Nellie McKay on Carbon Footprints, and the Rest of Outside Lands, Saturday August 23rd

 

 

I’ve seen the Liars multiple times so seeing them again didn’t overly excite me; I ordered a delicious vegan salad with ginger lemonade and sat in the back. Their polished sound drew quite a crowd, their long opening intro spaced me the fuck out – or maybe it was the opiates I took, anyway good set, a few times his voice hit some notes that brought me back to Thom Yorke from the previous night. Angus Andrew (singer) tried to deep throat the mic inbetween songs – HOT! Then exclaimed, “It’s time to freak out” and everyone got really dancey.

 

Two Gallants rocked: I’ve seen them a few times around town because they’re from San Francisco, but I was interested to see how they handled a festival – the boys totally owned the stage. The crowd was full of beautiful people hugging each other, singing along, dancing, lots of drinks in hand. Their lyrics edge on purple prose but their overall sound is captivating and beautiful. I also got the chance to see singer Adam Stephens in a press conference and here is a bit of what he had to say:

 

Q: What do you think of San Francisco’s relationship with psychedelic music and the long presence it has in Golden Gate Park?
A: I think what it spawned was negative because a lot of people still live on Haight Street and they don’t have the most beautiful lives because they are chasing a dream that has been overly commercialized and it’s dead.

 

Q: Do you change your sets when you play a festival?
A: Not really, I haven’t thought about it, we usually just play whatever seems most appropriate.

 

Q: Are you glad that this festival is a green festival?
A: Yeah. It’s great. I kind of think festivals are the most wasteful events so it’s great that they’re trying.

 

Q: Do you think about your carbon footprint?
A: Yeah well I’m an artist here so I’m apart of everyone drinking and being wasteful, if I play a sad song people might go drink more so I try to think about it.

 

Nellie McKay is fabulous and one of the serious spokeswomen of our age; she’s crass, refined, reminds me of Melanie Safka, Joni Mitchell, Loretta Lynn, Marianne Faithful, she raps, her song “mother of pearl” is hysterical, and she’s super hot. A few songs into her set, she stopped and described herself as a “bad ass motherfucker,” she screamed and violently shook as she said m-o-t-h-e-r-f-u-c-k-e-r; she went on to say “I asked my mom if I should endorse any political figures and she said tear apart everyone except Ralph Nadar.” She attracted an all ages crowd, when Nellie saw an infant in the front row she laughed and said, “Hey a baby and I was about to use the F word.” After her show she went to the Outside Lands tent and discussed the importance of organic and sustainable food. Here’s a bit of what she had to say:

 

“We are in a war against suffering. I’m a junkatarian meaning I’m vegan to the best of my ability but I like to order French fries all the time. To displace feminism, I don’t like to cook much so I order out a lot and often I order French fries. I find being a vegan very hard. It’s a huge pain in the ass, everyday I try but it’s hard. But if everyone cuts down just a little, like cut one meat product out of your life or cut back a day of meat a week, that will make a change. I finally decided to become a vegan while I was eating a Sunday at Denny’s, I thought it’s time, I know whats going on, I need to make a change, it needs to happen. The animals, if they could, they’d thank you.”

 

Tom Petty closed Day Two; frat boys, hipsters, adolescents, babies, parents, grandmothers, all types of people were in attendance bellowing out every lyric. Everywhere I looked smiling faces, big hugs, jumping adults, everyone lost to memories and the wonderful moment we shared.