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).

After acquiring gourmet tots from Q Restaurant, started out mellow at the Panhandle stage for smart, synth-infused pop from Ximena Sariñana, who endured almost an hour waiting for soundcheck but still delivered some great tunes. Second on the bill was the Twin Peaks stage for British it-boys The Vaccines, whose immense amounts of vocal reverb rendered most words indiscernible but really got the crowd moving with their “British Strokes” sound. Hook-stacked hit “If You Wanna” fused everyone together– it was electrifying.

From here, a worthy trip to the main stage yielded prime placement for a killer set by OK Go, decked out in bold primary colors. Frontman Damian Kulash spent some time wading through the crowd, sparking every phone within 200ft to rush into “video mode.” Noting that San Francisco is a city full of “dirty sinners,” the boys brought out some “God-made” handbells for a reverent rendition of “Return” before rocking their sizable roster of hits, even striking the chimes for “Skyscrapers” and bringing out original guitarist and SF resident Andy Duncan for “Get Over It” from their first LP.

Our next destination was more fodder and libations, which were procured by way of jaw-dropping mac & cheese from Homeroom. (If you’re in LA or SF and get a chance to enjoy any of their gourmet cheese-topped macaroni masterpieces, take the chance. So worth it.)

On to the Twin Peaks stage for Sia, the lovely, unassuming Aussie with the huge voice, who got people dancing right away and had her band decked out in what appeared to be colourful Afghan rugs. Songs were great, and she even played new song “Hostage” from upcoming release produced by The Strokes‘ Nick Valensi, which was amazing. Less amazing was her peculiar banter with the crowd, but that’s another story. Next chapter: passing by the Panhandle for a bit of electro-chill from Eskmo, which was interesting but not engaging enough to stay away from the main stage for one of the festival’s biggest draws, The Black Keys.

The Polo field was packed for this working-man’s duo from Akron, Ohio, and the crowd was singing along with every song. I knew they had become popular, but wow. Also surprising was how well I knew every song they played, some from commercials I’d prepped and seen and some from film soundtracks (like “Chop and Change” from the latest Twilight OST). They trucked the first half of the set with backup from a bassist and organ, but dropped down to a duo for the later hits. I waded through the surprisingly polite crowd to find the perfect spot, just in front of the soundboard, for the night’s headliner, Muse.

Anyone who’s seen Muse in recent years will tell you their stage show has [ahem] grown a bit, and while I expected the lasers and the smoke and pyrotechnics, what really blew me away was the video effects on-screen. Quick takes and wave fades are one thing, but when they’re lightning-quick in time with the beats and changes mid-song, it’s mind-blowing, and they kept that up all night with their awesomely-futuristic stage design, even featuring a piano with responsive LED lights and their recent bonus of huge inflatable eyeballs bombarding the crowd. Also, for my money, I don’t think there’s a song with more cajones to watch live than Muse’s “Hysteria”; it just crushes, as did every track they played from their still-bulletproof Absolution LP. Frontman Matt Bellamy kept his intensity on 11 all night, feeding off the crowd and feeding it right back, and by the time their encore of “Plug-In Baby” ended with massive pillars of smoke filling the stage, everyone was in alien space-rock heaven.

Outside Lands, day three.

Sadly missed The Joy Formidable, but caught a kick-ass set from Brooklyn electro-dance rockers Phantogram at the Sutro stage. Next up, approximately 60% of the festival attendees showed up to watch Foster the People, who having recently been covered by Weezer, returned the favor with a blissfully stoned-out version of “The Sweater Song.” I decided to let’s be friends, and just walk(ed) away from that just in time to catch MGMT day-psyching it out on the Land’s End (main) stage with some hugely surreal visuals on the jumbotrons, making for perfect dinner music to everyone enjoying the many food vendors surrounding the Polo Field of the park, where the main stage resided.

It should be noted that all vendors at Outside Lands, tasty food or otherwise, were local and very environmentally conscious– recycling and compost containers everywhere, refillable water stations, and more eco literature than a Green Party rally. Welcome to San Francisco!

Back to the action, next up was a brief stint watching Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (or say “enh” IMHO, but there was no one else I wanted to see for an hour) before sauntering over to the Panhandle stage to catch glitch-rockers The Limousines, whose awesome synth- and 8-bit-infused set was fraught with technical difficulties but was still amazing and high-energy, with two masked drummers joining the duo on some tracks for extra insanity. This ended my first day, but I heard reports from friends that the second (Twin Peaks) stage headlining set from The Shins was “amazing” and blissfully uncrowded, thanks to Phish playing an epic three-and-a-half hour set on the main stage.

Outside Lands, day two.
Outside Lands, day three.

Summertime– it’s festival season, and for any Northwestern U.S. residents (or really committed and globetrotting fans) this year’s Outside Lands Festival provided food, festivities, and (most importantly) a wide array of popular music artists to allow the 100,000+ attendees to cram half a year’s worth of shows into a single weekend. Before recapping the three days of aural bliss, a few things I learned while spending time amongst the glorious throngs of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this weekend:

1. Bacon-covered funnel cake will replace every food on your “favorites” list and you will thank it for doing so.
2. Fuzzy-eared hats are becoming waaay too popular. Among adults.
3. The tiniest women will be the most aggressive people pushing past you to the front of the stage.
4. When Phish headlines the main stage of a festival, every other stage is blissfully less crowded. Phish need to headline more festivals.
5. Whether you’re smoking it or not, at a festival you must be prepared to be high on marijuana, even if it’s just a contact high (see #4).

On to the recap, with limited picture interruption:

Day one: Phantogram, Foster the People, MGMT, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Limousines, The Shins
Day two: Ximena Sariñana, The Vaccines, OK Go, Sia, Eskmo, The Black Keys, Muse
Day three: Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band, tUnE-yArDs, Grouplove, Little Dragon, Deadmau5, STS9, Arcade Fire, Mavis Staples

Kings of Leon
Furthur featuring Phil Lesh & Bob Weir
The Strokes
My Morning Jacket
Phoenix

Dawes
Nneka
The Soft Pack
The Whigs
Little Wings

Two-day tickets go on sale tomorrow morning; single day tickets will hit the market on Sunday. Here’s some more ticket information: sfoutsidelands.com/tickets.

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More outside lands information over at sfoutsidelands.com.
Audioholic Media‘s 2009 Outside Lands festival flashback is over here.

There were no reports of devastating weather, tragic deaths, or even threats on national security at 2009′s Outside Lands Festival. There was just some good old fashioned fun in the sun (with music, of course).

If you couldn’t make it to Outside Lands this year, the festival’s lineup is something that you should be so jealous about missing that it will force you to get off your ass and make a trip to San Francisco next time around. It’s not every day that you get to see such a wide variety of acts. I mean, you’ll probably never have a chance to see the likes of The Black Eyed Peas tearing up the stage on the same day as Dave Matthews, much less in a twelve hour window from where The Dead Weather would later give everyone exactly what they came for.

If there is a possibility of ever having too much fun, you can witness it when Matt & Kim make the stage (and the crowd) their own personal playground. If you look hard enough, you can see genuine contentment on their faces (OK, you really don’t have to look that hard), because they make it abundantly clear that the stage is their home and that they’ll treat any guest in their home with the highest level of hospitality (even if that means crowd surfing).

To regain and maintain everyone’s chi throughout the festival, Os Mutantes were there to make sure everyone was doing OK in between bong hits, and Jason Mraz was there to make sure everyone was doing bong hits. John Vanderslice, Lenka, and Modest Mouse made very memorable appearances as well.

In the midst of everyone being collective, M.I.A. came in to stir up a little rowdiness. In her attempt to cause commotion, she handed out blow horns to the audience. Let’s face it though, what’s a festival without an obscene amount of blow horn in unison? After The Beastie Boys had to cancel, Tenacious D were there to fill in the pieces by covering “Intergalactic” and “Sabotage.”

Outside Lands was a promising place if you enjoy good music, art, and food. All of the acts pulled through to give everyone the most accurate definition of a festival. Sure, you can look it up in a dictionary, but I think the only way to really know what it means is to immerse yourself in it. If you couldn’t make it to Outside Lands this year, there is no need to worry (– a need to feel regret and to sulk is a different story) because you still have about a year to make plans for next year’s festivities.