Outside Lands day three rock fans into sheer ecstasy

With two successful days of solid performances behind them, Sunday brought the closing day at Outside Lands with headliner Elton John. As was the case throughout the weekend, there were plenty of musical styles to sink your teeth into.

Things got rolling at the main stage with Austin based Shakey Graves who gave a fun personable performance and was a good choice for the early start time.

A little break for lunch and it was back to the same stage to catch Alabama’s St Paul and the Broken Bones, a band that’s getting a lot of attention lately. Serving up soul and gospel, they gave a memorable performance. Lead vocalist, Paul Janeway works the stage tirelessly as he continually paces and engages the audience. It’s not surprising they got the nod to open some dates on the recent Rolling Stones tour.

Following that, it was a chance to catch a new artist from New Orleans, Benjamin Booker. With a rich, dense guitar tone heavily based in blues, he and his band had everybody in a dancing groove.

Indie pop artist, Sky Ferreira played an excellent set as she was compelling and dramatic in her delivery.

As the day drifted to latter afternoon, it was time for what must have been one of the hottest performances of the weekend as Dan Deacon and drummer Jeremy Hyman rocked their crowd into sheer ecstasy! Dan has a winning tongue in cheek personality that works well with the excellent mixes he serves up. Though he may appear to be almost comedic about his music, what you hear is most definitely very serious. Infectious, in fact. Driven by the incredible rhythms from Jeremy, it all served to push this performance into the most memorable of the weekend. With no photo access for Elton, the weekend was wrapped up with a fine set from So Cal’s Slightly Stoopid. Always a fun band, they drew a good crowd who were ready to party with them. Joining them were Karl Denson on sax and a guest appearance from Ivan Neville.

Words & Photography: Tom Dellinger

Benjamin Booker