Mastodon, Mars Volta Bring Much-Needed Vitality to Outside Lands

As detailed by this reporter in a long-winded rant last September, the inaugural version of San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival left a lot to be desired, marred as it was by a number of gaffes at the base organizational level. These included (but were not limited to) sound trouble during the headliners, poor security, bad scheduling of the acts, and non-existent attention paid to the needs of transporting tens of thousands of people to and from Golden Gate Park, a beautiful but unwieldy venue. Y’know… the small stuff.

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No Bonnaroo, But Better than Altamont: Dispatches from the Front Rail of Outside Lands

by Luke PImentel, Contributing Editor

September 3, 2008

*I’ll preface this article by saying the folks at Outside Lands denied my request for press credentials, so I chose to attend for one day only.  I picked the day that I felt boasted the strongest lineup – that would be the first day, Friday the 22nd – and viewed the festivities purely from the perspective of a normal concertgoer.  This has in no way colored my opinions of the festival and its operation. 

Well, okay, maybe a little.*

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