This past weekend, approximately 180,000 people descended on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the fourth annual Outside Lands Festival (OSL). Run by Superfly Presents (who also put on Bonnaroo) and Berkeley-based Another Planet Entertainment, the weekend featured major musical talent from across the United States, with a special focus on over a dozen local bands. A major facet of the Festival is the Food + Wine component, with all of its vendors representing local eateries and vineyards. Eco Lands, OSL’s environmentally-conscious greening initiative, keeps in concert with the Bay Area’s well-known groundbreaking greening efforts.
Glide Magazine was there to take in the wide array of entertainment, from music, food and wine, to dancing and general shenanigans. And a little tip to those who may be contemplating: start putting in your vacation requests for 2012. If 2011 was any indication, Outside Lands is now on the shortlist of “US Festivals To See.”
DAY ONE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2011
Friday is usually the slower day for the three-day festival, mostly due to work schedules and travel. However, the crowd was fairly sizable from early on in the day, with lines spilling out for the Box Office and venue entrances by mid-morning. Release the Sunbird and The Joy Formidable, both on the Lindley Meadow Sutro stage entertained those streaming in from the main entrance.
The first major attraction of the day, though, was Phantogram. Perhaps it was because The Original Meters and Lotus weren’t big pulls, but Phantogram had a huge audience fill out the somewhat narrow field at the Sutro stage. The electronic rock duo, accompanied by drummer Tim Oakley, tore through material from their debut album Eyelid Movies (2010). Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter both have an engaging stage presence, even though they’re often tooling around with different synths and effects. Barthel’s voice is cool without being cold, warm without being saccharine; plus, they just look chic on stage. Definitely an awesome way to start dancing in the afternoon.
Avoiding the enormous audience surge for newfound major-label darlings Foster the People, I chose to catch Toro Y Moi on the Twin Peaks stage rather than be surrounded by the weekend’s cadre of screaming teenage girls. Toro Y Moi started off much slower and lethargic than many hoped, with their synth-based electronica coming across as formulaic and uninspired. Tons of people sat along the hill to the side of the stage, which seemed a direct reflection of the band’s lack of energy. However, after four songs that were mediocre at best, they kicked up the volume, drove harder on the bass and all of a sudden they just clicked with the audience. What was at first boring 80’s inspired synth/rock became urgent, infectious dance/pop.
Ellie Goulding was next on the Sutro stage, offering a welcome distraction from MGMT’s main stage show. Goulding on record can get a bit grating from the ultra-shiny production, but her live set at OSL was sensational. Bedecked in a hot red leather jacket, she was flanked by three male musicians on guitar, drums and keyboards. This was Goulding’s final show on her US tour, and she seemed determined to deliver a hard rocking, super danceable pop moment for the crowd. While she’s still young (and certainly no Robyn), Goulding captured the full attention of the audience, especially on “Lights” where she feverishly played a drum set at the front of the stage. If this set was any indication, she’s set to become a major force in pop music.
While waiting for Big Boi to come on stage (see below), I ran over to the Panhandle Solar stage (powered by solar energy!) to catch Best Coast. 2011 has been a banner year for Bethany Cosentino & Co., but unfortunately this trip to the Bay Area was not one of the band’s best. Their tour schedule has been so intensely hectic all summer that Cosentino fell ill a couple of days before the set, and unfortunately this affected the usual summery lo-fi feel of the band. While the gravely Janis Joplin-y voice that emerged at times during their OSL set would be a fantastic addition to their sound, it didn’t sync with their intended effect. Still, kudos to the band for muscling through the cold Friday dampness and rocking as hard as they could.
Due to rumors, text messages and tweets of an uninspired first set by Phish on the main stage, I headed back to the Sutro field to catch Erykah Badu, who came on after a long delay following Big Boi’s cancellation. Even so, she put on a breathtaking show, full of cascading rich harmonies, wildly catchy grooves and inspired choices from her catalogue. Badu has received plenty of good responses from her earlier 2011 festival appearances, and her OSL set proved those all to be well-founded. Her band was tight, musically adept and provided a strong foundation for Badu to soar above. Her look and vision is certainly larger than life, but she fully lives up to the expectations, and her hour-long set was definitely one of the weekend’s best.
THE BAD
Cell service– or lack thereof
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re there for music, food and the company of other festivalgoers. But when you’re trying to coordinate with friends seeing different sets, or you’re merely checking Twitter to see what food/wine vendors to hit up, it’s usually helpful to have some semblance of signal. AT&T and Verizon couldn’t seem to get it together, but it did get progressively better over the course of the three days.
Big Boi Cancelling His Set
After waiting thirty minutes for Big Boi’s big appearance at OSL, I ditched the Sutro stage to check out what was going on across the field. Big Boi came out 45 minutes into his set time to cite a technical failure as the reason for the delay, but then his manager followed shortly after and stated that rather than give a “half-assed” show, Big Boi wouldn’t perform at all. Dave Chappelle then appeared on stage, which was a bit of a obnoxious conciliatory move. Definitely the most frustrating let down of the weekend.
