Fri 28 Aug – Outside Lands Festival
Outside Lands was awesome, for sure. But seriously they screwed with the lineups. Alot of the more popular bands were playing at the same time on different stages so you couldn't see all of them. And yes that is good to split up the crowds but we paid to see all those bands! There was like a little mini concert going on in the toyota tent which was cool but not highly publicized. Toyota and alot of nonprofits were there and gave out free stuff, such as bags, t shirts, keychains and bandanas.
The food, of course, was ridiculously expensive. And if you brought your own water container they dumped it out in the security checkpoint and then charged you a dollar to refill it. wtf. the 'green' thing was cool and they were very vigilant about the trash/compost/recycle thing, maing sure you put the waste in the right bin. They also had some fresh produce and even vegan food, which was really nice (most concerts don't do that and poor vegans starve or sneak in snacks). The one thing that irked me the most is the cops were standing in groups all around the grounds and yet there was obvious pot smoking and drinkin whisky-from-flasks everywhere. Let people have fun I say but there should be smoking areas. I don't want to smoke, I am applying for jobs right now where I may get pee tested, and I involuntairily got high from being at that concert. If you see a video of the event you can see little clouds of smoke coming from the crowd constantly. The pot smoke was the worst part of the concert for me - it made me tierd and I left really early and fell asleep on the bus.
But more importantly, the music -
They had this little tent for the beer experience with DJs but I didn't go in there. They also had a tent that was modeled after salon types at Barbary. I saw Rosin Coven there, and they were really entertaining. There were all these clowns running around and it was half comedy and half music. The music was good though, kind of haunting and uplifting.
Modest Mouserocked. They were on the main stage so there were the two tv screens to watch them. They made some interesting faces. They were even better in concert and changed up some of the songs a bit. They played some of thei newer stuff and also some classics (dramamine! paper thin walls!).
M.I.A. was not as good in concert. he nergy of the crowd was great at first and she came out all costumed with backup dancers and threw out horns for people to blow. But the songs are long and the energy just wasn't staying up, and you couldn't even hear what she was singing/saying. All you could hear was the steady beat. She anounced she is engaged and then did a little tribute to the Beastie Boys, who had to cancel playing the event, which was nice.
Band of Horses was excellent. They have some slow songs so i was surprising they kept up the audience, but the acoustics were amazing. I think they played alot better live than in their recordings, but it could of just been the acoustics of the open space. But it was beautiful, his voice just echoed across the park for songs like "is there a ghost". I didn't know this band very well before hand, but I am definatly going to listen to them more now.
Heartless Bastards surprised me. I didn't get to see their main show, instead I saw this little bit they did in the Toyota tent and then they gave an interview. Not a great interview (most of the questions were answered by saying 'well, it's sort of hard to explain') but the songs are what brought me into the tent. I had never listened to them before and they just had this great energy and the singer had her hair in her face and was just going for it, it was cool. Matt & Kim were another surprise for me. I had one fo their songs on my ipod from a friend that I had heard before but never really gave them much thought - then I heard their music hitting the lawn and it was bomb. They did a great job on their song 'daylight'. The music was high energy and drew alot of people. I also saw a few smaller bands but I couldn't make it to Ween and Calexico because of time schedule conflicts (lame). No one I heard was bad though. And I liked that between two of the bands they started playing the latest Girl Talk album, nice touch. I also caught a short bit of the bands Atmosphere which seemed cool but I was just passing by, and Big Light which caught my attention because one of them had a tiny guiatr (which probably wasn't a guitar, but looked like one).
Overall I had fun, but a little over priced for what they were offering - some good bands playing all at once over a big field, and fencing you in with over priced food and no way to see the actual bands or stage unless you were super early and staked out a place infront and then didn't leave to see nay other band or pee (except the main stage which was televised). I was happy it was in SF because that is close to me but it would have been better at the shoreline (in mountain view) - I have been to music festivals there and it was easier to actually see the bands you paid to see and hear. (But I guess it wouldn't have had the same people, of which I saw people from my home town - SSU people were there fo'sure)
Outside Lands was awesome, for sure. But seriously they screwed with the lineups. Alot of the more popular bands were playing at the same time on different stages so you couldn't see all of them. And yes that is good to split up the crowds but we paid to see all those bands! There was like a little mini concert going on in the toyota tent which was cool but not highly publicized. Toyota and alot of nonprofits were there and gave out free stuff, such as bags, t shirts, keychains and bandanas.
The food, of course, was ridiculously expensive. And if you brought your own water container they dumped it out in the security checkpoint and then charged you a dollar to refill it. wtf. the 'green' thing was cool and they were very vigilant about the trash/compost/recycle thing, maing sure you put the waste in the right bin. They also had some fresh produce and even vegan food, which was really nice (most concerts don't do that and poor vegans starve or sneak in snacks). The one thing that irked me the most is the cops were standing in groups all around the grounds and yet there was obvious pot smoking and drinkin whisky-from-flasks everywhere. Let people have fun I say but there should be smoking areas. I don't want to smoke, I am applying for jobs right now where I may get pee tested, and I involuntairily got high from being at that concert. If you see a video of the event you can see little clouds of smoke coming from the crowd constantly. The pot smoke was the worst part of the concert for me - it made me tierd and I left really early and fell asleep on the bus.
But more importantly, the music -
They had this little tent for the beer experience with DJs but I didn't go in there. They also had a tent that was modeled after salon types at Barbary. I saw Rosin Coven there, and they were really entertaining. There were all these clowns running around and it was half comedy and half music. The music was good though, kind of haunting and uplifting.
Modest Mouserocked. They were on the main stage so there were the two tv screens to watch them. They made some interesting faces. They were even better in concert and changed up some of the songs a bit. They played some of thei newer stuff and also some classics (dramamine! paper thin walls!).
M.I.A. was not as good in concert. he nergy of the crowd was great at first and she came out all costumed with backup dancers and threw out horns for people to blow. But the songs are long and the energy just wasn't staying up, and you couldn't even hear what she was singing/saying. All you could hear was the steady beat. She anounced she is engaged and then did a little tribute to the Beastie Boys, who had to cancel playing the event, which was nice.
Band of Horses was excellent. They have some slow songs so i was surprising they kept up the audience, but the acoustics were amazing. I think they played alot better live than in their recordings, but it could of just been the acoustics of the open space. But it was beautiful, his voice just echoed across the park for songs like "is there a ghost". I didn't know this band very well before hand, but I am definatly going to listen to them more now.
Heartless Bastards surprised me. I didn't get to see their main show, instead I saw this little bit they did in the Toyota tent and then they gave an interview. Not a great interview (most of the questions were answered by saying 'well, it's sort of hard to explain') but the songs are what brought me into the tent. I had never listened to them before and they just had this great energy and the singer had her hair in her face and was just going for it, it was cool. Matt & Kim were another surprise for me. I had one fo their songs on my ipod from a friend that I had heard before but never really gave them much thought - then I heard their music hitting the lawn and it was bomb. They did a great job on their song 'daylight'. The music was high energy and drew alot of people. I also saw a few smaller bands but I couldn't make it to Ween and Calexico because of time schedule conflicts (lame). No one I heard was bad though. And I liked that between two of the bands they started playing the latest Girl Talk album, nice touch. I also caught a short bit of the bands Atmosphere which seemed cool but I was just passing by, and Big Light which caught my attention because one of them had a tiny guiatr (which probably wasn't a guitar, but looked like one).
Overall I had fun, but a little over priced for what they were offering - some good bands playing all at once over a big field, and fencing you in with over priced food and no way to see the actual bands or stage unless you were super early and staked out a place infront and then didn't leave to see nay other band or pee (except the main stage which was televised). I was happy it was in SF because that is close to me but it would have been better at the shoreline (in mountain view) - I have been to music festivals there and it was easier to actually see the bands you paid to see and hear. (But I guess it wouldn't have had the same people, of which I saw people from my home town - SSU people were there fo'sure)
