Show: Outside Lands Festival 2012
Date: August 10-12, 2012
Venue: Golden Gate Park
City: San Francisco, CA
Outside Lands Festival 2012
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Katie J. Norris
A long weekend full of headlining acts, comedy shows, unique food and chilly, foggy San Francisco atmosphere are always to be expected at Golden Gate Park’s Outside Lands festival. This year, we found there was always something to do and the location plans for vendors, stages and facility locations were impressively well designed. Everything was in a location that made sense for everything else around it. There was not one performer who didn’t appreciate the opportunity to be there. And the audience was fully aware they were lucky enough to be a part of the sold out weekend festivities. Despite the masses of people, the food and the freedom to roam, there was hardly any trash anywhere. The crowd was mature and there was no drama for the weekend. The main stage was the place to be, for sure, but the more intimate stages were not to be avoided for fear of missing something amazing. As usual, Outside Lands was amazing!
The Scottish band is well known for their attention to the visually artistic details, and their set coincided with their passion for imagery. There was a huge black and white early modern art-style backdrop, and out in front were stacked, shimmery gold amps in perfect rows. The set looked reminiscent of a 1950/1960s TV show that might have been debuting a guest artist. Even some of their guitars had 1950s style. The sound mix was fantastic, with every guitar lick articulated and understandable lyrics. Stage presence was another noteworthy attribute by front man Alex Kapranos. And drummer Paul Thomson fits in nicely exercising high energy with skill in a suave button-down striped shirt.
Franz Ferdinand played a mixed bag of their tunes from their three released albums, from “Do You Want To” to “Take Me Out.” Strange, warped effects resonated out of the shimmering amps and raised tension all the way to a complete break of silence. Just then, Kapranos begins an interesting live rendition of “Can’t Stop Feeling” off their 2009 album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. There were ear-catching complicated rhythms on a few of the songs, most noticeably on “This Fire.” To bring it all to an entertaining height, they closed with an absolutely amazing drum solo! Every band member took a pair of drum sticks and they all played a different rhythm within a single time signature on the same drum set, creating a sickly complex syncopation that was captivating to watch and mind blowing to hear.
The not-so-hard-rock set of Norah Jones is still worth mentioning as part of this festival, not just because she’s a nine-time Grammy Award winner and has a career spanning over a decade, but also because her audience massed into the thousands and she was the off-beat thrill for a lot ticket holders. She opened the stage with a long intro into “Say Goodbye,” off her new album Little Broken Hearts—released just months ago. She followed that with “It’s Gonna Be” and the acclaimed hit, “Chasing Pirates” off her previous album The Fall.
The sound on the second largest stage was incredibly crisp and gave the impression of a really big private concert. She still has those famous jazzy undertones, but her new songs showcase her surprisingly solid pop belt-outs during their more dramatic sections. She continued her set with some more selections from her new album, including “She’s 22” and “All a Dream.” It’s clear her sound has definitely transitioned a bit over the years. She still takes her time with her milky notes, but there’s a fusion vibe laced on top with the new tunes.
Jones is joined by the thousands of fans facing her when she begins her next song, “Come Away With Me.” It’s a battle between half the audience wanting to hear her perform it and the other half of the audience celebrating by turning to the one they came with and singing to them. It was a semi-weird pseudo-Valentine’s day moment. She continued the favorites with “Sunrise Sunrise,” “Black,” which she wrote with Danger Mouse, and “Turn Me On,” She closed the show with a solo piano accompaniment, which she played at her own pace, and sang her silky “Don’t Know Why.” To catch Norah Jones’ new album goodies, including a new music video and her live performances on Leno, check out her website.
A smiling, smartly-dressed Regina Spektor walked on stage with an excited wave to the thousands in the field. She walked to the mic, picked it up, and sang an interesting a capella song as a sound check. She said a very gracious “Thank you” afterward and walked over to the upright piano. Spektor played “On the Radio,” performing some fancy cross-overs on the proud looking Steinway and featuring some crafty syncopation from the cellist. For her next song, “Small Town Moon,” Spektor took her time with the starts and stops between lines until the first chorus, for which the stand-up bass player still somehow followed perfectly.
Regina Spektor is very expressive with her hands, which is nice since she’s at a piano the whole time. She played “Blue Lips” featuring her very complex piano arrangement, and after, removes her black-buttoned jacket, revealing a bright red shirt matching her lipstick pallet. The in-power color choice really works, too. She is flawless on her piano playing, not missing one tricky key, and her confidence is captivating. During “Patron Saint,” the drummer actually gets to showcase some of his skill and Spektor shows us a wider vocal range. She continues with “How,” a song with a terrific build that plays a tug of war with legato and upbeat timing. The solo piano octaves played at the breaks keep the energy moving, creating an interesting dynamic for this tune.
Spektor gets the crowd moving as she picks up the pace for “Eet,”—beat boxing portions of the song—and “Dance Anthem of the 80’s.” She played a roots reggae beat, bubble and all, for “Ne Me Quitte Pas.” Then Spektor looks at the audience with a coy, knowing smile, turns to her piano and plays the familiar intro to her most popular tune, “Fidelity.“ The crowd cheered and sang along dancing back and forth to the light, poppy rhythm.
The main stage was altered with a catwalk that extended far into the audience and made a full loop back to the stage. As one of the “big four,” Metallica still lives up to their big credits with a show-stopping act. Taking no time to subtly integrate the new performance area, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett were on the far stretches of the catwalk by bar three of the intro, creating an incredible visual that made them look as if they were walking on the crowd. It seemed as if the production was carefully designed around the time of day of their set. The sun was just setting during the walking-on-air visual and then dusk turned to darkness right at the time when the pyrotechnics made their debut.
Hetfield sings into a retro-style red and black mic, which is a noticeably fitting detail for this act. His vocals are raw, clean and powerful, and his effortless stage presence shows the experience of his extensive career. The sound mix is perfect and all the guitar action is a non-stop workout. There is just no sign these guys could ever slow down. They started in with their endless list of hits, beginning with “Memory Remains” off their seventh album, ReLoad. The heat from the pyrotechnic effects of vertical flame throwers on either side of the stage could be felt a hundred rows back in the audience. It was a nice blast of warmth from the thickening San Fran fog rolling in. After a few classic songs, Hetfield prefaces the second part of the set with saying, “Metallica has been around a long time—thirty years. SF likes their music heavy. So I’m gonna give it to you HEEAAVVVEEEEEEYYYY!” They attacked their instruments with hard rock chords as they launched into “Sad But True.”
They dropped the vibe down to smoother level, but still with metal undertones sneaking through the cracks (obviously) until it took over and brought Hetfield to a heavy metal growl. They continued the breakdown into the opening of “Enter Sandman” and then went on to hit after hit. They seemed to just play and play, and it was all great stuff! Despite being around since the ‘80s, Metallica still sounds current enough to blend in and stand out as a remarkable heavy metal band. And their audience is not a few fans trickling through from their heyday, but many people, from old to young.
Gun shot effects blast and light up the stage, and fireworks take off into the sky. As the smoke starts to clear, lasers shoot beams above and into the crowd from the stage as a sweet guitar solo plays to bring it all together for the beginning of the song, “One.” The audio/visual treat was a perfect end to Day 2 of the festival.
The legend himself let his band open with a jam session before he walked on stage with his keytar. He played an instrumental solo and then transitioned into a medley of a few of his biggest hits. He took a pause after the collection of classic tunes, and preached a Sunday message of love, prayer and Obama. He continued to play and sing—just as you would expect he might—with great passion and skill for “Higher Ground” and a Michael Jackson cover he’s known to do, “The Way You Make Me Feel.” His rendition of the Jackson song was fantastically his own while remaining an honorary number to the late, great king of pop. Lighters sparkled throughout the audience in support.
Stevie Wonder has always been known to be an activist for political causes. And there at the festival he was still making his opinions and statements very much a part of this act. Almost every song he did had an introductory speech lending the tune to become a musical campaign for his support of peace between nations, faith in God and the Democratic election.
The audience got a treat because they got to hear every Stevie Wonder song that was ever a hit…performed by Stevie Wonder! The audience consisted of all types of different people—old and young. It was a very unifying set as everyone sang together with Stevie through the list of a lifetime of amazing songs: “Overjoyed,” “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “Isn’t She Lovely” and many others. Wonder even performed the John Lennon song “Imagine” that he covered at the Atlanta Olympics Closing Ceremony. It was a beautiful set to bring the whole festival together near the end of the last day.
The overall breakout band of 2012 opened with songs from their new album, Some Nights, saving the radio singles, and then played a few off their previous album, Aim and Ignite, which included the reggae-styled “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be).” Emily Moore, one of their touring musicians, stands out as the bright, sweet girl who can get groovy on keyboard, guitar, saxophone and vocals. Jack Antonoff keeps it chill drumming in bare feet and utilizes dramatic snare hits to go with the theatrical pop style. Andrew Dost goes wild on the guitar looks as if he aches to play a more heavy style of rock. And Nate Ruess is just what the album represents, singing with that spark of uniqueness in his voice.
Dost drops his guitar and grabs a second pair of drum sticks to double up with Antonoff for the driving beat of “I Feel Alive,” an anthem you can really dance to. Next came the awaited live performance of the overplayed but still enjoyable song, “We Are Young.” Ruess almost fell through the song, performing it with what felt like a lower energy than the other tunes. It certainly wasn’t a step above as might be expected for the megahit song of the set. But the audience got to sing, so it appeased the masses enough. The next tune began with a trumpet solo for a lengthy instrumental introduction to Rolling Stones cover, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The solo gave the band a chance to jam together and Ruess a chance to finally catch his breath and bring back the energy to the show. Fun. closed with their newest single, “Some Nights,” featuring an a capella opening, a war-march drum beat and a melodic chorus of “oh’s” that the crowd enjoyed immensely.
This was a visibly-splendid set. Back-up dancers in tuxedo dresses with gold pom-poms performed some club-dancing choreography with stone-straight facial expressions. It made for an interesting picture when Santigold came out and moved like a star in a black and white striped dress with neon yellow glasses that matched the neon yellow ruffles on the inside of the dancers’ skirts. After a few opening numbers, Santigold sang “L.E.S Artistes” and “Lights Out,” two of her first singles. The crowd went nuts and the dancers started incorporating hammer props into their routines.
Santigold screamed, “You’re ready to dance!” The band played some hot beats while the crowd jumped around, and then she performed her brand new hit “The Keepers” from her new album, Master of My Make-Believe. The band playing behind her was all in white with red symbols and white top hats on their heads. She continued the familiar chart toppers with “Creator” and invited people from the audience to come on stage and dance. The back-up dancers did a costume change and were decked out in army green short-sleeve onesies with a unique pattern. Odd horse effects grew increasingly louder within the mix of the music until a moment later when a large, human operated horse came dancing on stage. The horse did a choreographed dance with the girls. The whole thing was pretty badass, to be honest. Santigold joined them in her new costume change—a black dress that matched the girls. The guys in the band were now in white with gold leis around their necks. Santigold continued the show with “Disparate Youth,” “Freak Like Me” and “Starstruck.” Again, she brought two new girls from the audience on stage and gave them a whole side of the stage to freestyle on. She closed with “Big Mouth” and the drums went crazy! The rhythm section was a force to be reckoned with and caught everyone’s ear as they were dancing away.
Walking up towards the far end of the festival, to the Twin Peaks stage where Skrillex was scheduled to play, a theatrical set design comes more and more consciously into view until it is obvious that a giant alien space ship has landed on stage. Mysterious low lighting keeps it mostly in shadows. The backdrop is one big clock counting down to zero with minutes, seconds and milliseconds displayed. There is a steady techno line playing as the background soundtrack. At one minute fifty-nine seconds left on the clock, the growing melodic synth beat triggers the addition of a glowing red light beaming onto the ship. Skrillex suddenly appears within the ship and helps the crowd count down with the video screen from ten seconds on. Light sticks were held up all through the audience, transforming the then darkened forest and field into a dance party. But they are nothing compared to the light show on stage, the video screen and the smoke guns that launched when the count finally reached zero.
The show had begun. Video images of Santa Claus, labyrinth mazes, transformer-type robot machines and liquid metal took over the entire back wall of the stage. There were smooth overlaps from one great electronic song to the next with a clever remix in between. He changed it up when he cut the music and played the a cappella line, “out in the streets, they call it murder!” which launched a reggae/dub step techno/breakdown that had everyone jumping. The ceiling of the stage was striped with red, gold and green beams of light, and the whole vibe had everyone feeling warm and groovy on the chilly evening. Being in the far corner of the park, the whole thing felt like a secret dance party. The show was very well thought out, set up and executed. What a phenomenal set to end the weekend.