to do a cooking demonstration and play a little music. It’s not a full set, but it will do. I showed up early, because I knew this stage would get crowded. I waited. And waited. There were definitely issues on stage- mics were getting replaced several times over. Eventually, exactly 15 minutes after the set was due to end, .Paak’s band, The Free Nationals, hit the stage and locked themselves into a tight groove. Then, master chef Roy Choi popped out with .Paak, and .Paak seemed genuinely surprised to see his band on stage. He then requested some weed from the crowd (which led to a sea of joints launched at the stage) and expressed genuine wonder as to why so many people showed up for a cooking demonstration.

Once the program got going, it ended up being fun. .Paak and Choi played off each other nicely. They made Tofu Chile Verde burritos using both Korean and Mexican seasonings, and .Paak proved to have ridiculous knife skills. Like, the band kept jamming while they cooked, and .Paak chopped a syncopated beat that fit the groove we were locked in. .Paak also mimed rolling joints while rolling burritos. It was cute and funny, and the burritos smelled amazing. Sadly, I did not get to taste them. But the band kept playing, even after the cooking demo was over, and .Paak, despite a mic and a spare drum kit being set up for him, never played any music himself. Which, in the end was OK, because The Free Nationals killed it without a net or a bandleader.

Cherry Glazerr with Michael Solomonov

Yes, I stayed at the food tent. The delay prevented me from getting to catch enough of Denzel Curry’s set for it to be worth trekking to Twin Peaks, and, well, Cherry Glazerr are great. This was advertised as an Israeli Summer BBQ, and I was on board enough to learn what this is. It ended up being chef Michael Solomonov making drinks and falafel with Cherry Glazerr. They definitely seemed to be having fun, and it was great learning tricks like using baking soda to peel chickpeas. Then, we got a short set of rock n roll from the band, and Solomonov spent the set launching cherries into the audience, before grabbing a harmonica and jamming on “Grilled Cheese” with the band.

Off Book with Jessica McKenna and Zack Reino

This Outside Lands may have been the hottest on record. So hot that I decided it was time to sit down in the shade. So, it was off to The Barbery to see, well, whatever they have to offer. What did they offer? Well, a podcast recording where an entire musical is improvised over the course of an hour. Off Book hosts Jessica McKenna and Zack Reino were joined by none other the Outside Lands threepeater Paul F. Tompkins! They also were supported by a band that included local keyboardist Jacob Russell-Snyder and drummer Dana Wickens, and they really did as expected- they came up with backing instrumentation on the fly while McKenna, Reino, and Tompkins told a story and riffed on songs to move that story along! I admit, the story was a little hard to follow. There was a team of scientists at the Johnson, And, Johnson factory (Not to be confused with the Johnson & Johnson Factory) playing a drinking game where they took a shot whenever they “noticed they forgot about helium.” There were kids that were trying to break into this factory because they could only find offensive band aids. And, for some reason, there were also business-people trying hard to not be creative. And all of these stories came together in a way that I’m still not entirely sure of. That being said, it was quite a good time, and when the podcast is live, I might actually be able to figure out what was going on.

Paul Simon

When I was a small child, I was afraid of MTV. (I was also afraid of Michael Jackson, which, in retrospect, seems very reasonable) My uncle would come over to watch music videos, and I would run away. Then, one day, I saw the “Call Me Al” video, and everything changed. Like, if I never saw that video, there is a chance my life would have run a totally different course. The song was bright and happy. The video had some laugh out loud moments that even my seven year old brain could relate to. I didn’t know who Chevy Chase or Paul Simon was at that point, and was very surprised when I found out they were reversed. My parents were also fans of both Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel. (My Dad also had a few Art Garfunkel solo records that really weren’t bad at all) This is all a long way of saying that I spend the weekend really just waiting for this moment. Paul Simon and his band, live on stage for two whole hours.

The crowd in the front section was awfully surprising… There were very few older folks, or even people around my age (late 30’s)… It was mostly, well, teenagers? Everyone around me seemed at least 20 years younger than me. Nobody had drinking wristbands on, so I knew they were under 21. And, moments before he took the stage, I heard more than one youngster say “Oh My God! Paul Simon is going to be RIGHT THERE! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” Sure enough, when Simon took the stage with his massive band, and they dove straight into the 1-2 punch of “Late In The Evening” and “The Boy In The Bubble,” the audience was one big, sweaty, pogoing mass! Then, he slowed down the first verse to “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” only to speed up the rest of the song even more! Simon was definitely in party mode tonight, and the audience was more than ready to give it back.

It would be really easy to do a track by track analysis of the night. It was a set full of classics, and everyone around me knew every word by heart. But I’ll just share some highlights: “Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard” was recast as a big funk jam, complete with massive horns, yet still retaining the intimate guitar riff and, of course the whistle solo. (We got the classic, stripped down version two years ago with Lorde) The experimental classic troupe yMusic was brought out for a few songs, but the rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” was the finest moment with them. The arrangement gave the early verses a sort of anxiousness that made the final verse feel even warmer and more optimistic, when they moved into full on sour revue mode. Recent single, “Wristband,” a clever send up of festival security, was punctuated right, and was so much fun to hear in the festival environment. And, of course, the closing of the main set with “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes” and “Call Me Al” was, well, the perfect dance party catharsis.

Throughout the whole show, it was hard not to be in awe of the musicianship on stage. This band was capable of pretty much anything! They would flip between experimental classical music, klezmer, reggae, afrobeat, folk, country, rock, soul, and whatever else Simon could imagine, and played with great proficiency and heart. It’s hard to come up with a more versatile band in showbiz, with the exceptions of maybe The Roots and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s band.

The encore was stunning… He opened with “Graceland,” doing all sorts of subtle Elvis moves. Then we got a cheeky, lounge rendition of “Still Crazy After All These Years.” Next came a spare mic on stage, much taller than Simon’s mic stand. Somebody screamed “I’M GOING TO LOSE MY SHIT RIGHT NOW!” I’m pretty sure they were expecting Art Garfunkel, marking the only time ever that Bob Weir shows up as a surprise guest, and people seemed a little let down by it. Weir handled harmonies on “The Boxer,” and sounded a tad gruffer than Garfunkel, but it was still beautiful, nonetheless. Then Simon did a bow with the band, and finished the show alone on stage in front of a sea of people. Without uttering a single word about the events that transpired in the world the weeks prior, he simply sang a powerful rendition of “American Tune” that kicked off the unspoken commentary on the events. And then he closed with a song that I’ve heard close to 10,000 times in my life, but never understood until tonight. Because I got to share a joyful experience, connecting with thousands of people over music. It was tonight when I realized that “Sounds Of Silence” is about not listening to each other. It’s a song about empathy, something that we need a ton more of in this world. And connecting in large groups over shared experiences is one of the ways empathy is learned. And we filed our way home as a large, happy mass, to go back to our lives, bringing a little of this back with us to share with others.

Setlist:

Late in the Evening

The Boy in the Bubble

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Dazzling Blue

That Was Your Mother

Mother and Child Reunion

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War

Can’t Run But

Bridge Over Troubled Water

The Obvious Child