Outside Lands Post-Mortem: We Like It. We Really Like It.

The general suckiness of All Points West had me a little worried about San Francisco's inaugural Outside Lands Festival. And, in fairness, Year One is tough if you're gonna invite sixty thousand people to a three-day rock concert. There are all sorts of logistical nightmares that were somehow inadequately anticipated. In the case of Outside Lands, for instance, as much as I admire the promoters' interest in avoiding the dreaded festival sound bleed (the horror!), a few of the event's stages were so far apart that folks couldn't even be bothered to trudge back and forth. And they might want to consider having it a few weeks earlier, when it's not so brisk at Golden Gate Park. Because it's hard to rock out to "Karma Police" when the sound of your teeth chattering is drowning out Thom Yorke.

All told, though, I'd give Outside Lands a resounding thumbs up. The event was produced jointly by Superfly, who have made Bonnaroo into America's best music festival, and Another Planet, an SF-based company helmed by Bill Graham-protege Greg Perloff. As a result, Outside Lands had the same kind of respect for its customers and adventurously curated line-up that has made Bonnaroo America's best music festival. Moreover, Another Planet's Perloff gave the festival its sense of advent, staging it in Golden Gate Park, and inviting hometown flavor (see Kaitlin's post about the bong made out of a watermelon below).

I saw some great performances by Devendra Banhart, Cold War Kids, Radiohead, Tom Petty, and Wilco. I met Steve Winwood and talked to Toots from Toots and the Maytals about how he coined the turm reggae, chatted with Banhart about whether the phrase "buttgasm" connotes a good thing or a bad thing. And I got to meet Justin Vernon, from Bon Iver, who is not the sad-sack you'd expect. Vernon (hilarious! humble!) and Banhart (lovable! humble!) are my two new favorite indie rock stars. Watch this space tomorrow and Thursday for my Q&As with those dudes. -- JENNY ELISCU