Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival: Day One

The opening day of the second annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco was, in a word, chill.

The atmosphere in Golden Gate Park was a considerable leap from last year’s bottlenecked bout of frustration, despite massive attendance (40,000+) and tales of fence-hoppings galore. With perfect weather, easy parking, mellow crowds (no, that’s not skunk spray in the air) and triumphant rock sets from bands spanning the spectrum of exposure and genres, all was right on Day One at Outside Lands.

With most of the popular indie hipster acts (Autolux, The  Duke Spirit, etc) playing early in the day, fans delved into worthy unfamiliars such as Austin’s Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, who by all accounts rocked the hell out of their ever-growing crowd with an enthusiastic horn section and a Otis Redding/dirty soul vibe.

Speaking of vibes, Madd Vibe Orchestra wowed those tuning in with a burlesque-circus-rock stage show, as Los Campensinos! delivered their own brand of goods after apologizing to the audience for playing in the same time slot as Built To Spill, who were onstage across the park.

Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, rocking a full beard, tore out an unforgettable solo on The Plan midway through the band’s poptastic set that received callouts from just about every major act in the day, including Silversun Pickups frontman Brian Aubert (who twice referred to them as “one of the best fucking bands ever”) and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who thanked them by name. Unfortunately, the set just wasn’t loud enough, a detail that comes as a surprise with three guitarists in the batch and a bit of a reputation for being noisemakers in concert. Nevertheless, tracks like Car, You Were Right and Big Dipper still made their desired impact on the devoted crowd.

Meanwhile, Portugal. The Man, who were kind enough to sit for a band shot for us, will undoubtedly win over more new fans than any other act on the bill with their sonic jungle of experimental rock tomorrow. We’re excited to see these guys gaining ground, as we’ve been screaming their praises for a year and two albums.

Backed by a five-piece band and DJ, Q-Tip trotted out the hits, opening with a few tracks off last year’s album The Renaissance before delivering the Tribe Called Quest classics like Check The Rhime and Bonita Applebum, among others. For the finale, Phife Dawg, Tip’s partner in rhyme in ATCQ, took to the stage for a searing rendition of Award Tour. The rare moment wasn’t lost on Q-Tip, who declared before leaving the stage: “I don’t know if you’ll ever see that again.”

Tom Jones made his own solid run at stealing the show with an hourlong set of hits that included What’s New Pussycat, She’s A Lady and, of course, It’s Not Unusual. And yes, the panties were flying. He closed with a cover of Prince’s Kiss, which was considerably more inspired than the other Prince cover fans witnessed last night: Incubus’ take on Let’s Go Crazy.

By several accounts, Incubus‘ set was less than inspiring – but one look at the setlist could’ve given that little secret away. It appeared as if the band couldn’t decide whether to go all-in for the chick-rock jams (they actually play Love Hurts live? That takes balls, man) or all out rockers (Circles, Megalomaniac), opting to ride a bland middleground in the end. They’ve written a good amount of relatively great music over the years, but if this is what amounts to an Incubus setlist these days, count me out.

Incubus setlist:

Pardon Me, Nice To Know You, Anna-Molly, Stellar, Megalomaniac, Circles, Love Hurts, Under My Umbrella, Are You In?, Oil & Water, Quicksand, Kiss To Send Us Off, Wish You Were Here, Let’s Go Crazy

What seemed to be the entire crowd of 40,000 strong crammed to the Land’s End stage for Day 1 headliners Pearl Jam, who are about to unleash their ninth studio album Backspacer, tore out a two-hour set full of hits, wrapping up the first leg of the band’s US tour with the show. The band’s rigorous touring schedule had taken an audible toll on singer Eddie Vedder’s voice, but if the deafening crowd singalongs were any indication, the energy in the air was far from entirely reliant upon the flannel-clad frontman. Mike McCready’s no-look, over-the-head solo during old crowd favorite Even Flow left the uninitiated stunned, while those who knew what to expect (the first 20 rows of heads or so) were still on overjoy mode as the band pulled out some infrequent gems (Low Light, Pete Townshend’s The Real Me) and finished with two blasting Neil Young covers: Throw Your Hatred Down and the longtime PJ live staple Rockin’ In The Free World. If you’ve seen them perform it, you understand why the ground was shaking up front.

Pearl Jam setlist:

Why Go, Animal, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Low Light, The Fixer, In My Tree, Small Town, Even Flow, Got Some, I Am Mine, Given To Fly, MFC, Down, Black, Save You, Do The Evolution, Go

1st encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Daughter, The Real Me (Pete Townshend), Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams), Alive

2nd encore: Throw Your Hatred Down (Neil Young), Rockin’ In The Free World (Neil Young)

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