Outside Lands

The Outside Lands Music Festival has been going on for the last three days and it so ridiculously close to my house that as I type this in my dining room I can clearly hear Jack Johnson performing. I opted not to buy a ticket to the fest, mainly because it cost around $165 and I'm not crazy about crowds that huge. But two of my favorite bands, Radiohead and Wilco performed there and I managed to experience them for free in nearly as good a way as if I had paid to go in.

Our house is circled in red on the left side

On Friday afternoon, as I worked in my home office, I could clearly hear Radiohead sound checking "Talk Show Host", so right then I decided I would get as close as I could for free and enjoy sets by Beck and Radiohead that night. It's no more than a 5 minute walk from my house to the festival site, so I wandered down there after a sushi dinner friday and hung out listening to Beck at one of the side stages. Through the fence I could kind of see the stage, but the sound was quite good. He did a nice set, but from the couple of times I had seen him before I felt much of the enjoyment of his shows is visual as well as musical. I do really dig his new tune "Chemtrails", though.

After that, Radiohead played the main stage, where the sound easily carried up to our house on 35th ave. I spent most of the set hanging out on the grass just outside the fence surrounding the polo field. The sound was quite good, but it would have been nice to see them too. At least I've seen them twice before.

At the encore break I started wandering home, knowing I would still hear everything the whole walk home. By the time I got home they were playing Paranoid Android (which I love), so I sat on our front stoop and listened to the last three songs. It was actually louder, although less well defined, than it was by the fence. How cool to listen to Radiohead perform live from my front stoop!

The next day I biked around the festival site a bit, just people watching and checking things out, but didn't really stop to hear much music. Regina Spektor is the only artist that day I would have really liked to hear, but the timing didn't work out. Then, as a drawback to being so close to the festival, Tom Petty was seriously intruding on the film "Henry & June" that Stella & I watched at home that evening.

Today I biked back over and caught most of the set by Stars, and enjoyed that pretty well, largely because I found a spot outside the fence, on a hill, where I could see and hear them perfectly. Fortunately, Wilco was playing that same spot this evening, so I went back and caught their entire set. I've seen them many times, but I think they are one of the best bands around right now, so it's always great to see them. Their addition of the avant-jazz guitarist Nels Cline to the lineup was an inspired stroke of genius.

Well, now summer seems to be over. Stella is beck to work teaching at University High School. Jeffrey is back with us after a summer in Michigan and he starts third grade tomorrow. Fortunately, fall is the real summer here in San Francisco. September through November are the warmest and least foggy months.