Some graffiti near Fillmore and Geary that I thought was pretty boss.
Archive for August, 2008
First a caveat to those wanting to attend this festival next year: ride a bike to Golden Gate Park. I have read reports claiming anywhere from 50-70 thousand people were in attendance on Friday for Radiohead. As they were the last act, all of the festival-goers left at once making for a terrible situation for those who cabbed or bus’d in initially. No joke, I ended up walking 50 blocks or so back to my house with my 15 year- old cousin in tow. What a sport he was! 
Right on Eric.
Enough whining tho, the first act we wanted to see Saturday was M. Ward at the Sutro Stage. We were just a few minutes late, and as we walked up I heard some loud riffs coming from that area and thought to myself, “We must have the wrong stage, this is way too hard for Ward.” My cousin then remarked this actually was him playing “Poison Cup“. That was enough to get us to walk faster to not miss any more. Well, it just so happens that M. Ward really turns the volume up when playing live, a definite contrast to his wonderful but subdued alt-folk stylings on his LP’s.
As we found a place to stand, the band began to play the fable-tinged “Chinese Translation,” one of my faves and a beautiful music video as well (check it below a la YouTube). On a side note, I have transcribed this song for one guitar according to my interpretation, grab it here if interested.
M. Ward “Chinese Translation” from DJBunnyEars on Vimeo.
Ward went on to play “To Go Home“and “Requiem,” two songs that were deemed most single-worthy from 2006’s Post War (amazing album, Pitchfork review here). Funny how sometimes the songs you like the least from an artist really flow live. Here’s a video of Mr. Ward performing Rollercoaster (which was great at the show) with special guest Jim James of My Morning Jacket.
Jim James & M. Ward at St. David’s Church from Texas Music Matters at KUT on Vimeo.
After an altogether too short set, we moved on to check out Stevie Winwood at the Lands End (Main) stage. I first heard Winwood’s chops when listening to Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” (not “Slight Return”; the 27-minute “Voodoo Child” from earlier on Electric Ladyland) and as a middle-schooler was blown away as Jimi spewed drugged-out lyrics that were most likely ad-libbed on the spot, in between slow cooked wah-wah. Winwood’s organ chops may have been ad-libbed as well on that cut, but they sound absolutely planned out and vicious. Well, Winwood definitely brought it at the festival as well, and surprised me by picking up a guitar and just RIPPING it for a few extended solos. Even though I am a spritely 26, I was raised on this music so it always strikes a familiar and happy chord with me. As for the rest of the crowd, there was not a baby boomer sitting down in all of Golden Gate Park.
After grabbing some food, we got a good spot to see Ben Harper issue consciousness-melting slide licks from his lap-style Weissenborn guitar as well as tender falsetto cries juxtaposed alongside staggering funk growls. While I know Harper can rock pretty hard on album, it is his softer fragile ballads that are more well known, or at least foremost in my mind when I consider what is a typical song from his repetoire. Man-o-man, he is up there with John Mayer and Robert Randolph in terms of sheer electric guitar prowess. A truly visceral experience to witness.
That wraps up day #2 as we left after Harper’s set just before Tom Petty took the main stage to avoid getting stuck in the same transportation dilemma as Friday night. Too bad, I do love me some Tom Petty.
Day three to come…
Sean
It’s kind of hard to describe the full Outside Lands Festival experience to folks who were not there. I experienced extreme happiness (Radiohead playing their balls off) and extreme fatigue (the area the festival encompasses is enormous, and the public transportation post concert was non-existent).
First to Radiohead. This was my eighth time see the quintet do their thing, and while I generally hate Amphitheatres and venues where you feel like you are watching the group on the tele, the sound here was actually pretty good WHEN IT WAS ACTUALLY ON. That’s right folks, the sound dropped off for at least a minute during two songs, the first during “Airbag” (my personal all time favorite) and the second time on In Rainbows’ “All I Need.” Despite the technical difficulties and the crowd booing the sound company, (who probably wished they had not branded so many towers with their logo to advertise) when the sound came back up Radiohead were still playing through the remainder of “Airbag” like nothing happened. Their monitors must have remained on, I guess.
Setlists faves included “Arpeggi” (def amazing live in it’s post In Rainbows incarnation), “Talk Show Host” (bizarre aural freakout towards the end), “Idioteque” (Lead Guitarist and general all-around Genius Jonny Greenwood tried out some new things since the last time I saw them in 2006; a gentleman next to me remarked afterwards, “Yeah that was great, the drums got a little away from them ini the middle though.” It seems he expected an exact replica of the Kid A track, which I understand…. part of seeing them live is the controlled chaos where they take things to a dissonant edge and then resolve them just in time), and of course, “Just”. The lead guitar was too low for my taste, but we were to the right of the stage, so we might have been in a dead spot for the left channel. “Fake Plastic Trees” as an encore was fantastic.
One thing of note, the font used to display the scrolling “EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE” message that the band walked off to was something similar to ITC Marker Felt… one of the worst fonts known to man, runner-up only to reining champion Comic Sans and its horrid Queen, Papyrus. I have to believe that was not Radiohead’s call… then again, I really did not like Myriad before Apple redefined it. If any band can do pull that off, it’s them.
More to come from the next two days soon.
Hot off the presses, folks! This is a flyer I did recently for the noble Power to the Peaceful foundation. (powertothepeaceful.org) It feels great to do work that aligns with my beliefs and to collab and brainstorm with so many cool folks (big thanks to Paul Turner on this one). If you are looking for something fun to do in the bay area in early Sept, from what I have heard this is a really fun event with great music and people.
Coming soon: Photos and Posts about this weekend’s Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park… was quite the experience.
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