Listed here are the 7 finest units I noticed on the 2022 Exterior Lands competition, which happened Aug. 5-7 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Let’s run by means of the checklist in chronological order.
Greatest Coast
The (principally) sunshiny SoCal act delivered precisely what followers have come to count on from it by this level — one more successful set of wonderful indie-pop tunes that includes nice vocals by Bethany Cosentino and ace lead guitar work from Bobb Bruno. Greatest Coast properly showcased its catalog, performing numbers from all 4 of its full-length studio albums, on Day 1 of the competition.
SZA
The R&B star had simply gone by means of a tough bout with COVID-19, to the purpose the place she mentioned she had been “preventing for (her) life” to be able to make it to Exterior Lands.” But, she gave the impression to be in peak kind — definitely when it comes to vocal means — throughout her stable headlining set on Day 1. The singer nonetheless solely has one full-length album to her credit score — 2017’s “Ctrl” — however a efficiency like this solely amps up the anticipation for the eventual follow-up.
The Linda Lindas
The unimaginable SoCal rock quartet, which mixes energy pop, punk rock and even some steel into its musical combine, wowed followers because it opened the competition’s huge Lands Finish Stage on Day 2. It was one other stable Bay Space outing for the Linda Lindas — whose members vary in age from 11 to 17 — having simply soundly rocked the Oakland’s Mosswood Meltdown in July. The troupe was joined by Rock and Roll corridor of Fame drummer Gina Schock (of the Go-Go’s) for the final variety of the set, which turned out to be a canopy of the Go-Go’s tune “Tonite.”
KennyHoopla
Think about a mixture of Blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Third Eye Blind — one which, maybe unbelievably, you’d really need to hearken to — and also you begin to get an concept of what you get with this Cleveland native. KennyHoopla is a throwback to the heyday of ‘90s alt-rock, with a punk edge and an early 2000s emo vibe. So, why is it that he sounds so recent and new in 2022? Possibly it’s as a result of no one is presently doing this sort of music higher than KennyHoopla, as followers witnessed firsthand on Day 2 of Exterior Lands.
Larry June
The San Francisco native, who attended highschool in Vallejo, delivered probably the most pleasing hip-hop set I noticed all weekend at Exterior Lands. The extremely productive artist — who launched 5 full-length albums in 2019 alone — used his time on Day 2 to showcase his stable rapping means in addition to his nice ear for beats in entrance of a extremely appreciative and fairly massive crowd.
Inexperienced Day
This all-time nice Bay Space band lastly took the stage and delivered the present that followers had been ready for years to see at Exterior Lands. And it proved to be each bit definitely worth the wait, because the Contra Costa County-born band — consisting of vocalist-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool — carried out nice variations of just about all the huge Inexperienced Day hits and even threw in a high-quality KISS cowl as nicely.
Mitski
After years of listening to my daughter rave about Mitski, I lastly needed to likelihood to see the artist carry out in live performance on Day 3 of Exterior Lands. And my daughter was undoubtedly proper — Mitski is nice. I discovered myself sorting by means of some lofty comparisons — together with Bjork, Yoko Ono, Sarah McLachlan and, most often, Tori Amos – whereas watching Mitski’s extremely theatrical and avant-garde present, which is as a lot efficiency artwork as it's pop music. I believe I’ll see what else is on my daughter’s play checklist in order that I’ll be prepared for subsequent 12 months’s Exterior Lands.