Outisde Lands Recap

You can tell I'm crazy at work when I don't have time to review my weekend until Thursday! I went to Outside Lands, which is a 3 day music festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This year it was August 12th-14th. I've been to Lollapalooza multiple times and I went to Coachella last year. This is by far my favorite fest so far. San Francisco weather means no sweating to death in the mosh pits or suffering from dehydration. The park is gorgeous. Rolling Stone called this the "fest for foodies" which is totally accurate. There were so many delicious options at the rows of food tents. There's a forested part of the grounds that has the "Food Truck Forest" and "Chocoland." Chocoland has a mixture of faux sweets and skulls dangling from the trees, for a truly awesome effect.

Here's my rundown of the music. Day 1 I had to work in the morning so I missed my favorite new band, The Joy Formidable. Apparently they played a 10-minute version of "Whirrling." I made it half way through Phantogram's set and got to hear my favorite songs. I would definitely see them again. We stayed for Ellie Goulding, who I didn't know much about but heard rave reviews about her Lollapalooza performance. The reviews were right, this chick is awesome and did some sweet drumming. Then we waited for Big Boi's set, which was the biggest disappointment ever. He never went on and after an hour Dave Chappel went on to do a couple minutes of super awkward standup. Apparently he was there and was running late because his deejay went to the wrong stage (WTF). He tweeted "They only gave me 20 mins, this was outta my control, I Will " NOT " do a half ass show. Tried to go on after Badu. Not possible. Sorry." Seriously? People just stood around waiting for you! Do a couple songs and do them good. No one said anything about having to do it half-assed. Give your fans something. Ugh, no longer a fan of Big Boi. Finished off the day with a partial show by The Shins, which just felt a little lackluster.

Day 2 started out with a little Bob Schneider, who I haven't heard in forever. We took a little detour to have an awesome dance party in the Heineken Dome, which was so fun and bar far the best branding at the fest.We caught Arctic Monkeys at the main stage, who put on an energetic show that had the whole crowd singing. After that was The Black Keys, which is always a mellow show. They had a cool stage setup. I finished off the night choosing Muse over Girl Talk and I'm glad I made that decision. Muse was amazing and probably my favorite show of the whole fest.

Bu Day 3 I was a little tired. I slept in and missed tUnE-YarDs, who I heard killed it. Their music is a little weird but I hear people like them more after catching them live. The first show I caught was Major Lazer, which was my second favorite show after Muse. So much energy and a total dance party! You could just tell they were having a blast on stage. Caught the Decemberists from afar, which sounded pretty good. I pciked Deadmau5 over Arcade Fire. It was good, but he's just better to catch in a club instead of an outdoor show. The acoustics were a little off and soft. but all and all, an amazing 3 days of music. I will definitely be back next year!