Outside Lands

(Advanced warning: this is going to be a long, long, looong one...really anytime music is the topic of conversation, it's going to be a long one.)


Oh and most people don't know, or quite often even like, a lot of the stuff I listen to and unlike most people that listen to indie/alternative stuff I don't like to scoff at people when they haven't heard of a musician or group I'm familiar.  Insert hipster douche type voice: "Uuuugh...oh my god.  You have heard of (fill in the blank)?  I knew about them 80 years ago.  When they were underground."  blah blah blah  (This actually reminds me of a rant I want to do about hipsters...maybe later)  I like sharing.  I like being the one to introduce people to stuff they may not have stumbled upon otherwise.  Quite a few of my all time favorites (including Arcade Fire) were introduced to me by somebody else.  If you ever do like anything I post, let me know...again, I like hearing when I've introduced someone to some music they enjoy.  Or if you already know anybody I talk about let me know!  It's always nice to find a fellow appreciator of the "alternative".  :o)

So, what that ramble started as was me simply wanting to say I'm going to post links or videos of everyone I mention.  Also, sadly since my camera was dead most of the time I had to use my phone camera, which means the pictures aren't very good...but I'm going to post them anyway as proof I was there!  And know my phone doesn't have much of a zoom so I really was that close to the stage for these performances!



But first a little Kenai story (I have to throw one in):

Last weekend I rented Rango, the cartoon with Johnny Depp.  Apparently I've raised my dog well because he seems to be a Johnny Depp fan too...he actually sat down and watched about half the move.



Sooo, there's a lot to go over so I think it'll just be easier to split it up by day... aaaand here we go!

Let the good times roll!

Tickets were not cheap, and on top of that I was talked into doing the VIP thing.  Almost immediately after hitting the confirm button on my order I had buyer's remorse.  "What in the hell am I thinking spending this much on tickets??? I like music and all but shit."  But now with it all behind me I can say I'm soooo happy I spent the money.  Shorter lines, the bathrooms were actually not too bad, and though it was off to the side, thanks to the VIP section it was much easier to get close to the stage.  I learned that Outside Lands has 60,000 people each day at the festival!  Granted there are multiple stages, but still!   So, the fact that I could get as close as I did without too much of a fight or feeling like a sardine was worth every single penny as far as I'm concerned.  Also, I noticed on the general admission side it seemed like a lot of the people were there to party, drink, and maybe get into a few fights, while on the VIP side it seemed like people were there more for the music and performances.

WORTH IT

Though some performances stood out more than others - every performance I saw was great!  Every note and every beat was right on and the energy every artist showed was contagious.  There was no doubt this is their passion and they all seemed genuinely touched by the crowds cheers and appreciative...even the big acts!


Friday:
Things got off to a rough start.  I drove around San Francisco for about two hours trying to find a spot where I could leave my car all weekend.  Then once I found a spot, I walked to the festival.  I knew it was in Golden Gate park but not what part of it...this park is about 40-50 city blocks long...and of course I parked on the opposite side of where the festival was taking place.  So, I had to walk for another hour to find the entrance.  (Later I found out there's a bus line that goes almost right up to the entrance...better late than never)

Because of this I had to miss Foster the People (this is my one big regret of the weekend :'o(  ) and I only got to catch the very end of MGMT.  And I didn't know where the VIP section was at the time so I had to wait in the ridiculous lines for the restrooms and ATM.  :o/

Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks


MGMT - Time To Pretend


BUT luckily the trend changed!  I started to figure out the grounds and actually got to see some freaking music!

I didn't get to catch all of The Limousines performance but what I did see was awesome.  They were so energetic, jumping and dancing around the stage.  The speakers cut out a few times and the crowd started booing...I felt bad, it's not their fault!  But they kept right on dancing and playing and sounded just as fantastic when the speakers came back on.  If I can ever catch these guys in a smaller venue, I'll be there in a heartbeat!

The Limousines - Very Busy People (LOVE this video)


The Limousines - Internet Killed the Video Star


Up next Best Coast.  I couldn't see the stage (this was dinner time for me.  In addition to epic performances, there was unbelievable food.  So many good things but my fav? Fried macaroni and cheese with some tomato vinaigrette for dipping sauce...are you kidding me San Francisco?? I stand no chance of losing weight!)  They sounded fan-freaking-tastic though!

Best Coast - Boyfriend


I'm not exactly sure what I expected from The Shins but seeing their performance: mind = blown. I'm going to have to use a thesaurus for the word "amazing" otherwise every other word on this blog post will be amazing.  For The Shins we'll go with....incredible.

Yes, incredible!  The Shins

The Shins - Phantom Limb


The Shins - Nothing at All


One of the nurses I work with (and who lives in the city) was nice enough to let us (Jordyn was my partner in crime for the festival.  We split up to see different acts a few times (she's more into DJs and that stuff than I am) but overall we watched all the same people) crash at her apartment.  I didn't know about the bus line yet so we tried to get a cab back to her place...I'm pretty sure no cab in SF was picking up any fares that day...it was ridiculous and not fun. And tempers were clashing.  :o/


Saturday:
I figured out that there was a bus line to easily get to and from the festival!  Hallelujah!  There wasn't anybody I was dying to see until later in the afternoon so Jordyn and I decided to check out the California Academy of Sciences (also in Golden Gate Park) in the morning.  As you can guess, it's a science museum.  It's been on my nerd to-do list since I moved here.  This place was pretty damn big: planetarium, a three story rain forest, aquarium, and so much more. It was a kick ass way to kill a few hours before we went back to the festival.

They had PENGUINS too!

Day 2 of the festival started with Ok Go.  They definitely get creativity points.  Each one of them had a different color suit: one red, one blue, one yellow, and one green.  They did an entire song with hand bells...hand bells!  And it was amazing great.  The lead singer ran out into the audience not once but twice!  People were groping and grabbing all over...it did not look comfortable!  But he did it twice, so what do I know?  And I think they're just so rocker boy cute. They were also giving the audience a hard time and talking trash about SF...I think some people go offended but I thought it was funny.  When trying to get the audience to sing along louder with some lyrics: "Hey, that was the best singing we've heard......north of LA anyway."  haha

Ok Go

Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass  (This was the song they were trying to get us to sing along with)


Ok Go - Here It Goes Again (You may have seen this before...it went viral a few years ago...but I never get sick of it! A music video and dance routine with treadmills! C'mon that's great stuff!)


Arctic Monkeys were intense.  The lead singer did not laugh or joke between songs.  They sounded great but he wasn't messing around!  Ha.  They just played awesome music and that's all there was to it!

Arctic Monkeys getting down to business!

Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent


Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum


And next...The Black Keys.  They. Killed. It.  They were beyond amazing astonishing.  I joked that Jack White might have some competition for my #1 spot (not really, but they definitely moved up a lot of notches in my book).  Just raw bluesy rock.  They looked exhausted at the end of their set and I can see why...they rocked hard!  We joked that they don't need to get a gym membership because probably burn about 8000 calories every show they do (especially the drummer).

The Black Keys rocking out

The Black Keys - Tighten Up  (Love, love, love this video)


The Black Keys - Howlin' for You (This was a really fun to sing along with while they played it!)


And now Saturday's main event...Muse!  I'm happy to say after nearly 10 years of wanting to see Muse I was not even in the slightest disappointed. I had to literally remind myself to breathe a few times because I kept holding my breath in awe.  It was flashy, in your face, and completely over the top.  Absolutely everything a Muse show should have been.  Also, they kept throwing stuff (instruments!) out into the audience...I can't even imagine the fights that broke out over that stuff!

I'd guesstimate I was 50-70 feet from the stage

Matt Bellamy (Lead singer/guitarist/insane pianist) kicking ass and taking names

I know this is blurry as f**k but I swear that is Matt Bellamy rocking out on our side of the stage....again, that would mean I was only about 50 feet away from him!

I took some videos, but I warn you the sound quality is horrific.  Particularly on Undisclosed Desires (the second video) because the bass was especially INSANE.  (Note to self: if I'm going to keep going to shows like this I should probably invest in some earplugs)  I'm surprised my phone didn't crack just from the sheer insanity of the vibrations.  The show was so loud I didn't expect them to turn out well, plus I was just using my phone to record...but it was worth a try.  And since I have them, I'm posting them anyway...but you've been warned.

Muse - Outside Lands 8/13/11 - Supermassive Black Hole


Muse - Outside Lands 8/13/11 - Undisclosed Desires


And now let's hear how the songs are supposed to sound!

Muse - Supermassive Black Hole


Muse - Undisclosed Desires


And the song that started it all for me with these guys...
Muse - Time is Running Out (Still f'ing love this album)


Sunday:
I knew I wanted to get to the park basically as soon as the festival opened, or soon after anyway, to get the best spot I could for when Arcade Fire took the stage that night.  This means I missed a few people I would have liked to have seen, such as Grouplove and tUnE-YarDs, but my view of the Arcade Fire show was completely worth it.  Luckily I had some solid entertainment to kill those hours.

On our way to the park we founds this.  Maybe I was just a little bias because of the name and the show I went to the previous night, but this was a good find for breakfast!  And festivities started we came across a free face painting booth at the festival...so we said why not!  It was fun but after a few hours I was ready to get that crap off of my face!

And the day started off with Charles Bradley.  I wasn't familiar with him and he's definitely different than pretty much everybody else I've mentioned but he was good!

Claiming my territory!  Instead of Arcade Fire Jordyn went to the Deadmau5 show, so that's why she has the ears.  And, yeah, I bought shirt...what!

Following him was Mavis Staples.  (What??)  No, you read that right.  And let me tell you, it was obvious this was not her first rodeo.  She knows how to get a crowd going!  Plus, I was able to witness a pretty amazing impressive moment in music history.  During her performance Mavis Staples brought out a "special guest"...Win Butler (lead singer/and plays lots of instruments) of Arcade Fire!  Below is a video (I didn't take it) of that moment!




This was a picture I was able to take of that moment (I had my real camera, though only for a short time, so I could actually zoom in on them! oh la la)

She made such big deal about bringing him up on stage and encouraging the audience to make as much noise as possible for him he almost looked embarrassed.  It was cute.

Then Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band graced us with his presence.  He's very mellow but very good.  And he's so smiley!

There's that smile!

Award for most epic mustache I've seen in a long time goes to: Zack Hickman.  The bassist for Josh Ritter's band.

Josh Ritter - Girl in the War


Following that we move onto John Fogerty (Sunday's lineup was all over the place).  Yeah, that John Fogerty.  Classic rocker, lead singer of CCR, and he hasn't done too bad for a solo career.  It was interesting how totally into him the audience was.  He did a kick ass job, I just wasn't expecting that from a festival like this!

Classic rocker John Fogerty - in the flesh!

John Fogerty - Bad Moon Rising (when he performed this he actually said "there's a bathroom on the right" once instead of "there's a bad moon rising"...it was awesome)


And now we have The Decemberists!  I got to see these guys perform on the taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien I was able to attend when I visited NYC several years ago.  They only performed a couple songs though so I was looking forward to seeing an actual Decemberists performance!  Let me tell you if Colin Meloy ever decides he doesn't want to do music he should consider a career in comedy.  He was cracking me up!  They have a song called "The Calamity Song" that he dedicated to Michelle Bauchmann.  Josh Ritter also made a Michelle Bauchamnn joke.  I guess that's pretty safe in SF.  haha  And, as with everybody else I was looking forward to seeing, their performance did not disappoint! Every song was spot on.  Plus, they ended with a ridiculous 10 minute long song about a whale and a sailor that they ran around on stage and acted out a few parts...all while still playing their instruments.  It was stupid fun.  I actually found video of it on youtube...again, I didn't take this one but this is the performance I saw.  I was actually on the opposite side of the stage.

Marry me Colin

Here are some songs they played but didn't need to act out:

The Decemberists - O Valencia!


The Decemberists - This is Why We Fight





And now..................ARCADE FIRE

I didn't have to remind myself to breathe for this one but I did shed a few tears. I felt like an ass but whatevs...hearing Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) live was more than I could handle (in a good way!).  GOD DAMN IT, just writing this now I can feel my eyes watering.  And for the record when I say I shed a few tears for this (or...Harry Potter) I mean I truely on shed a few tears.  I'm not one of those freaks you see on TV crying and getting hysterical.  I can feel the tears coming and then there's just enough to have a little tear spillage that I try to quickly wipe away with my sleeve.

I know now that they've won a Grammy, got some "mainstream" success, and are selling out massive venues such as what I was at, hipster douche bags will disown them and claim that "they've sold out", "only their old stuff is good", and so on.  I feel completely the opposite.  Arcade Fire came out with their first album in 2004.  I'd say I was introduced to these guys in 2005.  So, I've been with these guys since (close to) the beginning. The fact that a band like this can get as big as they have is unbelievable and I am so happy for them!  And they deserve it!

Words cannot describe how I felt about their performance so again, now I really will just go with a thesaurus: amazing, awesome, beautiful, incredible, marvelous, stunning, unbelievable, wonderful.

It kind of seemed like they still can't believe how big they've made it. Win Butler, lead singer, said at one point, "this is one of those times where we have to pinch ourselves, because we actually get paid to go to San Francisco and play a show." Also, not only did he take a moment between songs to talk about Haiti, they had a booth at the festival...they are pretty involved in relief efforts in Haiti.  If you're curious or interested in the organization they're involved with, it's Partners In Health.  Also, Régine Chassagne, Arcade Fire band member and wife of Win Butler, is pretty bad ass.  She's no Tina Fey, but she now ranks pretty high on my "man crush" list.

Now on to pictures (taken with my phone :o/  )

I want to live in these two hours forever and ever!

Performing Rococo

Win Butler moving to the piano for a song.  Most of the members of Arcade Fire play multiple instruments.  It just makes watching them that much more impressive.

He went out into the audience once.  He's a brave man.  It looked like he was getting mugged, the way people were jumping all over him.

And videos!  If you even remotely like these, let me know!

Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)  (Yeah, this is the one that made me cry.)



Arcade Fire - Intervention



Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait




Aaaaaand, that's a wrap folks.  I actually enjoyed writing (and living - the science museum, awesome food, and beyond epic performances from some of my favorites....and now face painting. When I die, I'm pretty sure this is my version of what heaven should be like) this blog entry.  If I entertained at least a few of you even for a little while, and maybe even showed you some new music, I've done my job.

An expensive, but 10000% worth it, weekend

Oh, and DO NOT ASK ME what my favorite performance was...obviously Muse and Arcade Fire were the front runners but trying to choose between those performances would be like trying to choose a favorite child.  They were very different but very...amazing.



My next music adventure:

Band of Horses  :oD


Band of Horses - The Funeral


Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You