The sun finally came out Saturday in Golden Gate Park, albeit not 'til almost 5 pm, and the day was filled with memorable acts, capped off by a gorgeous set by The Postal Service.
Unlike many previous Outside Lands weekends, this one is dominated by buzz about one headliner, and one headliner alone, and that's of course Chappell Roan. After her record-breaking crowd at Lollapalooza last weekend, and her rapid rise to super-stardom, attendees and staffers at the festival have been chattering about what madness will be arriving Sunday with Chappell Roan's 4 pm set on the Polo Field — which was already shifted around from an originally scheduled later set on the secondary Twin Peaks Stage.
And there's been rumor — still just a rumor! — that Kamala Harris may swing through for an appearance, or some sort of air-kiss on stage with Chappell? But we'll have to see about that.
On Saturday, another female pop star who has seen an equally rapid rise to fame and chart-topping, Sabrina Carpenter, headlined the Lands End Stage on the Polo Field with an 8:45 pm set. She brought on Kasey Musgraves to cover "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," but it seemed like not everyone in the audience was deeply impressed.
This was opposite The Postal Service on the Twin Peaks Stage, which drew a smaller, and more older-Millennial and Gen X crowd, doing the live version of the group's single 2003 album, Give Up. It was a flawless, moving rendering of this finite set of songs, which Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard wrote along with musician Jimmy Tamborello, famously using the US mail to exchange CD-Rs through the mail to put the songs together. They were joined as they have been on this anniversary tour by Jenny Lewis, who contributed vocals to a couple of the original songs, and who joined Ben on an acoustic encore of "Such Great Heights" before the band went into a rousing cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence." (You can hear them doing it here, from last year.)
The day began with mellow sets by French Cassettes on the Panhandle Stage and Colombian guitar duo BALTHVS on the Sutro Stage.
Sometime Bay Area resident K Flay brought her brand of thoughtful hip hop to the main stage early in the day, gathering a good crowd of fans.
Fletcher also graced the mainstage mid-aternoon with a lively set.
Multiple acts delighted the crowds on the Dolores' Stage, which was curated Saturday by two drag show parties that happen at Oasis, Reparations and Princess.
Rupaul's Drag Race winner Yvie Oddly headlined a block of great drag performances, including one by Reparations host Nicki Jizz. And a few hours later, another Rupaul queen, Willow Pill, did a couple of numbers during a Princess block. There was also a boylesque show featuring the performers of Baloney.
Singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty showed off his performing chops with an early afternoon set.
With surely the finest name of any act at Outside Lands this year, Amyl & the Sniffers brought some low-tech, high-energy punk rockwith absolutely no use of the fog machines or laser contraptions that other acts rely on. Even their background video screen stayed the same display for the entire 50-minute set, but this band did not need special effects to make the crowd go bananas. Vocalist Amy Taylor sounds like a sexier, snottier version of Johnny Rotten, donning a revealing, front-tie, gold lamé halter top.
As the sun came out, the afternoon brought a fun, rollicking set by STRFCKR on the Sutro Stage.
Anchorage-based Medium Build expressed their gratitude for the cool weather, after a summer of playing sweaty festivals.
A highlight of the day was most certainly Grace Jones's mainstage set, which began slightly late, and she complained about the cold and appeared to shiver a little, but she powered through and even jumped on a stagehand's back to ride through the crowd.
She opened theatrically, wearing a three-story high Keith Haring dress, up on a lift that later, slowly, lowered her down.
Rapper-producer-DJ Channel Tres drew a huge sunset crowd over the Twin Peaks Stage.
New Zealand-based Leisure — who dubbed themselves "New Zealand's hottest boy band" — did an excellent electro-pop set on the tiny Panhandle Stage that was unfortunately only seen by a select few as people were milling around and/or staking out positions for Sabrina Carpenter.
Bubble-gum pop star Sabrina Carpenter was a replacement act for Tyler the Creator, and her set could not possibly have been more different than his. Carpenter delivered a campy send-up of TV variety shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, an intentionally silly Mouseketeer-club act that Carpenter and her background dancers kept playing up for the entire hour-and-ten-minute show. This was likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that Carpenter did, in fact, come up as a Disney show kid.
Sabrina Carpenter and Kacey Musgraves team up to cover “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” at Outside Lands pic.twitter.com/7UVN8HgEK3
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) August 11, 2024
But country singer Kacey Musgraves popped onstage to surprise the crowd, and the two covered Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’” (Were there any doubt this was Kacey Musgaves, the video screen had a retro TV, opening credits-style announcement declaring “Special Guest Kacey Musgraves.”)
Otherwise, Carpenter’s set started with “Fast Times” and a string of other hits from her album Emails I Can't Send, and wrapped up of course with the ubiquitous “Espresso,” plus more from her upcoming new release.
For our money, the far superior music was happening on the opposite end of the fest, with The Postal Service's excellent set. Below, a few more photos.
Previously: Outside Lands Day One: The Killers Slay, While Daniel Caesar Just Keeps Playing Until They Cut Him Off