Photos by Ben/Words by Delicious
Day Two was the day that San Francisco knows we deserve. We were blessed with sunshine, still air and no humidity, but at Outside Lands, you only get one. If you’re lucky. But that nuance is part of what makes this and every special unique. You have the desert and the heat at Coachella, the rain at Glastonbury and Lollapalooza and in San Francisco, you get the fog and the cool, sharp mist off the Pacific Ocean.
The lineup for Day Two demanded just as much as the weather. And Rock & Roll demands must be abided.
These demands, you ask?
Party your face off into the wee hours and be back in the park by 1:40pm for The Kooks. Bass-face. Twerk something. Everything. So much beer. All the beer. Keep up with hip hop chicks who know all the words. Fight your way back to the main stage. Free Fallin’.
Day Two is everyone’s favorite day. It feels like you’ve adapted to this nomadic life of beer, port-a-potties and loud music. This may never end. And you hope it never does.
The Kooks
For a band that could easily come close to subheadlining, the Kooks had a shockingly early time slot and despite the effort it took to get to the Lands End Stage, they were already packin’ em in for their early stage time. The Kooks mixed in acoustic, a Stairway riff here and there and had no problem giving this early crowd the weight-shifting body sways that you get when you have a beer in your hand, and it might be a little too early to really dance.
Local Natives
I’m excited for Local Natives. Am I excited for Local Natives? I guess my schedule allows for me to kind of give a shit about Local Natives, and I get some cred in the press tent for “wanting to see Local Natives,” so I guess that is worth something. Ben told me a story about some owner of a record label literally following these guys around on an entire tour until they signed with him. Killer percussion, everything sounded tight, but maybe too tight. Loosen up a little guys. They’re good, but I think I wouldn’t have a problem listening to their record and just being ok with that.
Tycho
This is a great example of one of the reasons why I love festivals; I get a chance to see a band/artist that I would never, ever, ever pay to see, but here, it’s worth checking out. I didn’t hate Tycho. They were exactly what I needed to hear and exactly what electronic music should be at it’s best.
Haim
I don’t think I’ve ever had my mind changed so quickly and fiercely about a band than it was watching the sisters shred on Saturday. Having only listened to their album, I felt and underwhelming pop-overload with too much production and too much hype for what sounded like a Wilson Phillips reboot. Clean-ass guitar with buttery solo-facemelting; I will never not see Haim as long as I’m in San Francisco.
Big Freedia
This is where I stopped taking notes. Freedia was everything and couldn’t have rocked a crowd with any more shake. Freedia is the hardworking ringleader of a New Orleans bounce dance clan and has clearly incorporated some professional choreogoraphy into the twerk machine. It’s the most fun I’ve seen any group of fans have at one of these festival things and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t buzzing after the set.
Tom Petty
Something about Tom Petty melts me. We connect with him individually because he wrote “Free Fallin’” for us. He knows what it means to us. “Runnin’ Down a Dream” is about us. These are our lullabies. He smiles.
Opening with “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” hitting all the numbers and dedicating the Dead’s “Friend of a Devil” to the late Jerry Garcia; Petty was strong.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
