Outside Lands in San Francisco > this past weekend boasted a lineup of various amazingness similar to Lollapalooza but not quite as big. There were 5 stages at Golden Gate Park [OL] versus 8 stages at Grant Park [Lolla]. In all honesty, I was completely content with the magnitude of this festival having been in Chicago for a week prior and getting absolutely drained from the festivities. Knowing in April that I'd be going to both 3-day festivals in consecutive weekends to kick off August, I had trained for this extravaganza all summer long. Another 3-day festival of biblical proportions may have put me to rest.
It was a great weekend in the bay. I always love coming back home to Nor*Cal, basking in the sun and feeling the breeze only this time I would get to see a ton of great live music from some of my favorite artists on grandiose stages. I got to see some Lolla follow-ups from Arctic Monkeys, Girl Talk, Beirut and Deadmau5. Aside from Arctic Monkeys, they all put on a better show this weekend than they did last in Chicago.
Some were simply follow-up shows for me personally like MGMT and The Roots. MGMT put on a pretty good show in Tempe back in 2007 but they really killed it this time. The Roots were better in Scottsdale last year at SoundClash. I was a little disappointed to not see Erykah Badu up on stage during 'You Got Me' knowing she was at the park performing the night before but they did get down on it nonetheless and I was definitely moving.
Others I saw were long awaited shows like The Limousines, STRFKR and Arcade Fire. Great times at The Limousines! They covered Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al' during their set and finished with 'Internet Killed the Video Star'. I finally got to see STRFKR perform 'Rawnald' up close and personal. Brilliant. Arcade Fire wasn't as magnificent as other peeps have made them out to be or I'd hoped they'd be, but at that point I had just come from an hour and half of an unbelievable Deadmau5 set and since Arcade Fire headlined the show they were very last and my legs, brain and liver were just shot by then. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and will check them out again given the opportunity.
Finally, there are the new discoveries. Perhaps the best part of music festivals or any concerts for that matter are the opportunities to discover new music. Whether it's an artist completely foreign to your music savvy or a band you've heard but never gave them the chance to love them. For me that new artist was Paper Diamond. I only saw 15 minutes of his set because I had to get into position for Girl Talk at another stage but I really like how he thew it down and I now have a dozen of his tracks in my library.
As for that band I wasn't incredibly fond of before but now love it's Best Coast. The front chick had some killer vocals and plays a mean guitar. She is so rad and even kinda sexy. They went on right before sunset and watching their entire set throughout different stages in the night was like watching their rockumentary encompassing different stages in their career, thus converting me into a fan. I am now the proud owner of 21 new Best Coast tracks.
All in all, it was a spectacular weekend. Would I do it again? Abosolutely. Even following Lollapalooza again next year? Dammit! Um yeah. I'll start training for this again now I guess.
ps > visit the zBORED YouTube channel for more videos from Outside Lands and Lollapalooza and check back over the next few days for new ones
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