First I must start off by saying that while Reviewing my notes this morning made me Realize how much I had consumed the night before. I couldn’t Read SHIT! I couldn’t believe I even attempted to write in that condition. People were probably staring at me like I was trying to be cool scribbling away in a little note pad not even able to walk straight. I Remember even telling myself to not forget what I wrote cause I was gonna knock em dead with that idea…

Saturday’s Outside Lands adventure was a much more notable one. I really badly wanted to see Ana Tijoux and not only for her super dope Spanish rap skills, but also to see how she would do in an event like this and what type of crowd she would bring in. I also wanted to see how this cute little Mexican chick was going to represent for my Mexican familia. Missed her by a long shot! On our way up to Golden Gate Park, I was enjoying the beautiful scenery and noticed that the clouds weren’t as visual and looming as they were the day before.

Walking up to the festival doors there was a kind black man barbecuing Jerk Chicken in front selling “3 drumsticks for 5 dollas because it costs nine once you get in”. And he was right, who could pass up a deal like that. Along with unlicensed food vendors on our path, there were people selling cans of beer for 2 dollars each and tons of people asking to buy any extra tickets you might have casually had laying in your pocket.

Approaching 'Tunnel' Levels...

Let's GO!

We arrived at the gate and were a little more nervous coming in this day because we were sneaking a camera in. Friday when we came securrity was very loose in their searching skills so we thought we stood a chance. Not only that but walking around Friday there were so many people with digital SLR cameras that we knew not ALL of them were certified press! Success! We get in and are super excited that we were going to get some great shots of the bands tonite! We walk through a most beautifully painted tunnel and land right in Land’s End where OK GO was playing and I must admit, I am  huge fan of pasty men in bright suits! They stood out fabulously from our far range viewing point. The crowd was large, insanely large. At one point the lead singer from OK GO looked out into the crowd and said, “I didn’t realize San Francisco was so Caucasian.” It’s not really… It’s just that Caucasians were the majority there that day, and every day there for that matter, and not all of them were from San Francisco. People came from other cities, other states and other countries to be a part of this even that weekend. Plus, Caucasians have rich parents.

The lineup for Saturday was INSANE! I was having some inner-super-torn issues about some of the bands that were playing at the same time as some of my other favorites. Although we had seen Arctic Monkeys before and have never seen Sia, we chose them over her. Something I can say bugs me a little bit still, but not something I totally regret because Arctic Monkeys kicked fucken ASS! We had seen them before at the Paramount Theater in Oakland and they rocked hard there, so we knew that here at this platform they would rock harder, sound harder, and be harder. Of course there was an urgency for the bathroom, so my girlfriend and I made our ways to the God-forsaken porta-potty line and missed our chances of having a super close spot to the front. After pissing we tried our hardest to make it back to where the guys were but to no avail. It was a tight squeeze and I guess I wasn’t drunk enough to fight my way through or as down as I thought I was to shove people outta my way.  Everyone else had waited fair and square. Luckily enough my husband and my friend’s fiancee were not as needy as we were and maintained their close position getting great shots of the whole performance and even getting caught up in one of the moshing sections! Arctic Monkeys played some old songs, some new songs, some how do you do songs, and as I sat there looking at the crowd, I was amazed at how many fans the Arctic Monkey’s really had and how many new ones they were sure to have now. I was happy when they played Crying Lightning, but I didn’t cry.

Where The Guys Were For Arctic Monkeys

After Arctic Monkeys, the guys had to use the caca bathrooms and so we mission-ed back to the line. The time between sets was sufficient for band set up purposes, but for large-crowd-let-me-go-pee-&-grab-a-beer-so-we-can-be-chill-before-The-Black-Keys-come-on the time was horrible. We split up, I got the beer and the pissers made pee and as the The Black Keys came on while we stood on our little mountain top we knew our old spot had already been snatched up. Our only hopes were that as we walked into the crowd people would be walking out in order to do the mission we had just completed. The Black Keys were playing the same time The Roots were playing, but we had all seen The Roots before, we hadn’t seen these dudes. They were awesome. I love their sound, old school rock fusion with a little bit of blues… what do I know. Anyway, our positioning wasn’t that great so we decided on getting a good spot for our next performance….

The Crowd For Black Keys

The boys were torn between Girl Talk and Muse. I really wasn’t. A co-worker had mentioned that Girl Talk puts on an unbelievable show and that’s what I wanted to see. Besides we had already seen two rock bands and I am not hating on Muse, I just wanted to see something different. We start heading over to where Girl Talk was performing and I couldn’t help but notice the change in crowd as we ventured to the front. The crowd got younger, smiley-er, jumpier, excited-er. It still hadn’t dawned on me yet. It was a Kumbaya vibe and I was diggin it for sure.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

Old School Parachute

This crowd was awesome. Seeing that parachute approaching I knew I had to be a part of it some way some how, if not for the sake of my inner-child than at least for the sake of my real children. It was a blast indeed! I even held one of the corners and flapped as hard as my little arms would allow. Something stopped, don’t know if it was the music or what but at that moment everyone dropped their corners and the people inside were trapped! We ignored it and continued our mission to the front.

As we made our way towards the front, I started realizing that we still had about 30 minutes before he came on but the area had filled up so damn fast with so many people that there was literally no turning back now even if we did want to make a last minute split to the bathroom or to get more beer we were DONE. It was get-in-where-you-fit-in and were fitting in horribly where we were at. All I can say is there was some tall ass giant looking white people in front of us that made me feel sub-human. They were shoving us around cause we were short and saving spots for other tall white giants in an area where not even short giants would fit. There was some shoving going on and I tried my hardest to be civil as much as I wanted to get East Side on their ass I had to maintain my lady-like composer. As the crowd got bigger and crazier I started to think what the fuck did we get ourselves into. This is the kind of crowd that this guy attracts and we were caught right smack in the middle. There was a teenage couple standing next to us slobbing down as if the ecstasy they had popped just started to kick in. Made me feel uncomfortably old.

As the night grew darker, the crowd grew larger. Girl Talk finally appeared on stage and the crowd went crazy! Mashing up every song from Biggie to Tupac, Ludacris to Kelly Clarkson. He had the whole crowd, mainly white, rapping, singing, hollering “Move Bitch Get Out The Way, Get Out The Way Bitch, Get Out The Way…” and the people took this opportunity to shove a little more and push a little more and I was dying laughing in the middle of it. It was pretty fucken cool to say the least. Some of his mash ups didn’t really work, but most of them were jive-able. He definitely knew how to keep a crowd going crazy that’s for sure. I took a look back and was floored when I realized how far the crowd went back. If there was an emergency or if someone had to take a shit or if someone got hurt and had to get the fuck out of there they were screwed! I guess that’s the mom in me… whatever I wasn’t a mom at this moment. This moment I was a free bird, I could do whatever in this crowd and I wouldn’t be judged or even remembered. Scary.

Man Down

There was balloon releases, confetti & glitter everywhere, glow sticks, lit up Minnie Mouse Ears, backpacks, feathers, whistles, necklaces, bracelets… I was at a RAVE!   The dopest moment of this whole entire set was when Girl Talk started to play Shout by Little Richard. Everyone went crazy and as the song sang, “A little bit softer now…” he managed to change it to, “A little bit lower now…” and the whole crowd got lower! This fool managed to make a whole crowd of this magnitude get low to the point if you DIDN’T get low you would stick out like a dumb ass… as I got low I looked behind me and even the hoards of people in back were all getting low too! WTF!? That was crazy insane and I was one proud ass fool to be a part of it…

Everything Illuminated

Some Other Shots From The Day………………………………………