Day Two of Outside Lands (OSL) was sort of like Lightning in a Bottle (LiB) – which IMO says is California’s best multi-day music festival; you can beat me on that… or not, although this last festival hasn’t been held since 2019. OSL hasn’t felt that way for many years. Maybe never before.

The best example of OSL evoking the similarities of LiBIthe links were ZHU Twin Peaks fence. While the transitions between songs could have been tighter, its parade of mashups and fragments was reminiscent of LiB’s Lightning Stage, with trippy visuals and vastly improved from previous years. (The ode to “Thriller,” with dancing skeletons mimicking Michael Jackson’s ghoul group, was particularly inspired.)

Hailing from the Bay Area, ZHU is probably a bit too detached from building proper songs to achieve true pop culture penetration, although fleeting covers of Radiohead‘s “Creep” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” anchor these. otherwise aggressive rhythms, and “Came for the Low” appeared at one point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Andrew Yang in the video).

The festivals highlight artists whose live performance is their whole raison d’être.

ZHU’s placement against Lizzo was nifty – neatly dividing the demographics of the festival in half. Kids and angers went one way, while the over 30s migrated the other way. Sure: Lizzo certainly deserves the main scene, but there’s an unwavering awkwardness surrounding a headliner that was booked in her prime and postponed twice.

(“Tiger King” sounds like eons ago, and it’s been a while since Lizzo released an EP; “Rumors” was her last lackluster single, which starred Cardi B, failed to Effortlessly convey the same Lizzo magic his previous work epitomizes. August’s power-duo collaboration wasn’t the body-positive flutist’s strongest effort – by far.)