Outside Lands debacle
Last night was...a bit of a disaster.
It was the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park, and I was going solely to see Beck and Radiohead.
List of Debacles:
1)Getting there. I wanted to leave work in time to make it to Beck (starting at 6:40pm) and Jason decided to BART in at 5pm and then we'd take Muni up to the park. Of course, finding a bus that actually stopped took us ages since there were so many people and by the time we actually got to the park and went in the wrong entrance (which led us to the far side of the park) Beck had already started.
2) We figured we'd try to see part of his set, but once we actually made it over to his stage, we looked down on the crowd (couldn't tell you how many people...20,000?), we turned right around and went back to the main stage to wait out Radiohead. So, I didn't even get to hear one Beck song. :(
3) Then came probably the worst decision that Jason and I could have made. We went to get food, and while waiting in the never-ending line, we decided that I should go stake out a spot for us while Jason ordered. There weren't a ton of people there yet and the instructions of "Walk straight that way and I'll find you," somehow made sense. BAD idea. Clearly. I didn't see Jason again until 12:30am.
3a) I spent the entirety of the show being stressed out and trying to find him (he didn't have his cell phone (!) and the cell service was non-existent anyway. I'm not sure if it was just att&t, but calls would not go through and texts would take 30 minutes before being delivered, if at all). Radiohead was amazing, but I did not have a good time since I was so worried about finding Jason and I ended up being in a terrible location (directly behind the speaker stand so I couldn't see the stage).
4) The sound at the venue was iffy and actually cut out completely TWICE during their set.
5) Trying to find everyone afterwards was insane. I think I heard that there were 60,000 people there, which is probably the other reason cell phones weren't working. I couldn't get a hold of Derek and I was afraid he was going to leave, and I couldn't get a hold of one of my coworkers who was there who had offered us a ride home as well. I went out one of the exit tunnels looking for Jason, went back to a different exit tunnel to check there, and then they wouldn't let me cross the field again to check the 3rd (the one he actually left from) because they were clearing everyone out.
Oh yeah, but I did make a 10 minute friend. :) This guy saw me wandering around looking distressed and was like "Awww, you look lost, let me give you a hug, here I'll help you find your boyfriend." He was very nice, but I feel like ultimately he might have hindered my search. :P
6) Once outside the park, cell reception was fine, I got my coworker and Derek on the phone and went to wait for Derek, Emily, and Clint to come pick me up. They had some trouble figuring out where I was/getting to me (on the opposite side of the park), and I ended up waiting 30 minutes for them to get there. The show ended at 10pm and by the time they got to me it was 11:30pm. It was cold out.
7) Drove around the perimeter of the park 3 times over the next 30 minutes trying to find Jason, to no avail.
8) Finally got a call from him at midnight saying he was at Civic Center BART and to pick him up there. Then Derek went the wrong direction, got lost in a neighborhood, kept missing turns (which can be the death of you with all the one way streets and "no left turns" in San Francisco) and finally we found Jason at 12:30am. Hooray!
9) There was a terrible accident on the Bay Bridge which closed down 4 lanes and made the usual 10 minute trip take an hour and a half. 2am.
10) A car next to us on the bridge started smoking/steaming, and instead of stopping, they kept going until at some point we watched whatever it was explode in a poof, stalling the car. I'm sure this added another 30 minutes onto the trip for whoever was behind us.
11) Since Jason had given away our dinners when he couldn't find me, we were hungry, as was the rest of the group, so we went to the only place we could, the Dennys in Emeryville. Only to find that they were closed. ????
12) Drove to the one in El Cerrito where the meal took almost TWO HOURS, and I was pretty sure we were going to see a fight or someone get arrested when these two incredibly ghetto women came storming out of a back room yelling about "I saw him in the club with that naked whore!!" and "The police are going to love what I have to tell them!" Nothing came of it, though.
13) Made it home after 4am, in bed by 4:30am, cat decided it was time to play at about 4:45am.
14) Woke up at 7:30am to go into work for a few hours. UGGGHHH.
So that was my night. I wish I could have enjoyed the show more, considering how much money it cost. I've somehow never been to a festival before and I feel like this was a pretty shitty first experience. I slept for a couple more hours after coming home from work, but I still feel groggy and generally crappy and haven't actually had any food beyond a banana today, which is bad.
Setlist:
1. 15 Step
2. Reckoner
3. Airbag
4. There There
5. All I Need
6. Nude
7. Talk Show Host
8. National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
12. Idioteque
13. Karma Police
14. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
15. Just
16. Exit Music (for a film)
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore:
18. Pyramid Song
19. You And Whose Army?
20. Paranoid Android
21. Fake Plastic Trees
22. Everything In Its Right Place
It was the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park, and I was going solely to see Beck and Radiohead.
List of Debacles:
1)Getting there. I wanted to leave work in time to make it to Beck (starting at 6:40pm) and Jason decided to BART in at 5pm and then we'd take Muni up to the park. Of course, finding a bus that actually stopped took us ages since there were so many people and by the time we actually got to the park and went in the wrong entrance (which led us to the far side of the park) Beck had already started.
2) We figured we'd try to see part of his set, but once we actually made it over to his stage, we looked down on the crowd (couldn't tell you how many people...20,000?), we turned right around and went back to the main stage to wait out Radiohead. So, I didn't even get to hear one Beck song. :(
3) Then came probably the worst decision that Jason and I could have made. We went to get food, and while waiting in the never-ending line, we decided that I should go stake out a spot for us while Jason ordered. There weren't a ton of people there yet and the instructions of "Walk straight that way and I'll find you," somehow made sense. BAD idea. Clearly. I didn't see Jason again until 12:30am.
3a) I spent the entirety of the show being stressed out and trying to find him (he didn't have his cell phone (!) and the cell service was non-existent anyway. I'm not sure if it was just att&t, but calls would not go through and texts would take 30 minutes before being delivered, if at all). Radiohead was amazing, but I did not have a good time since I was so worried about finding Jason and I ended up being in a terrible location (directly behind the speaker stand so I couldn't see the stage).
4) The sound at the venue was iffy and actually cut out completely TWICE during their set.
5) Trying to find everyone afterwards was insane. I think I heard that there were 60,000 people there, which is probably the other reason cell phones weren't working. I couldn't get a hold of Derek and I was afraid he was going to leave, and I couldn't get a hold of one of my coworkers who was there who had offered us a ride home as well. I went out one of the exit tunnels looking for Jason, went back to a different exit tunnel to check there, and then they wouldn't let me cross the field again to check the 3rd (the one he actually left from) because they were clearing everyone out.
Oh yeah, but I did make a 10 minute friend. :) This guy saw me wandering around looking distressed and was like "Awww, you look lost, let me give you a hug, here I'll help you find your boyfriend." He was very nice, but I feel like ultimately he might have hindered my search. :P
6) Once outside the park, cell reception was fine, I got my coworker and Derek on the phone and went to wait for Derek, Emily, and Clint to come pick me up. They had some trouble figuring out where I was/getting to me (on the opposite side of the park), and I ended up waiting 30 minutes for them to get there. The show ended at 10pm and by the time they got to me it was 11:30pm. It was cold out.
7) Drove around the perimeter of the park 3 times over the next 30 minutes trying to find Jason, to no avail.
8) Finally got a call from him at midnight saying he was at Civic Center BART and to pick him up there. Then Derek went the wrong direction, got lost in a neighborhood, kept missing turns (which can be the death of you with all the one way streets and "no left turns" in San Francisco) and finally we found Jason at 12:30am. Hooray!
9) There was a terrible accident on the Bay Bridge which closed down 4 lanes and made the usual 10 minute trip take an hour and a half. 2am.
10) A car next to us on the bridge started smoking/steaming, and instead of stopping, they kept going until at some point we watched whatever it was explode in a poof, stalling the car. I'm sure this added another 30 minutes onto the trip for whoever was behind us.
11) Since Jason had given away our dinners when he couldn't find me, we were hungry, as was the rest of the group, so we went to the only place we could, the Dennys in Emeryville. Only to find that they were closed. ????
12) Drove to the one in El Cerrito where the meal took almost TWO HOURS, and I was pretty sure we were going to see a fight or someone get arrested when these two incredibly ghetto women came storming out of a back room yelling about "I saw him in the club with that naked whore!!" and "The police are going to love what I have to tell them!" Nothing came of it, though.
13) Made it home after 4am, in bed by 4:30am, cat decided it was time to play at about 4:45am.
14) Woke up at 7:30am to go into work for a few hours. UGGGHHH.
So that was my night. I wish I could have enjoyed the show more, considering how much money it cost. I've somehow never been to a festival before and I feel like this was a pretty shitty first experience. I slept for a couple more hours after coming home from work, but I still feel groggy and generally crappy and haven't actually had any food beyond a banana today, which is bad.
Setlist:
1. 15 Step
2. Reckoner
3. Airbag
4. There There
5. All I Need
6. Nude
7. Talk Show Host
8. National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
12. Idioteque
13. Karma Police
14. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
15. Just
16. Exit Music (for a film)
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore:
18. Pyramid Song
19. You And Whose Army?
20. Paranoid Android
21. Fake Plastic Trees
22. Everything In Its Right Place