31fps by Sam Purtill A blog about business, technology, and life

SF Outside Lands Was a Disaster

this is a rant so i'm not going to capitalize letters or fix spelling mistakes; bear with me. i wrote this whole post refraining from using the f-word or any other expletives; it was very hard but i hope you can understand my frustration/anger regarding the following events.

i have heard from all of my friends that have seen radiohead that it is one of the most life changing/religious experiences you can have at a live show. i've listened to radiohead a lot the last few years (though to be honest they're pretty far down on my list of top artists on last.fm, #18). everyone keeps telling me that you HAVE to see radiohead, so i buy the tickets two weeks in advance for $95/ticket to be a part of this experience.

so with much anticipation, i bring you to friday at 5pm before their show that starts at 8pm.

these are the things that went wrong before the radiohead performance:

1. the ticket cost $95. i don't care who i'm seeing (unless it's daft punk or josh groban), i will never pay $95 to see a band play again.
2. couldn't find a taxi on embarcadero street - there's 100,000 taxis in san francisco but they were magically elsewhere at 5pm on a friday. we nix the taxi idea and hop on the n judah.
3. the n judah had the worst driver of all time, he yields for EVERY car. n judah is packed and nobody can move.
4. got to the festival and there are no signs anywhere, just crowds walking in a general direction.
5. get there, the line for will call is hundreds of people long and there are only two will call booths. unbelievable.
6. wait in line for 45 minutes, finally get tickets. great, we've missed beck and all the other shows, but we're just in time to see radiohead.

so all that was a big downer, but i tried to not let it weigh on me.

walk down to the polo fields, it's 7:30 and radiohead starts in 30 minutes. looks like the entire crowd left the remaining shows to get good spots for radiohead around 7, because the closest possible place to stand is at least 500 feet from the stage.

radiohead starts promptly at 8, everyones going crazy. i let everything up to this point get erased in my head - i'm here to see radiohead, i don't want any bad energy while watching them. they start playing, first few songs sound like sigur ros and are pretty inspiring - but i'm so far back i can't feel the music. i'm used to going to shows/festivals where the speakers are so loud/close they vibrate you, that's one of my favorite things about live performances. then they play "my iron lung" and i close my eyes, taking it in. still hard to feel anything because i'm so far back and people keep wiggling through to get a closer view (i always let people through, never really cared about trying to be a dick and block them).

halfway through my iron lung a fuse blows and the power gets cut, and for a minute radiohead keeps playing with no sound. i really paid $95 for this? the sound comes back on and i forgive them, but by now my patience is wearing very thin. the song ends and they start playing another sigur ros sounding song. now i love listening to sigur ros on my ipod, but the only time i saw them live i thought they absolutely sucked (coachella 2006). i wasn't the only person - hundreds of people left that show with the same sentiments (people were pretty vocal about it). i don't know what it is about that sound, but it doesn't seem to work well for me outside. so we're back at the radiohead concert, and they're mid-way through this song that i've never heard before but is pretty cool. some stoner decides to weasel his way up through the crowd to get a better view, but when he gets in front of me decides that this will be his better view point. i gave him 15 seconds to begin his hunt for a better spot, but slowly realized that he was staying there. so now i'm looking at long hair and hear radiohead faintly in the background (remember, we're far away). that just did it, i turned to matt and katie and said, "alright, screw this, i'm out of here" and began my retreat. this is at 8:20, 20 minutes or 4 songs into the radiohead show. as i am leaving, another fuse blows and the power goes out again. unbelievable.

it all worked out and was meant to be though - i took a cab to [redacted]'s party and met sean parker right before he had to leave for the airport... if i had left the concert 10 minutes later, i would have never met him.

in the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should. that being said, i will never attend sf outside lands again and am going to try to get a refund on my ridiculously overpriced ticket.