Report/Photos: Outside Lands Fest 2011

08/15/2011

Arcade Fire, Major Lazer, Beirut, Girl Talk, Erykah Badu and others ignited San Francisco at this year's Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival (August 12-14). Pity about Big Boi, though. Check our photo gallery, following the report.

Text & Photos by David Downs

Double-dip recession - that's a guitar move, right? About 180,000 music fans braved San Francisco's mercurial weather patterns and steep, $250 ticket prices to attend the 4^th annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival this weekend. The markets may be see-sawing and London smoldering, but inside the wooded, storied Golden Gate Park - the age's malaise couldn't be found.

Arcade Fire lead singer and guitarist Win Butler said, "These are the times you just pinch yourself. I can't believe I'm being paid to come to San Francisco and play." A veteran of tiny local clubs and more charismatic than ever, Butler directed an ebullient closing set Sunday night which spanned the group's three albums. The Montreal eight-piece are simply titans of the arena now, and "Rococo" and "We Used To Wait" off of The Suburbs went off like bombs.

Butler also said he can die a happy person after playing with soul legend Mavis Staples earlier in the day, a testament to the eclectic 80-band bill masterminded by Berkeley promoters Another Planet Entertainment. From Beirut to Big Boi, Arctic Monkeys to Deadmau5, Outside Lands combined tastes rarely seen together, with only a handful of arrests for what police said were "silly" things.

Preparing to launch August 30 release The Rip Tide, Beirut proved a perfect fit for the sun-dappled Lindley Meadow Sunday afternoon. It's easily Outside Lands' most intimate space, featuring a tree-hidden field with curved sides that makes for a natural amphitheater. Drenched in the golden rays of the setting sun Zach Condon led the classy, expert chamber rock six-piece through hits "A Sunday Smile" and "Nantes". It was a stark contrast to the same location on Saturday, where one half of Outkast simply couldn't put it together.

Fresh off an arrest for ecstasy and illegal Viagra, Big Boi completely failed to perform Saturday after his DJ's computer refused to boot, and no back-up could be found. Comedian Dave Chappelle came out to explain that it wasn't Big Boi's fault, but it was. Lindley Meadow closer Saturday Erykah Badu shined in Big Boi's wake, though, deploying a tight ten-piece band and a full computer set-up to maximal effect.

The funky, revolutionary spirit of San Francisco legends Sly and the Family Stone shone once again in the city as Badu sang "Hip Hop / is bigger than the government" and warned of dirty cops. Badu closed her set with a little crowd surfing. "I just wanted to feel ya'll," she said.

Fellow masters of their instruments The Roots also blew away crowds numbering in the tens of thousands during their afternoon set Saturday. An all-live instrumental super-remix of "You Got Me", "Sweet Child O Mine", "Bad to the Bone" and "Jungle Boogie" made the crowd lose their minds. If it's possible for The Roots to have actually gotten better since joining Fallon, they have.

GNR was in the air Saturday. While Muse's histrionic, operatic rock thundered on the main stage, Pittsburgh laptop artist Girl Talk absolutely slaughtered the opposite side of the festival Saturday night with his trademark dragnet of pop hooks. Mixes of "Barracuda" and "Hard in da Paint", "November Rain" and UGK's "One Day" are abject populist pandering, but they have a dark end. Girl Talk pulls in listeners, only to violate them with kind of sounds rarely heard outside of the experimental art circles in which he gestated.

It was a prelude to an equally fierce dance-off during Major Lazer Sunday. Super-producer Diplo and Switch did their aggressively sexual dancehall routine, dropping the beat so hard that the sweaty, half-naked, writhing crowd looked like something out of Caligula. It's an experience that should be on everyone's bucket list.

Promoters say the three-day, sold-out event created 4,500 jobs and drew a reported $50 million in tourism to the City, so start saving $20 a month. Barring a total global fiscal meltdown or a simian revolution, or both, you can bet that Outside Lands will be back and just as big next year.

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Beirut