Outside Lands, San Francisco's three day music festival in Golden Gate Park, is only two months away! This will be my third year in attendance, and I'm really looking forward to this year's lineup. The last two years had a number of memorable performances. 2013 boasted a ton of great acts, including Gary Clark Jr. (a man who will never disappoint a festival crowd), Band of Horses (who get credit for the best setlist of the festival), Jurassic 5 (playing their first show in years and killing it), the Chili Peppers, and Paul McCartney (who put on such a memorable show). 2014 had Cut Copy (my highlight of the festival - there's nothing like thousands and thousands of people losing their minds, dancing their pants off), The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Tom Petty, Run the Jewels, Atmosphere (easily one of the best shows of the festival), and a disappointing Kanye (wah wahhh - but for the record, I still somewhat begrudgingly love Kanye).
So on to 2015, a lineup that I would argue may be better than Coachella's lineup this year. There are very few DJs (yay!) and a ton of varying genres of music to keep it interesting and different. There are way too many bands that I'm excited to see that I would love to talk about at length, but in the interest of time, I'll keep it a bit shorter.
With apologies to Local Natives, Tame Impala is unquestioningly my favorite band at the moment. I crave every show I can attend, and I believe this will be my fourth show of theirs. By August their new album will have been released which will set up the show to be downright epic. I CAN'T WAIT.
St. Vincent, a super talented and original artist, one who shreds the guitar and looks damn sexy doing it (side note - I read she was dating Cara Delevinge = power couple! Side note to the side note - Cara Delevinge had a profile in the Wall Street Journal Magazine which I thought was interesting and painted her in a bit of a different picture, not as celebrity and attention craved as you would imagine, maybe worth a read?) is always an act to see. Can't wait.
D'Angelo (assuming he doesn't cancel his show like he did two years ago at OSL) will be a total treat to see live. I wonder, because his music and voice is so fragile and intimate, if a festival setting will work for him. I think his backing band, The Vanguards, will bring the funk and be loud enough to absorb the place and crowd, but we'll see.
I love love love Wilco. I saw them for the first time at Austin City Limits, and I was disappointed in the set list, and I thought the performance was just dull. I don't expect that to happen twice for a band who has one of my favorite live albums ever, Kicking Television - Live in Chicago.
Hot Chip will be this year's replacement for Cut Copy. Though I like Cut Copy a lot more, Hot Chip has a ton of great and identifiable songs that the crowd will lose their minds to. It'll be a dance party. In the same vein, Classixx should put on a similarly great show.
I will see St. Paul and the Broken Bones this time. I promise!
Elton John is going to be awesome. I don't even know too much Elton John, I just know that he's a hell of a performer, one who will tear up his piano and belt out the hits. I think the crowd is going to really be into this one.
I've heard that Kendrick Lamar isn't performing much stuff from his new album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which makes me wonder whether A) it's too complicated or expensive to play live (as the instrumentation in that album sounds pretty expansive with a ton of different instruments) or B) this is some "artistic" statement that he won't play it for the masses because this is his album and he won't be pimped to play it. Whatever man. Don't make an album and then not play it. What is that about? (Update: Lamar just started playing some tracks from the new album at his appearance at Summer Jam this past weekend, so hopefully that means we'll get to see new stuff at OSL -though bummer for all the people who saw him prior to this). I saw Lamar at Austin City Limits a couple years ago, during the madness of his last album, Good Kid M.a.a.D. City, and I thought it was somewhat disappointing. But he's had a ton of time to get better so we'll see!
Two headliners that I'm 50/50 on - shows that I will certainly plan to see (assuming there aren't any other bands I have to see playing at the same time) that could be great but might also lose my interest - Mumford and Sons and The Black Keys. I saw The Black Keys at ACL, and I just feel like those guys need to be in a dingy, small venue to get the real experience of that sound and energy. A festival is too wide open and pristine of a setting. Mumford and Sons have festival ready songs which I think will be great, but I'm not sold on the new album, so that show will be a TBD.
Ok, so that was a bit longer than expected, sorry, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about OSL as the schedule is released, and I plan my days, but as for the playlist, these are my favorite tracks of each artist that I would like to see at OSL. Those with multiple tracks I am probably more interested in seeing, but each band has a gem or two worth hearing live. Probably best to just put the playlist on shuffle, buy your plane ticket to SF, crash on my couch, and come to a great festival!