Radiohead totally rocked the Outside Lands festival last night and the thousands and thousands of people who were there were into it. At least that was our perspective from 100 yards back. They played for the 2 hours that they were allotted and managed to get in a ton of songs and put on a great show.
The festival made for an exciting scene but it definitely showed some flaws in design. First off, there are way too many choke points in the grounds. The crowds are funnelled into these smaller spaces throughout the grounds. This was bad enough between acts but at the end of the night it was a pain in the ass at best and close to suffocating at its worst. There were many places where the crowds just trampled over fences in order to move around. Second the lines for drink IDs, bathrooms and food were crazy. Hopefully this will be better on the weekend and perhaps its just because everyone got to Friday’s show later. Finally, who decides to put a stage down in a hollow so that it’s impossible to see the act? We were really disapointed that we were completely unable to see Beck even though we were pretty close to the stage.
But I think the most frustrating thing about the whole show was the constant “Wall of tall.” Since when have I been short? I was amazed at the amount of big and talls at this show. Is the younger generation taller than mine? Is there something in thoses growth hormones we’ve been injecting into their food supply all these years?I found myself constantly straining my neck around some Amazon just in front of me. I’m gonna have to invest in some risers if I’m gonna keep going to these shows..