Outside Lands Festival Diary: Part 4 – Sunday, 8/30/09

She was pretty excited to be seeing M.I.A.

Today was mainly a working day for me. I needed to be at the info booth by 4:00, and I wasn’t going to get to the park until almost 2:00, so what would I be seeing? The short answer? Not much. The long answer? A lot of really cold people, a few minutes of a few bands, one entire set, and a lot sad people.

The first thing I did was hike all the way to the Polo Fields to get some more Philz coffee. I waited in line here as Robert Randloph kicked off his set, so I enjoyed my delicious cup while watching him play. I was pretty far away, and it looked like just about nobody was watching him. Of course, it was pretty chilly and windy on Sunday, and the attendance was way down from the previous day.

I made a little lap of the back stages of the Polo Fields. The Heartless Bastards were playing a set in the Toyota tent, so I watched a song of them, and then I went inside The Victoria, which is an absolutely amazing Spiegeltent that was in the back of the polo fields. Rosin Coven were playing when I dropped in, and I had no idea that they were a band. I thought it was a person named Rosin. Why did I think that, exactly? I’m well known for my enjoyment of aggressive cello, so I was excited to see some of their set. Plus, the tent itself was incredible: a temporary circus tent/nightclub with mirrored walls and colored glass. If you missed it, and it’s back next year, make sure to go inside next year.

Next, I hustled over to the Panhandle Solar stage to see Matt & Kim’s set. I really enjoyed this set, but I was surprised by how small of a sound the band has. It translated well today, but there’s something about them that makes me think they should be playing in a living room in front of some friends. Matt looks like a musical theater guy who took his passion into an indie rock direction. Kim is the cute girl at the coffee shop you constantly think of asking out, but are always wondering if you’re cool enough to do so. Together, they play a happy, bouncy pop and constantly cajole the crowd into moving or singing or both. Today, it worked. I could see them completely bombing in front of some crowds, but today was just not a day for that to happen.

I only got to see one song of The Dead Weather before I had to get to work at the info booth. The info booth doubles as the lost & found location, and it’s a bit sad to work there. People came over looking for cameras they lost, cameras that had been with them to Europe before this festival. And no, they hadn’t had time to take the pictures off of these cameras. That sucks. Money lost? Gone. Cell phone? Gone. The other info booth got to reunite some people with their lost things, but I never got to. It would have made me happy to do so.

I managed to step outside the booth for a couple of breaks and watch a little bit of M.I.A. (who sounded like utter crap) and hear a teensy bit Tenacious D (who sounded fine, but really far away). To make any other comments about their set would be silly. I’ll just point you in the direction of Dakin’s Outside Lands Journal for Sunday, which covers both of those sets in their entirety.

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Thanks to Flickr User moses_namkung for sharing the photo used above.