Lorde, left, helps close out the music festival in Golden Gate Park.
Energy high at Outside Lands despite national tragedy, lineup changes
It wasn’t just the bone-chilling summer fog that put a damper on the 10th anniversary of the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. With the grim news of the violence in Virginia spreading through the crowd via social media and a series of scheduling setbacks that put the festival’s lineup in disarray over the weekend, the mood was less than jovial around the annual threeday concert in its milestone year at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Metallica seemed to capture the ominous tone in the air with its marathon headlining set in the Polo Field on Saturday, Aug. 12, the second day of Outside Lands. Blazing through its vast catalog of hard-rock classics like “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman,” the black-clad quartet — and returning headliner — channeled its hometown audience’s angst in crushing guitar riffs, thundering rhythms and frontman James Hetfield’s angry snarls.
“Do you want heavy, S.F.? Do you want heavy now?” he growled. “Metallica gives you heavy, baby!”
The air was already thick with despair. On the same day a car plowed into a crowd of people who were peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., killing one person and injuring at least 19 others, it was hard to find the freewheeling festival spirit of previous years.
Pete Townshend of the Who, one of Sunday night’s closing acts, elicited a roar from the crowd when he said defiantly, “This red guitar kills fascists,” right before the band launched into the somber “Behind Blue Eyes.”
It didn’t help the mood when the veteran New York rap outfit A Tribe Called Quest bailed on its set less than 30 minutes before it was supposed to take the stage in Hellman Hollow on Saturday — an already rescheduled performance from the crew’s original Friday night slot on the main stage in the Polo Field. (Rapper-turned-chef Jarobi White was in attendance and made it, albeit late, to his cameo on the Gastro Magic stage Friday, but his Tribe counterpart Q-Tip was nowhere
to be found.)
The voices who created last year’s politically charged comeback album “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service” were much needed amidst the feelings of helplessness that rippled through the youthful crowd of 210,000.
Festival promoters Another Planet Entertainment and Superfly cited “travel complications” for Tribe’s cancellation.
“Outside Lands has done everything in our power to accommodate these unfortunate circumstances and we deeply regret the disappointment this has caused our fans,” the official statement read.
The group was the second act to drop out of the festival’s initial lineup, with Queens of the Stone Age canceling its set back in July “due to an unspecified injury.”
With more than 70 eclectic acts on this year’s bill, there were still plenty of slivers of light at the festival despite the lineup changes, overhanging portent of nuclear war and domestic terrorism.
The Swedish pop singer Tove Lo, best known for the twisted heartbreak hit “Habits (Stay High),” bared not only her soul but also her breasts during her high-energy midday set Friday; Empire of the Sun brought out the theatrics to close out the Twin Peaks stage Saturday night, with frontman Luke Steele smashing his guitar onstage; and rapper Big Boi surprised festivalgoers Sunday evening with a special 30-minute set outside the House by Heineken, similar to his pop-up performance at last year’s festival.
Outside Lands also offered a rare live appearance by British pop icon Damon Albarn’s hip-hop outfit Gorillaz, who closed out the first night of the festival Friday with a slew of special guests, including rapper Pusha T, Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon and Pos from De La Soul joining in on material from the group’s appropriately apocalyptic new album, “Humanz.”
Lorde also offered a treat for festivalgoers, performing new songs from her latest release, “Melodrama,” for the first time.
“We’re going to do something we’ve never done live before,” Lorde said, introducing the track “Hard Feelings/ Loveless” on the main stage at the Polo Field on Sunday.
Prancing around with Princess Leia buns, a black lace dress and white Adidas clamshells, the 20-year-old singersongwriter from New Zealand also ran through tunes from her platinum-selling 2014 debut, “Pure Heroine,” intermittently stopping to reminisce about her previous Bay Area appearances.
“God, it is so great to see you, San Francisco!” she said.
Lorde’s voice occasionally went off key, with the backing tracks filling out her minimalist compositions. Of course, none of that mattered. By the time she got to “Royals,” thousands of fans sang every verse right back at her.
Across the grounds from a booming headlining set by the Who, Solange’s performance at the Sutro stage Sunday night was criminally under-attended. Throughout her short show, which was scheduled to last less than an hour, the singer and choreographer commanded the stage’s space, dancing in line and nailing complex harmonies with her band, while getting the audience to move with her. “We’re gonna do some dancing tonight!” she screamed before kicking off “Don’t Wait.” The energy didn’t wane, and Solange utilized her band as well as a small horn section — a trombonist and a trumpeter — to keep everyone moving.
“Before we do this next song, I just want to say, I know it’s been a hard few days,” she said to the audience. “Find yourself joy; find yourself community. The black community, the LGBTQ community, my Muslim brothers and sisters: You matter; you belong.” Then Solange, with the support of everyone in attendance, kept the party going until the speakers were unplugged.
As always, Outside Lands offered much more than music with its bounty of comedy performances, art exhibits, after-hours shows, and selection of food and drink from some of the Bay Area’s most beloved names.
One of the music festival’s more distinctive offerings was Cocktail Magic, a collection of six San Francisco craft cocktail bars, each pouring their proprietary drinks, accompanied by intermittent magic shows.
Festivalgoers could also snack on gourmet items and wash them down with fine wine curated by Peter Eastlake or local beers handpicked by Magnolia’s Dave McLean.
But the focus remained largely on the music and its power to heal.
With the tragedy in Charlottesville hanging over the proceedings, Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith condemned the violence Saturday and expressed his gratitude for the Bay Area crowd.
“I’m able to celebrate love and connection and music,” he said. “Thank you for reminding me, and for reminding all of us, what it’s really all about and how easy it actually is to love each other.”
Chronicle staff writers Mariecar Mendoza, Alyssa Pereira, Esther Mobley, Sarah Fritsche, Justin Phillips and Nicole Boliaux contributed to this story.