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LJHarb //
8:07 PM
The following is a report that was written after San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival, but was not published until now due to time constraints.
SAN FRANCISCO - The first major rock music festival to grace San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in nearly four decades was a huge success last month (August 22-24), drawing a crowd that organizers estimated at over 150,000 people.
Outside Lands celebrated its first year as the Bay Area's newest major rock festival with three days of music from artists and bands like Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, Beck, Andrew Bird, Widespread Panic, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Rouge Wave, Manu Chao, Ben Harper, Primus and Rodrigo y Gabriela, among dozens of others.
Unlike most other summer rock festivals, there were no sun burns or cases of heat exhaustion at Outside Lands. San Francisco's famously reliable fog, that the city is known world-wide for, drenched Golden Gate Park's Polo Fields for most of the three-day music festival - probably not what the over-advertised Heineken vendors wanted, but what did they expect in August on the west side of San Francisco?
Outside Lands celebrated its first year as the Bay Area's newest major rock festival with three days of music from artists and bands like Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, Beck, Andrew Bird, Widespread Panic, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Rouge Wave, Manu Chao, Ben Harper, Primus and Rodrigo y Gabriela, among dozens of others.
Unlike most other summer rock festivals, there were no sun burns or cases of heat exhaustion at Outside Lands. San Francisco's famously reliable fog, that the city is known world-wide for, drenched Golden Gate Park's Polo Fields for most of the three-day music festival - probably not what the over-advertised Heineken vendors wanted, but what did they expect in August on the west side of San Francisco?
Believe it or not, Anchorage, Alaska has higher summertime temperatures, on average, than San Francisco, California (and it's not because of the hot air blowing from Sarah Palin's mouth).
But on the last day of the festival, Sunday August 24, the sun came out and blue skies replaced low-lying clouds and mist. Having been to plenty of outdoor concerts and festivals in the hot sun, it's easy to welcome and appreciate the cooling waves of continuous fog.
MP3s from Outside Lands lineup artists:
"KC Accidental" - Broken Social Scene
"Herectics" - Andrew Bird
"Sightlines" - Rogue Wave (check out the band's other music, they're awesome.)
When Radiohead took the stage late Friday evening, the lights surrounding the entire venue beamed up through the fog like lasers - a common site in northern California. Just ask anyone who has shone a flashlight or drove with their headlights on through the thick summer fog - you can literally cast a beam of light for as far as the eye can see.
"Herectics" - Andrew Bird
"Sightlines" - Rogue Wave (check out the band's other music, they're awesome.)
When Radiohead took the stage late Friday evening, the lights surrounding the entire venue beamed up through the fog like lasers - a common site in northern California. Just ask anyone who has shone a flashlight or drove with their headlights on through the thick summer fog - you can literally cast a beam of light for as far as the eye can see.
Perhaps this is how Stars Wars director George Lucas, a native of northern California, came up with the idea for the famous laser weapons featured in the classic trilogy.
Anyways, the sets for good indie bands and artists - like Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, M. Ward, Rogue Wave - were too short, and the time delay between various acts were too short for such a huge place - literally four football fields from end to end. Next time they should also do something about the dust - that really surprised me since most of the park is lush and green (thanks to the fog and irrigation); dust is just not something you see in San Francisco.
(photo by thegatos08 on Flickr)
For many festival goers, it was the first night's headliner, Radiohead, that proved to be the highlight of the entire festival (not that big on Petty and Jack Johnson as headliners). Not only did they put on an amazing light show, but they sounded spectacular - better than on vinyl - which is hard for me to believe in a way, but it's true.
There were two brief sound outages, but the band apologized for that. As if. No apology needed Thom, you guys were so awesome, everyone already had forgotten about it. It's the only reason the performance gets an A instead of an A-plus.
Next year, assuming the fest will be held again (all indications are that the greedy promoters and investors made plenty of money) they should step it up have more real headlining bands (it is San Francisco, man), not try to cram so much on so many stages in three days and definitely invest more in facilities, and lower the three-day pass price.
Outside the parameters of the fenced off event were hundreds, if not thousands of people, who were presumably not ticket holders but had no problem hanging out in or under trees and on strips of grass soaking in the many artists - for free, and they didn't have to wait in the lines for the disgusting portable toilets.
Also, it'd be nice if they could come up with some innovative ways to protect the park more from environmental damage. I can't help but to feel a little guilty for the digging up of the grass (grass - not talking about that kind people - is a rare thing in SF) and how the loud music affected wildlife in and around the park.
Also, it'd be nice if they could come up with some innovative ways to protect the park more from environmental damage. I can't help but to feel a little guilty for the digging up of the grass (grass - not talking about that kind people - is a rare thing in SF) and how the loud music affected wildlife in and around the park.
Nevertheless, the festival was considered a success to most who attended. Those who were most dissatisfied were area residents who lived within an earshot of the music blaring above the trees and throughout adjacent neighborhoods. The fog actually helps carry sound, so at times residents blocks and blocks away felt almost like they were part of the festival.
Labels: Festivals, Outside Lands Festival, Radiohead, San Francisco Concerts
6:49 PM
September 23, 2008
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This year's Live 105 BFD Festival was a completely different gig than last year's fest. For one, tickets sold out fairly fast (being that they were only $10.53 base price; one-third the cost of last year's tickets), whereas in 2007, they were still available on the day of the event, and not only that, but they were giving out free tickets.Another change to this year's BFD was the fact that the venue was slightly moved around with the stages being set up in the parking lot area. There is still no official explanation for this, but it may have limited the number of tickets sold over last year.
On top of all of that, the 2007 BFD had a better line-up than this year's show, as many fans and reviewers have pointed out (including the San Jose Mercury News): Interpol, Social Distortion, AFI, Bloc Party, The National, Kings of Leon, CSS, Queens of the Stone Age and many others.
But again, for only $10 a pop, it's no wonder this year's BFD sold out, but it would have been a much better festival if they had anywhere near the same amazing line-ups as years past; and people would have paid the $30 or more for more headlining acts - that is pretty apparent from what so many are saying.
Based on the number of new festivals this year, it is not a stretch to conclude that BFD organizers had a hard time filling the line-up with 'top name' bands and artists for this year's event, and thus, the lower price for tickets.
Additionally, they make more money from advertising and vendors than the tickets anyways. Therefore, as one very disappointed past-BFD fan wrote, it's not like the festival-goer is really getting a break, especially if the line-up is such a drag compared to previous BFDs.
So far, there is not a very good selection of YouTube videos to show - which is amazing considering the Bay Area is a major tech and music center of the world. Perhaps, more videos of BFD 2008 will surface later on, but for now, here's the IRC picks:
Alkaline Trio - "Help Me"
Alkaline Trio was one of the best bands in the lineup for BFD 08, so here's another clip - "Radio"
Here's another view of Alkaline Trio playing "Radio"
MSTRKRFT performing with lightshow at 2008 BFD:
More from MSTRKRFT's BFD set:
MGMT serves up "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters"
Airborne Toxic Event bangs out "Sometime Around Midnight"
LoveLikeFire performing "Signs"
The Kooks performing short clip of "Naive"
PlayRadioPlay performing "I'm The Pirate, You're The Princess" at BFD 08
Magic Bullets performing "Yesterday's Seen Better Days"
Thought this was cute; little kid dancing to Cypress Hill
AntiFlag - Song title? (short clip, not best quality)
Santogold performing "You'll Find A Way"
From inside the tent: Cover version of Daft Punk's "One More Time" by (anyone know? Bueller? Bueller...)
If you have any interest in seeing the BFD trash left around after the festival, check out the After BFD video. Other videos include performances from Here, Here; Apside plays "K Vision"; short clip of Flogging Molly; PlayRadioPlay performing "Compliment Each Other Like Colors".
YouTuber OHteenhearts offers a bunch of videos from BFD, but they are fairly low quality and short. Yet if you are a crazy Kooks or MGMT fan, and you just must see no matter what, check them out.
Related reading:
Live 105 BFD - The Flobots
Folly Molly, Cypress Hill, Alexander Hamilton Highlight 2008 BFD
Labels: 2008 Music Festivals, Alkaline Trio, Festivals, Live 105 BDF, MP3s, San Francisco Concerts, The Kooks
11:21 AM
June 8, 2008
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Originally known as Management, the band MGMT will perform at the Live 105 BFDSan Francisco rock radio station Live 105 kicks off its annual all-day music festival next week, Saturday, June 7, 2008 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mt. View, California.
This is one of the best day-long music festivals in the United States considering the ticket price - a mere $10 - and the range of popular indie artists playing at the 10-hour festival. Talk about bang for the buck!
Tickets are on sale now. IRC does not endorse any ticketing outlets, but you can click BFD ticketing (links to Google results) to find tickets.
If it is like it was last year, you can also take a chance and show up to get free tickets. People in blue coats were handing out free tickets at the gate shortly after 1 pm.
If that doesn't happen, you'll probably still be able to buy tickets at the box office, or if worse comes to worse, find one a scalper.
Gates open at 11:30am, festival starts at 12:00pm .BFD Line-up for the BudLight Festival Stage (12:00pm-8:30pm) with links to MySpace pages:
Cypress Hill
Pennywise
Flogging Molly
Alkaline Trio
The Kooks
Everlast
Anti-Flag
Antithetic to the Cure
Atreyu
Airborne Toxic Event
Flobots
The Whigs
More bands!
Moby
MSTRKRFT
DJ AM
Santogold
Steve Aoki
Lyrics Born
Mike Relm
PlayRadioPlay
DJ Omar Richard
Oh HOTTUB
DJ Miles
SOUNDCHECK LOCAL San Francisco Bay Area Stage (1:00pm-6:00pm)
The Phenomenauts
Love Like Fire
Here Here
Magic Bullets
Apside
The Hundred Days
Federalists
The Action Design
Labels: 2008 Music Festivals, Alkaline Trio, Cypress Hill, Everlast, Festivals, Live 105 BDF, Moby, San Francisco Concerts, The Kills, The Kooks
2:07 PM
June 1, 2008
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Following a successful Noise Pop Festival in which dozens and dozens of indie musicians and groups descended on San Francisco, there are still many great shows coming up in the next few weeks, including Ray Davies (pictured above) of The Kinks, Death Cab For Cutie, Beirut, Linkin Park, The Cure, Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance and The Bravery.San Francisco's iconic radio station Live 105 F.M. has updated its concert calendar to include the latest, upcoming concerts (this is just a snapshot of many shows coming up in the SF Bay Area; stay tuned for more concert announcements):
3/8 - Serj Tankian @ The Warfield
3/10 - Popscene presents SxSF w/ Persephone's Bees & more @ Rickshaw Stop
3/10 - Angels & Airwaves @ The Warfield
3/10 - Linkin Park w/ Coheed & Cambria @ The Arco Arena, Sacramento
3/13 - The Bravery @ The Fillmore
3/28 - Ray Davies @ The Warfield - The legendary singer/songwriter of the best rock band ever, The Kinks, returns to San Francisco with a new solo album - Working Man's Cafe - that Rolling Stone magazine called a "masterpiece".
MP3: Vietnam Cowboys - Ray Davies from Working Man's Cafe
4/3-4 - My Chemical Romance @ The Warfield
4/8 - Jimmy Eat World & Paramore @ San Jose State Events Center4/10-11 - The Honda Civic Tour w/ Panic At The Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound, Phantom Planet @ The Warfield
4/12 - Taste Of Chaos w/ Avenged Sevenfold & more @ San Jose State Events Center
4/23 - Ben Gibbard and Death Cab For Cutie @ Fillmore
5/27-8 - Zach Condon (photo, right) and Beirut @ The Grand Ballroom At the Regency Center
MP3: Beirut - Postcards From Italy
5/28 - The Cure @ The HP Pavilion (video below)
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Labels: Angels and Airwaves, Honda Civic Tour 2008, Panic at the Disco, Ray Davies, San Francisco Concerts, Serj Tankian, The Bravery, Venues: The Fillmore (SF), Venues: Warfield (SF)
3:59 AM
March 7, 2008
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