by james siciliano
It starts with an, “Excuse me, sir. Would you mind moving your seat?” But I,m not at the concert, I’m on my American Airlines flight en route to San Francisco for this weekend’s Outside Lands Festival. “Sure”, I said. No problem. It’s fucking 9 in the morning and all I want to do is sleep.
SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT W/ ME BY THE COLD WAR KIDS:
As I move seats, I’m told “I’ll be taken care of”. Indeed. I’m sat next to an attractive 40 year-old off-duty flight attendant on her way back home. She knows everyone on the plane “old work buddies” and within minutes, I have a complimentary mimosa in my hand. Then a bottle of champagne. More mimosas. Oh boy. She tells me I have the “best eyes she’s ever seen”. This is apparently her weak spot, as we spent the next few hours making out in between free drinks. No need to get into detail, but I’ll just say the service on that flight was outstanding. I even got a free bottle of wine on my way out.
So I was off to a good start. Beautiful, foggy San Francisco was at my fingertips. I checked in, grabbed a bite, and was at the doors by 5 to get this festival started. The festival grounds were massive, and the crowd was even bigger. They had six stages going, on three different fields. Unfortunately, time between performers on different stages was nonexistent. ie - the doors opened at 5 and closed at 10PM, and there were 13 bands performing. So I wasn’t going to see everyone (sorry Beck), but I was going to do my best. First up was Cold War Kids.
They performed on a smaller stage in front of a packed crowd, with smiles on their faces. Smiles, because a few years ago, no one had heard of them. Before the last song, lead singer Nathan Willet looked out to the crowd with a look of awe and said, “A few of you might remember us from Mulberry St.“. And most of us don’t. He was talking about Mulberry St. Ristorante, a eatery in Fullerton, CA above which they had an apartment when the band started out four years ago (it’s also the name of their first EP).
They played a solid, energetic set, mixing tracks like “We Used to Vacation”, “HangMe Out to Dry”, and “Hospital Beds” from Robbers & Cowards with new ones from their upcoming album Loyalty to Loyalty. The three most notable new tracks were “Mexican Dogs”, “I’ve Seen Enough”, and their new single, “Something Is Not Right With Me” — which I really, really dig. I managed to snag a video of this, albeit a shitty one.
Outside Lands: Cold War Kids - Something is Not Right With Me from Quiet Color on Vimeo.
They closed the set down with a lively, percussion-filled rendition of “Saint John”. I always liked the track on the album, but it’s one of those songs that really comes to life when seen live. Guitarists played percussion, piano…sang along. It seems like everyone in the band can play at least 3 different instruments. And rock out on every one.
Like I said the schedule was tight, and the crowd was massive. After Cold War Kids, I pushed my way back to the Polo Fields (the large, main-event field), where Manu Chao was playing.
The line for beer was across the field, so I waited in line while jamming out to Chao’s dance-rock craziness. Admittedly, I’m not really familiar with his catalog. And I don’t speak Spanish, so I can’t say I understood a word he said. But I will say this, after hearing him play live, I’m buying his CD.
He had the crowd dancing and jumping, Latino mamacitas shakin’ their baby-makers. And made a pale, white guy waiting in line for beer dance like Steve Urkel. He’s one of those artists that proves music really is the universal language. You don’t need to understand to enjoy and get into it.
I finally got some beer, just as Chao closed out his set waving a Mexican flag. I mumbled something in Spanglish to try and fit in, and then moved towards the stage where Lyrics Born’s show was starting up.
I can maybe sum it up like this — Born had the same effect on everyone there: Hippies in tie-dye shirts, Latino gangbangers in straight brimmed-hats, college girls in short skirts — and that was: put your fist up in the air and fucking bounce. Despite the fact that he got jammed into one of the smaller stages, he took crowd from mellow to house-party in about 45 minutes flat.
ALWAYS FINE TUNING BY LYRICS BORN:
I often catch myself in conversations discussing how I loathe modern rap, and think that as a genre, it’s passed its peak. Yet, seeing a show like this makes me question that notion. What’s so cool about Born is that he surrounds himself with talented musicians, not just a laptop with samples. A guitarist that can solo like a lead artist, a crooning, ever-present female vocalist Joyo Velarde (who is also his wife), a pounding beat-box of a drummer, and a funky bassist that made his hit “Callin’ Out” sound like a lost disco-rap from the 70s. Simply put, the instrumentals were off the charts.
He was a true entertainer, and a real crowd pleaser. The performance of “Hott 2 Def” was so tight and powerful, it had me singing it when I woke up this morning. Which is pretty impressive, considering I’d never heard it before (it’s off his ‘08 album Everywhere at Once). He closed the show down with a fun, sing-a-long riff on “Bad Dreams”. The crowd was in it, and so was I.
Gotta say, I’m not sure if I was more impressed with his mile-a-minute MC skills, or the fact that he wasn’t black. Maybe that came out wrong. Let’s just say, I wasn’t expecting a half-Japanese, half-Italian guy from Berkley, CA to be that good. But he was.
And like clockwork, as soon as the lights went down on Lyrics Born’s stage, the lights went up on Radiohead’s. I pushed and clawed my way as close as I could get. I apologize to all of the people’s blankets I ruined and the small children I crushed, but I was going to get as close to that stage as freakin’ possible.
The cheer when Thom Yorke and his crew took the stage was almost deafening. This was my first Radiohead show - I’ve been listening forever, and I was expecting exceptional things. And I’ll say this: it was better than exceptional. It was scrumtrelescent.
Their ability to go from techno-beat rave to heartfelt opera-esque ballads is simply unbelievable. It’s like, just when you’re getting too hopped up from the pounding drum box, they break out a song from their catalogue that makes you want to sit in silence and hug the person next to you
No song is ever too long. No solos are needed. It has to be one of the tightest sets I’ve ever seen a band pull off. Beautiful, powerful, poetic one minute. Energetic, gritty, and face-melting the next. As a fan, you often forget how eclectic their catalogue can be. Taking it from acoustic-rockness of The Bends and OK Computer to the techno-pounding of more recent Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows. It’s an expansive, cross-platform discography that (gulp) is starting to perhaps rival the Beatles in terms of artistic merit and expansiveness. They understand rock, they understand acoustic, they understand techno. And they understand the audience - understand how to make you live the music you’re seeing.
The light show in and of itself is an experience — one I imagine would rival that of Pink Floyd and other psychedelic bands of the 70s. And their eye for the artistic goes all the way down to the camera angles they select and the video feed they project. Close-ups, almost artsy black-and-white touches, all of it makes the experience more visceral, more intimate.
PACKT LIKE SARDINES IN A CRUSHD TIN BOX BY RADIOHEAD:
Highlights for me would have to be the teary, poetic-ness of “Videotape”, the pounding, trance-like rendition of “Idioteque”, and the old-school acoustic ballad “Karma Police”. Rock god status aside, their ability to connect with their audience is perhaps best embodied by the sullenly amazing “Fake Plastic Trees”. One man with a plain-old acoustic guitar in front of probably 80,000 people. You could hear a pin drop. All ears and eyes locked silently, hypnotically on Yorke. Which, in the age of digital distractions and whiney teenage girls, speaks volumes.
They closed the place down with “Everything In It’s Right Place”, a song that is a full-bodied sample of what they represent: the ability to mix genres into their own Radiohead-style dynamic.
It was a truly amazing show. Trippy at times, even without drugs. And powerful throughout. As the perpetual smell of marijuana smoke cleared, and the crowd moved towards the exits, I took a brief pause and said, “Good day”.
Indeed it was. And with Tom Petty, Cake, and Ben Harper coming up this afternoon, I think today should be another one.
