Music festival gaining fans

By Aitor Zabalegui

Music festivals are a lot like communism--they work better in theory rather than in practice. Overwhelmingly awesome lineups are often a great cause for excitement, a tradition that gets kicked off every year in January when people post faux Coachella posters on their music blogs. And if you didn't already know, next year's headliner will be the newly-reunited Pavement--hopefully.

But just because Coachella holds the crown as California's premier music festival doesn't mean that the others should be any less grand. Indio is a long way from Santa Clara. We deserve a little culture in the north, and with the 'two states' proposition in the news again, why not? Thankfully, in its second year, the Outside Lands Music Festival appears to be developing into an event fit to rival any musical-a-palooza.

The festival was held from August 28-30 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, a historic venue since the weekly free concerts given by local legends, Grateful Dead. The park as a whole is 20 percent larger than Central Park, but Outside Lands is limited to a small area in and around the polo field located in the center of the park. A lush forest backdrop surrounds the festival's five stages, creating an intimacy unmatched by the average barren plain of other festivals. The heat was also not an issue, considering the predictably overcast weather of San Francisco Bay. With the fog and the interwoven branches of eucalyptus trees as a ceiling, festival goers were immersed in a natural, atmospheric auditorium.

The festival was geared towards being as efficiently green as possible, with notable improvements made from last year. For example, the duration of the festival was increased, eliminating the need for a sixth stage. One of the five stages, deemed the "Solar Stage", was run on a pair of 2000-pound batteries powered entirely by the sun. The festival also encouraged people to bring their own water bottles and offered various refill stations.

A copious variety of organic and local food vendors lined the pathways between stages. People with food allergies and intolerances were more than accommodated for, with plenty of gluten-free and vegan offerings. Senior Jake Bowers, a sufferer of celiac sprue, an autoimmune disease preventing the proper digestion of gluten, was pleased to engorge himself with a gluten-free pesto pizza from organic caterer Lydia's Lovin' Foods. "It was an orgy of taste in my mouth and an orgy of feel-good ethics in my heart," exclaimed Bowers in ecstasy.

The only downside to this year's festival, unfortunately, was the lineup. Due to the success of the inaugural festival, there was an extensive bidding war to find a new promoter. In April, Another Planet Entertainment was finally granted a permit to promote the festival for the next three years. This delay made it difficult for the festival to procure more big-name acts, but the lineup is guaranteed to be much more impressive next year.

An upside to the sparseness of quality acts was the lack of interfering set times. Bands of similar genres never played at the same time, making scheduling easy for those in attendance. Some highlights for the weekend were The National, Built to Spill, Calexico and Ween. These bands played with such high energy and cohesiveness that it was easy to forget that they weren't playing at their own shows.

There were a few improbable favorites, including Bat for Lashes and Tom Jones. Bat for Lashes' orchestral ambiance was highly complimented by singer Natasha Khan's mesmerizing stage presence. How can someone not be entertained by a 69-year-old balladeer being showered by women's underwear singing, "What's new pussycat?"

There were a few disappointments, though. The Dodo's set was too clamorous for its own good and Modest Mouse seemed to have forgotten that they have a back catalogue. Pearl Jam had a fantastic set list, but most of the songs were over-hampered by the band trying to do too much at once.

The most deplorable set of the weekend by far was Tenacious D, with an apparently inebriated Jack Black visibly lip-syncing through several songs. Yes, they are a joke band, but the gag was inexcusable for a festival headliner.

Overall, the festival exhibited excellent efforts to offset its environmental impact and offer some of the best local food from the Bay Area.

With a lineup that should be vastly improved upon next year, Outside Lands appears to be an ongoing success that festival-goers should hold in high anticipation come next August.

Contact Aitor Zabalegui at 408) 551-1918 or azabalegui@scu.edu.