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!
I think we can all agree that this is a weird week. Heavy on legends, but plenty of places where you can experiment, sonically. Please, have fun with it!
April’s live musical options in the bay area are huge. Due to the sheer numbers of acts coming to town, mostly due to bands coming through because of Coachella. It means that you can be in twenty places at once in any given night this month. On the evening that I opted to see GIVERS, I decided based on putting five different gigs in a hat, and picking one at random. This brought me to Slim’s on a spring Sunday evening, and it very well could have been my best decision.
While other magazines, blogs and newspapers release their Best Albums of the Year super early, obviously before they’ve even heard some of the albums on their list, we wait until the last possible minute, sharing dozens of nominations with each other while participating in an overly complicated voting process that leads to a Top 10 that looks completely different from anyone else’s. It’s rewarding and fun, and we always find room for small albums that usually get ignored. One person’s favorite gets a real chance to get heard in our system as it becomes the favorite of many. So know, dear reader, that the albums you’re about to see listed have passed a multi-level test of quality. And now, I end my introduction by asking you to click the more tag and see our Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2011.
Givers. There is something about this band that piqued my interest before hearing a single note. It may be the publicity photo that I keep seeing, with the incredibly pretty girl in it. It may be the fact that there is absolutely nothing bad on their label, Glassnote Records. Or it could just be my sixth sense about bands. Anyways, I uncovered by copy of their debut full length record that was sent to me from the label. I started listening, and maybe a week later, I realized that it’s all I wanted to listen to. Then, I noticed that they were playing. So, as expected, I decided to seize the moment and go see this band.
SPOILER: This is how the show ended
Givers. There is something about this band that piqued my interest before hearing a single note. It may be the publicity photo that I keep seeing, with the incredibly pretty girl in it. It may be the fact that there is absolutely nothing bad on their label, Glassnote Records. Or it could just be my sixth sense about bands. Anyways, I uncovered by copy of their debut full length record that was sent to me from the label. I started listening, and maybe a week later, I realized that it’s all I wanted to listen to. Then, I noticed that they were playing. So, as expected, I decided to seize the moment and go see this band.
There are a lot of really surprising, and really funny shows within. This is an extra special week of fun silliness, and I think that you should check it out:
