Some SoCal Love at Outside Lands Over The Years

The bags are packed, the joints are rolled and many Southern California kids are making that 8 hour (give or take) drive up the 5 Nsasorth to the city by the bay. The second most convenient mega-music-festival after Coachella, Outside Lands in San Francisco, begins Friday and runs through Sunday. The local love is a little light in the Golden Gate Park this year, but that doesn't mean that Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego haven't been well-represented in past years. Check out videos of awesome local bands of Outside Lands past after the jump.

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Social Distortion is Orange County's biggest torch bearer in the Outside Lands world. Fullerton's own gave the San Francisco indie-catering fest a much needed punk rock kick in the ass.

The Mars Volta, 2009

All of the YouTube footage of the Mars Volta's set is decidledly visually and audibly awful. The video above is pretty much the best of the bunch. That said, moments of their awesome performance still glimmer through. Their live sets are known for singer Omar Rodriquez Lopez's seizure-like dancing and lengthy, psychotropic Of course, we can't blame the amateur filmmakers. You try shooting a decent video for all ten minutes of a Mars Volta song while baked off your ass.

Cold War Kids, 2008
 

Well we weren't there to make our own judgments on Long Beach's Cold
War Kids' set, the Better Propaganda blog said their performance was
unoriginal, lackluster, filled with filler songs and the crowd was just
waiting to see Beck who went on next. A quick view at some of the
concert footage on YouTube kinda confirms this claim. 🙁

The Soft Pack, 2010

2010 was a good year for the Los Angeles transplants (by way of San Diego). They released their self-titled album, played Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, and finished out the summer fest circuit at FYF Fest in Los Angeles. Well done, boys.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, 2010

We imagine that the heart of the Golden Gate Park is perfect place to see Mr. Sharpe and his Zeros. They seem like the type of rag-tag vagabond musicians that would be playing in the park on any given day, festival or not. Judging solely on this video, we'd say that's a fair assumption.

Beck, 2009

Beck reveived mixed reviews for his 2009 performance at the festival ranging from “shining” to “disinterested” and “half-hearted.”

This year, keep your eyes out for local acts such as Foster the People, Best Coast and Ty Segall.