Features

11 Outstanding Things at Outside Lands 2011

Arcade Fire photo by Casey Flanigan

1. Arcade Fire: Long past the days when they could still be deemed “indie,” Win Butler and company are now one of the biggest bands on the planet and Arcade Fire proved why when they closed down the festival on Sunday with the best set of the weekend. Triumphant, uplifting, epic; it was everything we’ve come to expect from the sprawling Canadian outfit. There were moments that recalled the weird textures and interludes of Radiohead, the hypnotic grooves of Talking Heads and the everyman struggle of Springsteen, yet it always felt totally original and unique. There’s immense power in group sing-alongs, put tens of thousands of people in a field and get them all singing, hands raised over head, and it borders on spiritual.

2. Phish: A full two set Phish show in Golden Gate Park sounds like a slam dunk, and for the most part it was. A well executed, and long, first set that included “Tweezer” and closed with “Mike’s Song” > “I Am Hydrogen” > “Weekapaug Groove” hinted at the darker jams to come during the second half while a nice array of covers, including Zappa’s “Peaches en Regalia,” Velvet Undergrounds “Rock & Roll,” David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and Ween’s “Roses Are Free,” helped bring fringe fans into the fold.

3. The Weather: If you don’t live in San Francisco, or better yet, if you don’t live in the Richmond or Sunset Districts of San Francisco, then you just don’t understand how lucky we were to have hot – seriously, put on sun block, bust out shorts hot! – weather on Saturday and Sunday. Friday was par for the course, foggy and cold; the rest of the weekend was simply beautiful, helping to truly give Outside Lands that festival feeling.

4. Vetiver: One of the most surprising sets of the weekend, Vetiver’s inviting indie-folk was reminiscent of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty -era Grateful Dead and proved to be the ideal soundtrack for basking in the sunshine, toes stuck in the grass of Golden Gate Park. They even covered the Dead’s “Don’t Ease Me In,” creating a wonderfully strange place where hippies and hipsters commingled with pride.

5. Food & Wine: Though not quite at the level of New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival in terms of gastronomical delights, Outside Lands is pretty damn close, and has arguably closed that gap with Wine Lands, where the areas top vineyards offer up some of the best wine in America, if not the world. Extra points to organizers for the addition of Food Truck Forest; the fried pickles and green tomatoes from Those Fabulous Frickle Brothers was worth the 20 minute wait!