Day Three
Day Three
by Joshua Krage
You gotta have some soul to start off a Sunday, and church this morning was provided by the Screamin’ Eagle of soul himself, Mr. Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band. Charles had a perpetual look on his face like he just couldn’t squeeze enough love out for all of us, but he tried and the band had their groove on lock. Solid enough start, got us warmed up for one of the best performances I think I’ve seen anywhere.
Merrill Garbus is tUnE-yArDs on her own, but she performs with Nate Brenner on bass/drums/coke-bottles (srsly!) and two random guys on sax who also valiantly bang on pot lids at points during the performance. Her main weapon of choice is the looping pedal, which she uses for both voice and beats, quickly constructing sonic stunners just by grabbing the second loop mic and banging a drum or singing a vocal layer, lather rinse repeat, and BOOM it’s an attack, devastating versatility and really mesmerizing to behold. If that weren’t enough, her songs are ferociously frenetic and fantastic, comin’ up with her full and capable voice jumping from serene songbird to savage scream in the space of a drumbeat. Amazing, really great set, she definitely made some fans in that crowd.
Caught the set from buzz band Grouplove next at the Panhandle, with an immense crowd gathering due to their high-profile touring and show schedules. Having Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin’s son on drums has definitely informed these guys as to media positioning for their shows and songs, but they brought the goods in the hooks, each song chock-full of sunshine and each of the four non-drummers taking turns on lead vox. Redheaded chanteuse Hannah Hooper had her sun-goddess mask in tow, and they even brought out the big-balloon trick, showering the crowd with brightly-colored inflatables filled with pineapple juice (which epicly-bearded bassist Sean Gadd discovered firsthand as one exploded right on him!). Fun times.
Priority for the day was Little Dragon, but between sets we shot over to the Endless Summer Sweets vendor tent for the most epic festival food of all: BACON FUNNEL CAKE. Spectators could not believe their eyes, and my taste buds could not believe their good fortune. The peerless goodness of this confectionary delight was enough to help me endure the wonderful but not-my-cup-of-tea latin pop of Julieta Venegas in order to squeeze up to the front of the Sutro stage for one of my favorite artists: Little Dragon.
Little Dragon has been on repeat on my iPod since their Machine Dreams LP woozily danced its way into my ears a few years back with atmospheric lounge-groover “Feather” (which they did NOT play), and their new Ritual Union LP is a smart slice of synth-pop with soulful vox from pixie-ish Yukimi Nagano, who had the groove in her the whole set and was just adorable to watch. Keyboard wizard Hagan had his epic beardage dialed in to 11, drummer Erick was solid like kryptonite, and bassman Fred even brought the cowbells. It was pretty much a late-night trance-pop rave in the daytime, which was a bit odd, but excellent.
Casting a pall on my Little Dragon experience was the small group of fans who had also filled the front of the stage for the next act, avant-garde ingenue Zach Condon’s Beirut, whose ecclectic brand of multi-instrumental oddity I appreciate, but of which I do not consider myself a fan.
Next on the menu was media-obsessed dance machine Deadmau5 at Twin Peaks stage. Stopping through for some sweet tea and cupcakes in the Food Truck Forest and enduring the last 15 or so minutes of meandering electro-jammage from STS9, we found a spot of land dead center in front of the soundbooth and readied ourselves for the lightshow.
You know going in you’re gonna get a rave when you show up for a Deadmau5 show, but the real bonus is his stage set-up. The ‘mau5 didn’t hold back: a dizzying array of geometric shapes adorned the sizable stage, and every available surface was decked out with multi-media lights for some mind-blowing visuals. I think one of the girls next to me had her brain asploded, but I bet she would’ve said “worth it” if she were able to while being carted off to the medical tent. After some serious giant Rubik’s Cube video game/rave action, we bolted to catch the last half of main stage headliner Arcade Fire.
Win Butler had joined Mavis Staples on the Land’s End stage earlier in the day for a take on perennial classic “The Weight”, so he’d already marked his territory, as it were; the stage is always set for the headliner, and you could see their huge marquee in the backdrop of every other act throughout the day. These Canadians were so full of energy, I couldn’t keep up, and just sat jaw agape as they tore through hit after hit, even infusing slower numbers like “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” with enough juice to shame a Red Bull. Those in the crowd with enough energy left to dance were engulfed in joyous glow near the stage, and the encores of “Wake Up” and “Sprawl II” were the perfect way to end a killer set and a so-worth-it festival.
This year’s lineup will be hard to beat, but I look forward to the Outside Lands people trying. Compared to other festivals, the OLF crew really excelled at pulling in amazing local vendors, keeping the park clean, having eco-friendly facilities and options for everything, and generally keeping the vibe peaceful and mellow. And the acts really brought their game; everyone I saw was top-notch and the sound was pretty good throughout, so props to the respective sound crews as well. So ends a great festival season, on a WINning note (<–Arcade Fire frontman pun, for the WIN).