Just one year old and, yet, the Treasure Island Music Festival is no longer the new kid on the block. A whole new batch of festivals have popped up in 2008, both in the Bay Area and beyond, to vie for concert-goers’ dollars.
The organizers behind Treasure Island _ Berkeley-based promoter Another Planet Entertainment in collaboration with the same folks that host the annual Noise Pop festival _ hope that this increasingly competitive market place won’t have much of a negative impact on their event. They are still expecting good crowds to turn out when the festival makes its sophomore showing on the picturesque island in the Bay on Saturday and Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »
Everything about the inaugural Outside Lands festival was big.
The site itself, which spread across three connecting fields in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, was enormous. The three-day bill was epic, consisting of more than 60 acts, including monster headliners Jack Johnson, Radiohead and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The turnout was tremendous, as turnstiles spun an estimated 180,000 times for single-day-ticket holders and those holding full-weekend passes. (Final attendance numbers were not available at press time.)
And, most importantly, it was big fun.
Although there were some minor problems with the event _ such as transportation headaches and crowd control issues _ Outside Lands must still be considered a ringing success. Organizers managed to pull off what is arguably the biggest and most ambitious ticketed concert in Northern California history. Indeed, the Bay Area now has a festival that can stand up proudly to such mammoth music events as Southern California’s Coachella or Tennessee’s Bonnaroo. Read the rest of this entry »
John Johnson brought the first-ever Outside Lands festival to a close. The headliner sounded as mellow-cool as always and listening to his music made me want to eat smores. I love smores.
The following is a great video, from Youtube, from Johnson’s performance. It’s quite good, funny and memorable. You’ll want to watch. Let’s call it: “The Surfer vs. the Spider”! Click and you’ll see why: Read the rest of this entry »
One of the best things about the Outside Lands festival- perhaps the single best thing, actually - is how strongly it draws from local acts. And I’m not talking about the usual suspects, acts like Neil Young, Carlos Santana and Phil Lesh (though, mind you, I wouldn’t mind seeing any of those at next year’s Outside Lands, especially Neil).
I’m talking about newer/less-established Bay acts like singer-songwriter Jackie Greene, college-crowd rockers ALO, hip-hopper Lyrics Born and Rupa & the April Fishes, who received rave reviews from their set on Saturday.
On Sunday’s bill, among many others, was Sila and the Afrofunk Experience. I caught a tiny bit of the San Francisco band’s mix and enjoyed what I heard. The group is often compared to Fela Kuti and its most recent Afrobeat offering, “Funkiest Man in Africa,” (a tribute to Kuti), received some strong reviews. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the really cool things about covering one of these huge festivals is that you are bound to bump into some celebs. Right now as I type this, for instance, Nicole Atkins is about five feet away from me, being interviewed by a slick radio guy. Pretty good interview, actually. I could never do radio.
Better news, for me, was my meeting with Cactus. I came back to the press room to write up my Toots piece, which I’ve now done. But before I did that, I noticed Phish’s Mike “Cactus” Gordon hanging out and being interviewed some video dude. Since Phish is one of my favorite bands - and a Phish reunion is on the top of my wish list - I listened in. The interviewer sheepishly approached the subject of a reunion and Gordon nicely (politely) deflected it. Sort of. He did address the question, but didn’t give us anything concrete (one way or the other). Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Definitely, one of the sets I was looking forward to at the Outside Lands festival was Toots and the Maytals. The reggae greats didn’t let me down. Frederick “Toots” Hibbert will turn 63 this year, and he keeps getting better each time I see him in concert. The guy just knows how to rock a crowd.
Here are some the set list, with a couple of question marks. If you can help fill in the list, please post.
“Pressure Drop”
“Time Tough”
“Reggae Got Soul”
“Johnny Cool Man”
“Louie Louie” (Kingsmen - awesome version!)
“Funky Kingston”
“I’ve Got Dreams to Remember” (Otis Redding)
????????
“Sweet and Dandy”
“Country Road (Take Me Home)” (John Denver, with “West Virginia” switched to “West Jamaica”)
??????? (Missed the closer - should have asked Toots what it was when I ran into him in the “free Diet Coke room” backstage. Drat!) Read the rest of this entry »
OK, campers, getting ready to kick off Day 3 of Outside Lands. What can you expect to read about from today’s coverage? Here’s my best guess - which, of course, could end resembling reality but little.
1. Toots and the Maytals: Really want to catch these reggae greats
2. Mike Gordon: Phish bassist is one of my faves
3. Jack Johnson: Gotta see the headliner, of course
4. Sharon Jones and Dap Kings: Love the sound, looking forward to catching them live
5. Bon Iver: Might follow Shay Quillen over there and catch some of that, mainly so I can avoid watching Vienna Teng
6. Widespread Panic: Been too long since I caught the second best post-Dead jam band (after Phish, of course)
That’s the plan. Let’s see what really happens. Off to the show.
