Perspective: Outside Lands 2008

We BOTheads weren't able to attend the inaugural edition of San Francisco's Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, but we've been interested in the event since it was announced last spring. A slew of new multi-day festivals were added to the summer music scene this year, and Outside Lands stood out from the group with its solid lineup and lure of Golden Gate Park. I find it hard to believe that all the newbies will be around for a sophomore year, but judging from the preliminary evaluations, Outside Lands likely stands a good chance of returning next summer.

For a fan perspective of this year's Outside Lands, check out the recap sent to us by BOT friend AnnieB after the jump

Due to transportation issues (the biggest pain of the weekend), we didn't get into the festival until right before Manu Chao's set on Friday night. After waiting in the ID check line for a half hour and then moving to the almost-as-long beer line for our $7.00 12 oz. Heinekens (yes, TWO separate lines - such a pain), we worked our way into the crowd to get a closer look at Manu Chao. He was great - really got the crowd dancing. It was the perfect way to kick off the weekend. We decided to forgo seeing Beck, because 1) he was at the other side of the festival, and 2) I wanted to stake out a good spot for Radiohead. Apparently a lot of other people were following the same strategy, because we weren't able to get nearly as close as I had wanted to. There were so many people there Friday night for their show (I later read on Rolling Stone that there were at least 5,000 gatecrashers that night) and no one was getting cell phone service, so we decided to trade a spot up front in order to keep our group together.

Radiohead was, of course, amazing. There were a few technical difficulties during their set, though. Their audio went out during "All I Need" and "Airbag," which was kind of a bummer. Right before they played "You and Whose Army?" towards the end of the show, Thom apologized for all of the technical difficulties (saying something to the effect of "I don't know what the fuck our problem is tonight") and right after he finished apologizing, Johnny missed a note on the bass and Thom started cracking up. It was actually a really funny moment because you don't usually get to see that side of him during their performances. "You and Whose Army?" is one of my favorite songs they've been performing during this tour because of how Thom leans into the camera on his piano so that the shot focuses in on his eye. Big problem though - for that song they didn't have the side screens on, so only the people in the front who could see the big screen behind the band knew what was going on. When I saw them in Dallas, everyone was going crazy during that part of the show but it didn't have the same effect at Outside Lands because most people couldn't see the awesomeness that was going on onstage. And this is probably a bit of a tangent, but since I'm talking about the screens, there were NO side screens on any of the stages except for the main one, which just made no sense to me.

Saturday we had yet another transportation issue getting out there. None of the cabs we took all weekend wanted to take us anywhere near the festival entrances because traffic was so terrible. We ended up being dropped off about a mile and a half from the nearest festival entrance, but we didn't realize we were that far away until we had walked almost a mile. Uphill. We finally got there right after Galactic took the stage. Another random side note: Outside Lands had the most lax bag checks ever. I literally had three 24oz. Miller Lites in my bag (because I'm classy like that) and they felt them, laughed and said "Those aren't glass, right?" San Francisco is my kind of town. Everyone in our group took their own alcohol stashes in Saturday and Sunday - it saved us a bunch of money and needless to say, we had a great time.

Okay, so back to the music. Galactic was fun. We just sat in the back and listened because most of us were either still hurting from a late night the night before or had already seen Galactic a bunch of times. It was a great way to start the day. After Galactic, we headed to the other side of the festival to catch Lupe Fiasco. I just love him. He opened for Kanye when he came to Houston in May and we missed him, so I was really happy to get another opportunity to see him. He sounded great live and he played with a full band, which is something that I think only the most talented rappers can do. We left his set a bit early to head back to the main stage to catch the end of Steve Winwood. Unfortunately, due to an extended portapotty break, we ended up missing the end of his set. He joined Tom Petty for a couple songs during his set later in the night, though, so that made up for it.

We decided to stay at the main stage for the rest of the night, mainly because we were tired of walking around, but also because we were all so cold. I don't know what the deal was on Saturday, but I didn't see the sun once while we were at the festival and when 5pm rolled around it was wet and cold.

Ben Harper came on next and I was actually really impressed with him. I have seen him so many times over the years that I wasn't really looking forward to seeing him, but he put on a fantastic set. I actually felt bad I that hadn't been looking forward to his performance.

Tom Petty was awesome. He played a lot of the big hits ("Free Falling," "Mary Jane's Last Dance") right off the bat. After about 45 minutes, he left the stage for about 5-10 minutes. It was really strange because it couldn't have been a set break and it was way too early for an encore or something. He finally came back on stage and explained that the generators had gone out (second technical problem during main stage headliners in two days!) but he brought Steve Winwood with him, so no one seemed to care. They played a rowdy version of "Gimme Some Lovin'" - it was wonderful.

We started Sunday off by catching some of Toots & the Maytals, then headed over to see Drive-By Truckers. I'm not a big fan but I was outvoted. They were okay, just not really my thing. We left their show a little early to catch the end of The Cool Kids' set. I'd never seen them before and they were pretty good live. We only caught the last 10-15 minutes or so. After they were done we headed back to the stage we had just left to catch Widespread Panic. We had a great spot and they were awesome. Their almost two-hour set began with "Climb to Safety" and closed with "Ain't Life Grand." It was definitely the highlight of the last day for me. And let me just say, people in SF really know how to get their noodle on. It was great people watching - I saw some of the craziest people (mostly in a good way) that I've ever seen in my life. Since Panic played so long, we missed Mike Gordon, but we got to hear him from a distance. After that, we started heading over to Jack Johnson, sat towards the middle, and relaxed after our very long weekend. I'd been a little annoyed that he had been headlining so many big festivals this year, but it really made for a perfect ending.

Overall, I thought Outside Lands was a lot of fun. The lineup was fantastic and all of the people we saw were great. I do have a short list of gripes when it comes to some of the logistical aspects of the festival, but I guess that's to be expected with any first-year event. The main thing that really surprised me was the distance between a lot of the stages. The two "main" stages were on complete opposite sides of the festival, which made stage-hopping really difficult. I wound up missing a lot of people that I had planned on seeing because of it, but fortunately I'll be seeing most of the artists I missed either at ACL or in the fall when they come through Houston.

Thanks for the report, Annie!

Hopefully the second annual Outside Lands will take place next August - we'll definitely be in attendance if it does...with warm clothes, good walking shoes, and suitable beer-hiding bags.