Outside Lands: the time is upon us

By Mike Ruby

I'm posting this article immediately after selling off my Lollapalooza ticket. It was difficult to part with, but this cloud has a silver lining that could lift the spirits of festival-goers nationwide. Outside Lands, which I've since nicknamed Silver Lining Festival '08, is less than a month away, making attendees giddier than a kid in a candy shop.

I, for one, couldn't be more ecstatic. At the ripe old age of nineteen, I've been to a lot of concerts in my day, but I've never seen either Radiohead or Beck live, let alone in the same evening. I have, however, attended one or more performances by Primus, Ben Harper, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Coup, Tom Petty, Cold War Kids, Rogue Wave, and Toots & the Maytals, and it's safe to say that every one of them is well worth seeing again. I'm also intrigued by Lyrics Born, The Black Keys, and Mike Gordon (sans Phish), all three of which are said to put on excellent shows.

With any freshman festival, you never know how it will turn out or how it will be received. Outside Lands has the potential to become the new Coachella. On the other hand, it could bomb worse than Britney at the VMAs. I find the latter to be very unlikely, but again, you never know.

It's high time that San Francisco host a major festival, and I couldn't be happier that Golden Gate park is being utilized to its full extent. I find the venue to be more beautiful and suitable for a festival than Chicago's Grant Park or even Central Park in NYC. In a cramped and compact city like SF, the park provides a haven of open space. Not only that, but places within the park such as Stow Lake, the DeYoung Museum, the tea garden, and the Academy of Sciences have been a few of my favorite destinations since I was born not too far from there. Now that I live across the bay in Oakland (aka San Francisco's bastard stepchild), a find that something new and exciting happens every time I go into the city, and I predict that the SF atmosphere will make the Outside Lands experience that much more powerful.

As August 22 draws nearer and nearer, my excitement level has been going up exponentially. Every element of Outside Lands is unbearably intriguing. I'm even a little excited to see Jack Johnson for God's sake. That's how you know you've created a damn good festival. Silver Lining '08, here we come.