Photos by Ben/Words by Delicious
Rock & Roll is our gospel, beer and spliffs are our holy communion and this is our church, but the seventh day is the Sabbath and it is the day we rest. Weve withstood the plagues of bathroom portable restrooms, weve outlasted the flood of people and weve survived famine (that Cliff Bar was clutch, bro). The gods have been appeased and our blessing was Day Three in Golden Gate Park.
San Francisco is already Sodom by the Sea, but Outside Lands takes that metaphor and gives everyone in the bible pure MDMA, every possible way you can ingest marijuana and light-up neon everything. Its beautiful and exhilarating, and exhausting.
I opened my day strong with San Francisco’s own Brothers Comatose. Bluegrass peppered with stories about San Francisco’s musical days of old, jamming with homeless hippie dudes in the park and some fucking high-as-fuck kid getting down with the twang.
I moved to Lands End Stage because cold beer is a siren this heathen cannot deny. Paolo Nutini had been bumped to this later time slot because Chvrches cancelled. Bummer. Paolo Nutini has the blues, man. If you thought his albums were kind of vanilla, his live performance might change your mind. He’s handsome and talented, but he’s British, so maybe that’s why he has the blues.
I stayed for Spoon, well, because I like their Pandora station. Inoffensive guitar-driven music that everyone can kind of ignore for the most part, with recognizable hooks for when the conversation takes a pause or you need to drink your quickly-warming beer. Holy shit! It’s actually that warm right now. Beers are getting warm. This is amazing. Who gives a shit about Spoon! Or, I mean, I love Spoon! Whatever.
I’m the most dismissive fuck when it comes to anything even remotely electronic sounding, but I somehow got sucked up into the current here, and I’ll be damned, Cut Copy is a real band and they’re good. Did you guys know that?
Lastly, The Killers. The Killers were The Killers. I know that is code for, “I have nothing to say here,” but I think that is my one big takeaway with the headliners at Outside Lands 2014: Noone had their mind changed. If you were a fan, you remained a fan; if you were apathetic or disliked any one of the headliners, your thoughts and feelings remained. I had a great time at The Killers, but given my mindstate, I had the exact experience I expected to have. And every seasoned festival-goer knows that it’s just as much about the bands in the smaller print (perhaps, and usually more).
Don’t change Outside Lands, you’re getting better and better with age.
Flaming Lips – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
Spoon – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
Courtney Barnett – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
Jenny Lewis – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
Lucius – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
Woods – Pictures from Outside Lands 2014
