LIVE REVIEW: Outside Lands 2014, Sunday

Lucius

Outside Lands‘ seventh year sold out in seven days, which caused us to worry that our beloved Bay Area festie had reached the tipping point where saying “I was THERE, man!” becomes more important than who was performing. There were many crushing scheduling conflicts, and by 3pm each day we had to choose between seeing an act or listening to an act from afar while waiting for a port-o-potty/vegan pizza/donut cheeseburger. Still, Golden Gate Park’s biggest party yielded plenty of glorious moments where it counts: live music, comfort food, and camaraderie. As we close up another incredible year at one of our favorite festivals, here are our Nest’s favorite moments from Sunday.

TOP MOMENTS

Woods

6. “With Light And With Love” by Woods.
Another special moment happened at the Sutro stage, this time on Sunday when Woods went all in on “With Light And With Love,” the highlight on their awesome record of the same name. The track is a nine-minute jam session best heard at their annual personally curated Woodsist Festival in Big Sur (which took place last week) where the audience lies down during the sets to take it all in. Golden Gate Park is almost as cool and staring at the sky during this song was trippy.

Woods

5. The Killers.
Though the guys opened with arguably their best song, the Las Vegas synth rock juggernauts simultaneously told zealots, “get ready for an unforgettable extended sing-along,” and to everyone else, “if you wanna leave early, go ahead. You don’t wanna be here for the Otis Redding cover anyway.” Nailed it.

The Flaming Lips

4. The Flaming Lips.
Opening with “The Abandoned Hospital Ship” from 1995’s Clouds Taste Metallic, we knew immediately that The Flaming Lips would be nothing but unpredictable. Drugged out inflatable body suits and the old hamster ball were a red herring. The juxtaposition of their silliest props and their saddest songs made for an extremely moving (should have been headlining, but they never had a VH1 hit) set.

Flaming Lips

3. Gold Panda playing over Tiësto.
Some artists stick to their allotted time slots. Some just say fuck it. Playing back to back with the reigning Top 40 DJ champ (that’d be Tiësto), it took some major balls to not only disregard the king’s start time, but to also tack on four extra tracks much to the very angry security guards’ visible irritation. We respect someone who’s down to create a massive dance party despite who’s playing on the major stage.

Spoon

2. “The Beast And Dragon Adored” by Spoon.
The new music sounded great, especially “Inside Out,” but it was the slow burn opening track from 2005’s Gimme Fiction which served as the ultimate reminder that nothing, absolutely nothing is cooler than bad ass rock ‘n roll when done right. And let’s face it, Spoon are its resident masters.

Spoon

1. Lykke Li. At 5:05 pm on Twin Peaks stage, a sexy wisp of black fabric drifted before our lucky eyes. “How do you like this LIVE MUSIC,” Lykke Li bellowed before reverting to shy shrieks, coy poses, and gut-wrenching odes to expired romance. Hellman Hollow’s collective longing to be Li’s partner during the ultimate grade school slow dance jam was the performance’s pinnacle…until the band mashed up “Youth Knows Know Pain” with “Send It Up” from Yeezus. That phenomenal moment announced that Lykke Li is more than a pop singer, she’s a “rock star bitch, call me Elvis.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Although we were gutted about Chvrches’ last minute cancellation, Lucius nailing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and Flume (though not necessarily Flume’s fans) took us by delightful surprise.

Lucius