Music festivals are the Jackson Pollock paintings of the concert-going experience: both are messy, frustratingly incoherent and unmercifully overwhelming affairs. Yet, under the right conditions or at a certain angle or with the help of questionable substances/chemicals/beverages flowing through the blood stream, they can turn into beautiful, spiritual enlightenments. Such is Outside Lands, another excuse to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and merchandise and hotels just so you can pretend to be a hippie for a few days (ironic, yes?). This particular festival, like so many other festivals littering the country, is another buffet of musical and artistic talent assembled to attract every breed of music fan, from hipsters to your parents, with lineups that sometimes work and sometimes just leaves you scratching your head. Only the freakiness that is San Francisco could dream up a hodgepodge that puts ska/punk/metal/reggae ass-kickers Fishbone on the same stage as Hall & Oates (side note: still in a delightful amount of pain from the “Party At Ground Zero” mosh pit). But, despite the marquee headliners and promises of gourmet overpriced food trucks, the real attraction for many music fans, the ones devoted enough to trek out early for the first shows of the day, is discovering the bands that eventually may become one of those marquee headliners. And then, naturally, you can dismiss them as sell-outs once they become said marquee headliners and annoy all your friends with the fact that you saw them way before they got big. Such is the life of the music nerd. Anyway, here is the best of the “new bands” from Sunday’s line up at Outside Lands.
The Wild Feathers – Anyone who thinks rock n’ roll is dead obviously hasn’t been to Tennessee lately, a place where the list of alumni seems to be growing on a daily basis (Kings of Leon, Jeff the Brotherhood, Heavy Cream, etc.) The Wild Feathers similarly come from the school of stripped down Americana/garage rock/country-soul or whatever other flippant label you can possibly pin on them. It’s a simple formula: bass, guitars, drums and searing vocal harmonies all turned to full blast, making you wonder whether to dance, mosh or just sing-along. I could play the ‘sounds like’ game all day if I had the time/inclination: sounds like The Band’s melodic sensibility meets Led Zeppelin’s explosive riffage; sounds like Big Star mixed with a bit of Willie Nelson; sounds like a thousand other insipid clichés that really don’t do this band justice, so check them out yourself and make your own determination.
Deap Vally – Any rock duo is condemned to being compared to the White Stripes these days because, well, they are the only other rock duo and everyone and their grandmother knows (that is, until the Black Keys finally got famous). So here it goes: yes, Deap Vally, a female rock duo, does channel the ferocity of early White Stripes. Big riffs, primal beats, scratchy vocals- it’s not a wholly unfamiliar combination, but it’s one that works well when there is passion and energy backing it all up, and Deap Vally have such passion and energy in abundance. There are certainly a few holes in their sound (sometimes sounding a bit too sloppy or thin on the low end at times) but they make up for it in reckless rawness, a true punk aesthetic, and enough attitude to win over even the most jaded observer.
Dawes – I’ll admit it: I was never a champion of this band after listening to their debut album North Hills. It was too mellow, too soft for my tastes. But, after having stood for a good five hours straight and desperately needing a rest on that Sunday evening, I would’ve sat through a Kenny G tribute band at that point in the day. So Dawes it was, and soon my cynical ears melted to a very warm, inviting live sound that I felt was lacking from some of their recorded work. I’ve never felt better about being wrong about a band than at that moment. Taylor Goldsmith’s delivery of the lyrics was so clear and crisp I couldn’t help but marvel at the powerful songwriting, the aching stories of defeat, self-doubt and despair. “Most People” will surely bring a tear to your eye if you listen closely, and “When My Time Comes” never sounded more moving than when an entire field of fans chanted along to the U2-sized chorus, the instruments dropping out to better hear the roar of hope clinging to a song about death, a simple melody somehow morphing into a revelation on a chilly Sunday evening in a San Francisco park.
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue – Who ever thought the trombone could sound this cool? This catchy? This damn funky? Because there’s no other adjective better suited to describe this incredible live act than that one. Oh, I suppose you could use ‘rocking’ when referring to the blistering guitar and drum solos, or ‘jaw-dropping’ when mentioning the killer bass grooves or baritone sax spotlights. You could shout ‘No way!’ when one of their original funk jams somehow melds into a horn-fueled coda of Rage Against The Machine’s “Bulls On Parade” and, even more impressively, makes sense. And I haven’t even begun to describe the bandleader, vocalist and trombonist (duh) himself who had the crowd eating out of the palms of his hands (that is, when they weren’t expertly working the trombone of course). This is one band that screams, “Come see us live!” because you’re not going to get this kind of experience anywhere else. Oh yeah, and they also covered Green Day’s “Brain Stew.” A group led by a trombonist rocked a cover of “Brain Stew.” Just try to wrap your mind around that one. Go here for more on Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Photo By Dan Gluskoter.
The photo of Paul McCartney blowing up the stage is by Sarah Crosthwaite
Nick Schneider
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