The crowds returned to Golden Gate Park for day two of the Outside Lands Festival on Saturday and the presence of those 10,000 extra music fans was definitely noticeable.
Fists pumped along to Young the Giant's sunny pop music at the Lands End Stage while Youth Lagoon -- a highlight from last year's Treasure Island Festival -- played a dreamier set on the far end of the festival grounds.
The typically subdued blankets-and-folk music crowd at the Sutro Stage bopped their heads to hometown heroine Thao Nguyen as she rapped along with her always peppy band, the Get Down Stay Down. That was before Jurassic 5, their full lineup together for the first time in 7 years, took the main Lands End Stage to actually rap through their set of jazz-inflected hip hop.
Back at the Sutro Stage, the Tallest Man on Earth (who is actually somewhat diminutive in person) soothed the crowd back into a comfortable place with his snappy folk music and comfortable sweater. Meanwhile, in the Polo Fields, the crowd piled in deep as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs blasted through short-but-heavy moments like "Maps" and "Heads Will Roll" as well as new tracks off of Mosquito. The Head and the Heart brought in an energetic young crowd of enthusiastic youths in the front row who were happy to sing along at the top of their lungs.
As things got dark, so did the music: Phoenix lit up the Twin Peaks Stage with their chartbusting electro-pop that was inescapable from 2009-2010. On the main stage, Trent Reznor came out all shrouded in chiaroscuro for a tense set of industrial metal that has somehow remained ageless since the mid-90s. Flashes of bright white bounced off set pieces and Reznor was looking more ripped and angry than ever in a sleeveless pocket hoodie, ready to devour the microphone whole. But unlike McCartney's set on Friday night, from which we were unable to pull ourselves away, the smart kids knew to hit the buses early and make a breezy exit back towards downtown or BART or Divisadero bars.