Outside Lands Day Two: Steve Winwood and Ben Harper Pursue the Groove

Photo: Theo Rigby

With the chilly afternoon in full swing, Steve Winwood arrived on a gentle, Pacific sea breeze, waving politely to the crowd before declaring a set chock-a-block with “Stuff from [2008’s] Nine Lives, and we’re gonna mix it up with some older things.” From there the one-time singer for Traffic led his tight-knit band through Nine Lives’ best, like “Raging Sea,” and “Dirty City,” the album version of which features Eric Clapton. As promised, he balanced the set with old material, like Traffic’s “Empty Pages.” All throughout, Winwood was an affable guide to his music, but although he and his band revel in a comfortable, lived-in feel, there was little in the way of barn-burners, or even pulse-raisers, to be found here. As a consequence, Winwood’s effort came off as one-note, with songs all blending into one jazzy, mid-afternoon groove-a-thon. There’s nothing wrong with consistency, necessarily (especially for one couple, who made out extravagantly on the grass during Winwood’s set). But later, when Winwood joined Tom Petty for “Gimme Some Lovin,’” and “Can’t Find My Way Home,” the juice from a crowd set alight by Petty’s up-tempo charm slapped a giant smile on Winwood’s face. Comfortable is alright; still on fire at sixty is even better.

Following Steve Winwood on the Land’s End main stage, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals were, at first glance, a perfect match for a San Francisco audience: rockers with a folk bent, musicians with an activist bent, quiet types with a bombast bent. Those gathered greeted Ben’s roaring welcome (“San Francisco!!”) with an equally raucous, hearty response. After spending an hour blissed out to Steve Winwood, they were ready for something a little harder. But Harper and his band made a conscious decision to stick to the thoughtful side of their catalogue: tracks like “Glory & Consequence,” “Forgiven” and “Diamonds on the Inside,” made up the bulk of the set, punctuated by lengthy instrumental excursions from one track to the next. He was best when he ventured into angrier territory, as with “Whipping Boy,” an anthem about standing up for yourself in a relationship, which Ben described as “an excellent song written by a man from my hometown of Claremont, California, Mr. Chris Darrow.” But for the most part, Harper stayed away from such fist-clenching manifestos. On its own, a few hours on the grass listening to Ben Harper’s lighter side is not such a bad thing, but taken with the generally lackadaisical feel of the day’s performances, the sleepiness of Harper’s set disappointed. And so, with day two drawing to an underwhelming close, Tom Petty was left with a mammoth task: To pick up the lagging day’s pieces, and to get the chilly crowd moving again. – KAITLIN FONTANA