Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival: Day Two

Outside Lands 2009 was in full swing Saturday as the sun beat down a little hotter, the rock hit a little harder and the intensity reached a fever pitch. Unlike the first day, Saturday’s lineup encouraged musical wanderers among the festival’s numerous stages. Those arriving mid-afternoon missed impressive showings from Albino!, Zion-I and Detroit garage-soul outfit The Dirtbombs, who opened day two with dueling drummers and triple harmonies, winning new fans by the beat.

Across the way, Raphael Saadiq threw some retro-Motown flare into his set as the reunited Brazilian group Os Mutantes floundered badly in a sea of technical errors and failed tropicália. The sonic disruptions didn’t entirely damper the mood’s spirits, however, as they put the pieces back together and created a dance frenzy among the few remaining holdouts in the crowd.

Meanwhile, Portugal. The Man delivered the blistering performance we predicted they would, ripping through live staple Church Mouth before a psychedelic segue into a gorgeous cover of Three Dog Night’s One. Multi-instrumentalist Ryan Neighbors provided otherworldly soundscapes to counter John Gourley’s eager tenor as he led the band through a set that spanned the band’s career. One noteworthy highlight was the crowd singalong during the “It’ll be alright…” section of People Say from this year’s nearly-flawless The Satanic Satanist.

By many accounts, TV On The Radio was through the proverbial roof with energy, turning out a performance that proved even further that the band gets an unfairly bad rap due to their unfortunate hipster-obsession associations.

Deerhunter appeared late onstage to a massive crowd, but frontman Bradford Cox quickly set about erasing any frustrations by insisting that Conor Oberst doesn’t actually exist (despite the fact that one of his bands played the same day), as well as the insistent reminder that Deerhunter was “a professional rock band from Atlanta.” Despite the delay, the need for a replacement kick pedal and an uneven vocal mix, the crowd was hazily enthusiastic, seemingly too caught up in reveling in the fact that the Deerhunter pit was the go-to spot for potheads to be upset about the disruptions.

Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan did her best to create the ethereal atmospherics in the afternoon sun as she and her band rolled out a set of breathily-passionate nu-hippie jams that resonated well with the stoned and sentimentally-inclined. Khan’s keyboard duet with Sarah Jones before a gorgeous rendition of Horse And I, the lead track from her debut album, was a performance highlight.

Meanwhile, several thousand of the festival’s masses made their way over to Mastodon’s set at the Twin Peaks stage, leading with tracks from their high-concept Crack The Skye album before working backwards through their catalogue to the roaring delight of the event’s few metal fans. Frontman Brent Hinds’ throat got a full Cookie Monster workout as the band powered through one of the day’s most intense performances.

Any festival where the Black Eyed Peas are on the same bill as The Mars Volta is bound to be a study on colliding tastes. One can only wonder how much BEP were paid to have Transformers characters parading onstage during their set… but that’s where our coverage of the big-business pop circus ends.

“I think it’s very appropriate that we’re on the Twin Peaks Stage,” The Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala told the audience, who were clearly on the edge of losing their minds in anticipation of one of the most enigmatic and powerfully psychedelic bands in existence today. “Just remember… do not drink the coffee, there’s a fish in the filter,” he finished, before leaping into an absolutely searing rendition of fan-favorite Drunkship Of Lanterns. and a set that dabbled heavily in the band’s back-catalogue, offering only a few gems from their latest, Octahedron.

The band was “straight fucking wild, as if electrical currents where running through them,” according to our on-site photographer Alicia Roldán. Cedric was on fire, back-flipping and leaping from the drum riser before tearing down a massive sign and engaging in a sort of epileptic wrestling match with it that ended with Zavala body-slamming himself beneath it. The signature manic intensity of Guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López worked in symbiotic concurrence with Cedric’s cartwheeling insanity and vocal kaleidoscopics, leaving those in attendance breathless with extended solos on Dares and Wax Simulacra.

With a relentlessly crushing 90-minute set, The Mars Volta further cemented their reputation as psycho-funk rock gods, eclipsing all the day’s previous acts and doing little to prep the audience for the Birkenstock jams of headliner Dave Matthews.

His unsuccessful, brief attempt at breakdancing aside, Dave Matthews and Co. delivered a raucous set of hits that included Don’t Drink The Water, Ants Marching and an overly-indulgent, this-goes-out-to-the-trippers 20-minute version of Lie In Our Graves. Mathews’ longtime guitar-partner Tim Reynolds sat in for the entire set, and the recently-passed sax player LeRoi Moore (who the band’s latest album was dedicated to) was substituted by a three-piece horn section.

Dave’s throat was shredded by the show’s end (starting to see a pattern among the headliners here… Mr. Black better be in top form Sunday!), but not too shot to tear off a slowed version of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, with Robert Randolph on the lap-steel six-string. The Stairway To Heaven cover was received as less of a joke than it might have under different circumstances, leaving the Wayne’s World generation a bit confused by the notion that the iconic song can actually be played straight.

After two full days of spectrum-spanning live music, Outside Lands has hit its stride, and with the wildly eclectic day three waiting to unfold (where else can you see Ween, M.I.A., The Dead Weather & Atmosphere all in one place?), there’s bound to be plenty more action to report. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out our gallery for Outside Lands 2009, day two:

Antiquiet’s complete coverage of Outside Lands can be found here. All of our pictures from the festival can be found on our Facebook Page.

All Photos: Alicia Roldán & Rick Pickett for Antiquiet