Photo Credit: Allison Silverman

Phantogram playing at the Sutro Stage

A conglomeration of well-known, talented bands and a mass of enthusiasts overwhelmed Golden Gate Park for the Outside Lands Music Festival.

The three-day festival from August 12th-14th featured headliners Muse, Phish and Arcade Fire as well as the Black Keys, the Shins, Deadmau5 and many others. The music scene was delightful, new bands constantly arriving to provide an engaging mix of styles and sounds. I was not disappointed by any band I went to see and was introduced to a few new bands as well.

Music-wise, the Black Keys drew a devoted crowd, playing their classic songs that many sang along to. MGMT and Muse were likewise.  Deadmau5 was excessively fun, the dancing, lights and beats almost out of control. Shout out to the Decemberists’ lead vocalist Colin Meloy who kept us in hysterics with comments like “I offered this next song to Michele Bachmann for her campaign… here’s the Calamity Song” and “It’d be great if everyone would camelfight now” between sets.

The entire festival was surprisingly well-organized; every band ran on time, lines for the reasonably-priced food were kept short, trash and recycling cans every few yards kept litter to a minimum around the majority of the park. It did take a while to enter and leaving was a mess, but that was nothing unexpected.

However, no amount of planning or clealiness could disguse the fact that there were thousands of people there. Each “venue” was crowded with almost claustrophobic hordes, aggresively fighting to get closer to see something more than the top of the stage. While this did admittedly add a little to the fun of dancing to Deadmau5 and Girl Talk, I was getting frustrated trying to catch a glimpse of the Shins or even hear them.  Attendance was supposedly around 60,000 per day, with the weekend days more popular than Friday.

Still, the music was live and loud and thus enjoyable even from afar, augmented by the festival atmosphere. And if you, like me, don’t like crowds, relaxing on a blanket in the middle somewhat away from the masses was always an option, offering basically as good a view as standing behind some tall guy in the crowd.

The moral is that lots of great bands in one place also tends to draw large crowds, the trade off of festival concerts. But at least this time I found the music worth it.