Outside Lands – Page 5 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: San Francisco’s 2012 Outside Lands Festival, Day 3

The one banana that didn't come in a burrito this weekend — The one banana that didn’t come in a burrito this weekend

San Francisco’s annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is always tasked with the enormous duty of being the “other” huge festival of California, and the designation is both a blessing and a curse. On the low end, it has to try and come up with acts that Coachella somehow didn’t have the foresight to book ages earlier, or at leasts acts that will stand up as decent competition, and with tickets to the Indio festival now going onsale a year in advance, they’ve got to get their contenders up and available as soon as possible — usually right before Coachella kicks off. On the high end, the climate is, on the whole, much more pleasant, the acts tend to stick to more large crowd-pleasers and new discoveries, and the fine folks putting on Outside Lands spend many months listening to the irritations and complaints about Coachella to use as a salvo against their festival’s possible shortcomings. The result is that by Sunday afternoon, most of the 65,000+ fans that came out to Golden Gate Park got their fairer shares of mindblowing performances and raucous partying behind them, and were ready for the big finish that would wind down the end of the chilly August weekend.

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Show Review: San Francisco’s 2012 Outside Lands Festival, Day 2

One of many hoisted high within the crowds

Additional contributions to this article by Dakin Hardwick. All photos by Jonathan Pirro except where noted.

Saturday dawns with nary a clue that the fog and mist are clearing, and the massive greenery of Golden Gate Park continues to beckon to those who would walk onto its already-heavily-trodden surface, tickets in hand and heads held high. The second day of the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is upon us, and like many of the other Saturdays of the annual San Francisco festival, it’s filled with some of the biggest, wildest acts, especially those that came to close the night. While the first signs of exhaustion are beginning to set in, those alert enough to pry themselves from slumber and scurry into the park at the hour of 11:00am were greeted by yet more feverishly addictive bursts of musical creativity. After the desiderata of strong coffee and a host of breakfast options that lay lazily along the fields, the several-thousand-strong mass began its trek from side to side, taking in another chapter of the chilly yet invigorating musical thunderstorm within.

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Show Review: San Francisco’s 2012 Outside Lands Festival, Day 1

The iconic Outside Lands windmill greets all attendees at some point in the festival

Additional contributions to this article by Dakin Hardwick. All photos by Jonathan Pirro except where noted.

Summer is always slow and somewhat sporadic to come to the Bay Area, and with it comes a mostly dry spell of live music, with many large groups heading overseas for massive festivals and international tours, while California and the rest of the country relax and find other ways to enjoy themselves in whatever sun decides to creep over the land. The city of San Francisco is even more prone to aberrant weather and happenings, especially since right in the middle of August is the colossal technicolor monstrosity that is the annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. In 2012, the festival enters its fifth year of existence, and a crowd of 65,000 fans plowed into the historic Golden Gate Park each day of the surprisingly chilly and foggy weekend, which was relatively unexpected based on the forecasts from earlier in the week. However, with tickets sold out and a number of huge bands set to take the 4 stages across the three-day weekend, even dreary weather couldn’t dull the enthusiasm of the sprawling, voracious crowd that clambered into the park, and raised voices, fists, and flags in unison for over 10 hours of music each day.

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San Francisco’s 2011 Outside Lands Festival, Day 3

The crowd in unified fist-pumping for Major Lazer

60,000 is an extremely large number, especially when you’re speaking in terms of human beings. The largest amphitheater in the Bay Area, the Shoreline in Mountain View, holds around 30,000 with its lawn fully filled, and most shows that can completely fill it to the brim are multi-platinum megastars, or great music festivals that last all day. It therefore isn’t too surprising that nearly all 3 days of the 2011 Outside Lands Festival were sold out, both with single-day and three-day tickets; still, 60,000 people per day is a pretty staggering number. By the time Sunday rolled around, and the denizens of the festival had been dragged through cold, fog, heat, sun, and likely several hundred thousand watts of amplified music, it was stunning to see that the park was still packed to the gills; while most people didn’t trickle in until the mid-afternoon hours, there was enough sunlight out to see Golden Gate Park filled from end to end with a flood of musicgoers.

But what about the people who made it in the morning?

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San Francisco’s 2011 Outside Lands Festival, Day 2

Can you tell that you're in San Francisco yet?

(For our coverage of Day 1, here’s a link! Or maybe Day 3?)

It makes sense that for a weekend, Saturday is the most popular day. It’s the middle point; you had a night off before and a day off afterwards, so there’s no reason not to go wild and throw a big party. It therefore makes perfect sense, for a weekend-long musical, to host some of your biggest acts on the second day. The fine folks at Outside Lands rose to this challenge magnificently, and in addition to the heavyweights on the Land’s End stage that kept the Polo Field occupied for most of the day, some excellent surprises were thrown in for those who decided to venture out into the smaller and SLIGHTLY less-packed areas of Golden Gate Park.

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San Francisco’s 2011 Outside Lands Festival, Day 1

(Want to skip to Day 2? Or maybe Day 3?)

Let’s get one thing straight, right off the bat: There’s always going to be rivalry between Northern California’s concert scene and Southern California’s concert scene. We’re always looking for reasons to stay up here and not go down there. Never mind any of the usual excuses people give for not going to Coachella in April: it’s far away, it’s hot, it’s got a different crowd, the scene is too (insert choice phrase here); it’s just not “us”. So, while we’re happy for things like Fauxchella to keep us from having to go down to Indio around the cusp of summertime, there’s always that infectious festival vibe that pulls us in somehow. However, mere moments after remarks begrudging the Coachella 2011 lineup — which looked remarkably like our 2010 Outside Lands and Treasure Island lineups — the 2011 Outside Lands lineup popped up, and this time, it was clear that we had gotten things right. Back to 3 days, back with some of the biggest acts in music to date, and loaded with a bunch of new treasures to discover, Outside Lands was going to be bigger this year than ever.

That being said: This is a long entry, because it was a long weekend. We’ve got a collection of highlights that we wanted to share with our readers, because it’s impossible to fit everything in. Hope you can keep up!

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Spinning Platters Tackles Your Tough Outside Lands 2011 Decisions

map11 — We will make this a little easier for you to navigate.

For four years running now, the good people at Another Planet and Superfly have put together a massive outdoor music festival in the part of San Francisco so far west that most people don’t even know it exists. The weather is unpredictable, the terrain in this portion of Golden Gate Park is difficult, and with 5 stages, decisions are always tough to make. Well, all I can say about the first two is to bring layers and wear sturdy, comfortable shoes. As for who to see when? Well, I’ve studied the band schedule and the map, and based on my impeccable taste in music I am ready to present to you the most fulfilling plan for your Outside Lands experience.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Brandon Young of Delta Spirit

Delta Spirit, one of my personal favorite bands, is coming to the Bay Area in December. Their breakthrough album Ode to Sunshine was packed with such raw, personable authenticity that it was shocking to find out they had emerged from my hometown of San Diego (land of the cultural brain fart). This band came together organically. Through the music you can hear the enjoyment of their jamming together and the shit-talking session that ensues, which is at the core of what makes it work. Their music is intimate, free and unapologetic like a good drunken conversation. I can’t wait to hear what they’ve come out the recording cabin with this time. They have a steady track record of releasing an album every two years and then touring like, well, like dedicated musicians. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Brandon Young of Delta Spirit”

San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival 2010: Day 1

This probably looked this empty for about 5 minutes. (photo by Atom Ess: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atom_ess/2791709290/)

The official lineup for San Francisco’s third annual Outside Lands Festival caused some waves of bewilderment when it was first announced. Considering the lineups that had dominated Lollapalooza and Coachella this year, it was surprising that Outside Lands didn’t seem to step up to the same plate, while still remaining within the ballpark. Despite this, and the unusual inclusion of San Francisco regulars Furthur (featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead) as headliners opposite acts such as The Strokes and Kings Of Leon, a handful of excellent acts did make their way into the roster, attracting yet another slew of thousands of avid concertgoers to the first day of the festival.

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