It’s midnight in San Francisco and we’re in our apartment listening to Alanis Morissette. Well…. half the apartment is listening to it and the other two are wishing I would have left on The Whigs album I was just playing to show how the version of “Hundred/Million” they played for us was so different than the album version.
For the last three years we’ve returned to the west coast for Outside Lands at Golden Gate park. This time around we gave ourselves a week in San Francisco so we could hang around, drink good coffee and beer, and sling all over town. After driving 2200 miles from Chicago I got to town and quickly headed to Popscene where Joy Formidable were playing that night. Thanks to Burning World and their Pod Fodder podcast I stumbled upon Joy Formidable earlier this year. I’ve been waiting for the Welsh band to head west and the timing worked perfect for us to catch up with them and it so happened that the song they decided to play was the first I’d heard, “Austere”.
We rolled up to Outside Lands on Saturday and it wasn’t too long before we caught up with The Whigs and we headed to the nearby duck pond. When they did a brief sound check for “Hundred/Million” I didn’t even recognize the song. Soon after, when they played a slowed down version of the song I was jumping around behind the camera and singing the background vocals they left out “which is me, and which is not.”
Sunday was a mellow day for us and we lucked out to meet up with Amos Lee amongst wild flowers. I really enjoyed our walk and talk about Philadelphia, beer, and the predicament that we both found ourselves in: having some of the best jobs in the world yet having to go through the motions repetitively in order to reach our goals. His version of “Careless” was so moving that one of our crew members ended up in tears.
Thanks to Jeremiah and 330 Ritch, Wonder Ice Cream, Camino and Jae, everyone at Outside Lands, and all the people I might be missing because it’s one in the morning on Sunday…. or is it Monday?
Great pics Paige. What a great week in SF, so much fun stuff going on. See ya in a few weeks once get back