The second day of San Francisco’s annual music and arts festival Outside Lands was a much more positive experience than Day One, due in no small part to the absence of a certain egomaniacal headliner dud. While Tom Petty brought classic rock hits to counter Macklemore’s big-box hip-hop anthems on Saturday, and Death Cab For Cutie reminded hipsters that they’re getting older now, it was Rhymesayers champion Atmosphere who truly ruled the day.
Get Your Ass on The Main Stage: Atmosphere
Atmosphere delivered one of the most potent and celebrated set of the entire weekend, pulling a blazing greatest-hits run for the jam-packed field with a “God Loves Ugly” mantra rippling through the crowd. If festival organizers need evidence of Atmosphere’s main-stage validation, the tens of thousands of people crammed to the point of breathlessness within the Sutro stage area should suffice. Enough with this peripheral relegation – it’s time these cats got their full festival spotlight due.
Young Retro Charm: Death Cab For Cutie
Death Cab For Cutie brought some friendly hipster nostalgia to Outside Lands on Saturday, enrapturing the shivering San Francisco crowds and making twentysomethings feel old with aging hits “I Will Possess Your Heart,” “Crooked Teeth” and “I Will Follow You Into The Dark,” as well as “Cath…” and celebrated radio-hit closer “Soul Meets Body”. Now let’s get a new record going, guys.
Relax Your Damn Face: HAIM
Countering Danielle’s Morrissette-meets-Silverman beauty-magnetics and serious guitar chops, bassist Este Haim’s ridiculous scowls are enough to keep fans entertained, though by now they’ve gone way past the point of obnoxious. We get it, Este. You’re the wacky one. Relax before you give yourself a stroke.
Goods in the Woods: McLaren Pass
Head off the standard beaten path for a little side-journey through the woods in Golden Gate Park, where fans can indulge in everything from the dessert heaven of Choco Lands to costumed freaks taking part in any number of odd antics, and a little extra privacy for sacrificing leafy greens to the fire gods. When the sun goes down, the setting gets downright magical.
Nostalgic Perfection: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
In a town full of hippies, one man ruled them all last night. Opening with a glorious cover of The Byrds’ “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” Tom Petty & friends hit just about every classic jam imaginable from his immense career, tossing in a spirited cover of The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” before a righteous singalong during “Learning To Fly” and one of the night’s standout highlights, “Refugee,” before closing with a heartstring-tugging version of “American Girl”.
Pulling All Stops: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are finally working on a follow-up to 2012’s The Heist, and the megastar duo delivered a small taste of what’s to come during their headlining performance at Outside Lands on Saturday. Knowing they had to bring out the big guns to stand any chance against opposing headliner Tom Petty across the park, Mack & Co. brought out the big guns, including a cameo by Chris Mansfield aka Fences for a second-time-ever live run through their new collaborative single “Arrows”.
An onstage marriage proposal took place shortly thereafter, with Macklemore praising the Bay Area’s history of civil rights, including the fight for “the right for all hearts to have the freedom to love whoever they wanna love.” He then brought a woman named Jenny onstage to propose to her stunned girlfriend Natalie, which the audience aided in with maniacal applause and quite a few happy tears (she said yes, by the way). It was all too fitting that Mary Lambert then arrived onstage for the hook of smash hit “Same Love.”
On to Day 3!
