The Outside Lands Review

The Outside Lands festival was a memorable experience with its great music, food and wine. The event which was held in the Golden Gate Park was beautiful with its surroundings and cultural feel that is San Francisco. Although, it seemed to have less people than expected it did not put a damper on the experience or the quality of the event. The organizers of this event deserve major props for its fast tickets lines, its ease of movement and with the placement of the stages. So many festivals seem to put there stages so close it's like listening to a train wreck.

On Saturday, thousands descended upon the heart of Golden Gate Park for a day of cultural experience from the food to the wine and finally to the talented musician's that made the festival rock. To recap Saturday's experience I will have to start with Bassnectar who dropped some of the sickest dupstep I have heard since seeing Dieselboy at Bonnaroo. Bassnectar, also known as Lorin Ashton, made sure his homecoming was remembered as large black objects were launched into the crowd during his 50-minute set on the Sutro Stage. The crowd was eating up the stage presence and the bass was wobbling the crowd into a dance fury of fist pumps and dance movements.

Then came the Tokyo Police Club who kept their stage presence with the assistance of the crowd. Who throughout the set assisted the band in different clap sequence to keep the flow of the music. The four band members also took their turns leading the crowd and making sure everyone stayed engaged at least until the next song came around. “Thanks for helping out,” lead singer Dave Monks would say with a smile. If only every band could show that kind of enthusiasm.

Finally came The Strokes who closed out the night with a bang. The return of this band and their stage presence was more than anticipated. The band just picked up where they left off and played like they never stopped. They got the crowed going with classics from their 2001 release of "Is This It" they then went on to play a collection of other great tracks from their other two albums. This was a great set to close out the evening for Saturday. Unfortunately I was only able to experience one day of this great festival but it was enough to satisfy my music hunger for the time being. I'm sure that next year will have more of the great same experiences that this year provided. See you next year Outside Lands.

Here is a little taste of Bassnectar's set.



via: Ryan Mac Blog