Outside Lands is THIS WEEKEND!!! This is always one of my favorite weekends, and it’s generally a great weekend for discovering your new favorites. And now it’s time for the 2025 edition of my “Top 10 from the Bottom Half” list, which I’ve spent actual months researching and listening, and these are my 10 favorites. And, in case you are keeping score, in 2022 Wet Leg and Faye Webster made my list. In 2019, I introduced you to The Marias. 2018 had Lizzo. 2017 had Khruangbin. 2016? Anderson .Paak. That’s not a bad track record… There is a LOT of good stuff happening this weekend, and the full schedule is out here. Limited tickets are available here, but don’t delay! The weather is gonna be the best of any festival in America, just like every year.
Orla Gartland
Orla Gartland is the one that I expect to be the “breakout” star of this year’s Outside Lands. She’s just too good! She has the wit of Wet Leg, the energy of a pop star, and the genuine spirit of, well, Orla Gartland. I aim to hug the barrier for this one and work up a sweat from dancing so hard that it will cut through Karl the Fog’s blanket over the park.
NewDad
Ireland is kind of winning the indie rock war this Summer, aren’t they? Epic songs with the kind of bass tone that is just pure magic? Combined with potent vocals and the guys in the band just doing what they need to do to keep the leaders afloat? Sheer perfection that tickles my heart.
Big Freedia with the SF Gay Men’s Chorus
It’s been a while since Big Freedia has brought her New Orleans Bounce extravaganza to Golden Gate Park. She used to MC the “Beignets & Bounce” show, which was, by far, the messiest part of Outside Lands. I don’t expect fresh beignets to be tossed from the stage during this set. In fact, I have no idea what to expect here… Freedia’s music doesn’t really translate to choral music. There will be twerking, but will the highly revered SF Gay Men’s Chorus be forced to twerk? Or get twerked on?
Hope Tala
Here’s the magic of Hope Tala – she takes the smoothest, bounciest genre of music known to the human ear, Bossa Nova, and somehow makes it go, as the kids say, “super hard.” Her music is intense and aggressive, while still oozing with the classic Brazilian beat.
Destroy Boys
Sacramento’s reigning heroes of heavy, Destroy Boys, are making their first visit to Golden Gate Park, and they are primarly on this bill to scare the hippies and hopefully cleanse the park of all that the Dead & Company show left behind from the weekend prior.
Alexandra Savior
Alexandra Savior was a pandemic-era find for me that I managed to pick up from, Courtney Love signing off on her. Oddly enough, she has very little in common with Love’s abrasive rock. Instead, Savior has a delicate and warm voice that sits on top of lush, bright, vaguely cinematic lovlieness.
Alemeda
Sadly, not from the city floating in the water between SF and Oakland. Happily, she is doing guitar-centered pop music that doesn’t sound like typical “rock” music, and feels, well, good?
Neal Francis
Remember Outside Lands 2021 where they managed to put Neal Francis and Neil Frances back to back on the same stage? Man, that made me happy. This year, we get the rocker Francis while the electronic duo Neil Frances is playing Portola next month, making everything even more confusing. That being said, OSL’s Francis is easily my preferred Francis.
Lexa Gates
Lexa Gates’ sound is so classically New York hip-hop… Jazzy, smooth, and with an easy delivery that fools you into missing that you are hearing the hardest lyrics ever delivered.
Kate Bollinger
Much like last year, when we were treated to a slew of great, young shoegaze bands, Twee is really getting its due on this year’s Outside Lands bill. Kate Bollinger’s sunny and cinematic music is going to feel so good in Golden Gate Park, and her psychedelic sounds will call back an era from our parents’ (or grandparents’) visits to the park in the ’60s. Makes me wonder if Grace Slick listens to Kate?
Vampire Weekend 
/
Honestly. What the hell is this? Is Vampire Weekend going to be playing in their pajamas? Will they be serving us sunny-side-up eggs and moons over my hammy? Pretentious, Ivy League, Paul Simon-obsessed bastards…
(Yeah, I know they are opening and closing Saturday.. Let me snark.)
