Outside Lands Festival • Friday, August 9, 2013

About

From paulmccartney.com, April 17, 2013:

Paul has confirmed he will be headlining at this year’s Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco which takes place across the weekend of 9th – 11th August. […] Other acts confirmed for the Outside Lands Festival include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear and Paul’s son James McCartney. Paul last performed in San Francisco in July 2010 when he played the AT&T Stadium.

From Wikipedia:

The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually in San Francisco, California, United States, at Golden Gate Park. The festival is produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Presents, and Starr Hill Presents. It is the largest independently owned music festival in the United States. In 2019, it was the world’s highest grossing festival with revenues of almost $30 million. […]

From RollingStone, August 10, 2013:

“This is so cool,” McCartney told the audience. “I just have to take a minute to take it all in myself, okay?” He was talking about the act of performing music in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, but the Beatles have their own history with San Francisco, having performed their last full concert – ever – at the city’s Candlestick Park back in 1966.

McCartney has lost none of the charm that he had back then, entertaining the crowd with stories about Jimi Hendrix, dedicating songs to the loves of his life, and even bringing on stage two fans who held signs asking him to autograph their bodies so that they could get it tattooed. He obliged.

Of course, San Francisco being what it is, McCartney paused at one point to reflect on a long-standing local tradition at rock shows, which dates back to when the Grateful Dead performed for free in the same field: “It’s a strange smell I’m smelling,” he said coyly. “Something wonderful.”

McCartney was also the second act of the day to employ the local Kronos Quartet, using them to augment “Yesterday” in a rendition that moved virtually every single person in the field, including security guards and food vendors.

From RollingStone, August 10, 2013:

“Live strings,” marveled Paul McCartney after introducing the Kronos Quartet with his trademark thumbs-up at Outside Lands last night. “Wooh!” It doesn’t take much to get McCartney excited onstage, but clearly this was a special event even by the standards of a man who’s sung “Yesterday” hundreds if not thousands of times. He was about to sing his most popular ballad with a string quartet renowned for collaborating with and interpreting the work of major modern composers and performers, from Philip Glass and Pat Metheny to Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.

Kronos Quartet’s appearance with McCartney might be considered appropriate, given they were termed “classical music’s own Fab Four” by Rolling Stone back in 1987. The group is known for edgier collaborations when they hook up with rock musicians, as when they contributed to David Byrne’s True Stories. When they’ve tackled rock classics on their own, most famously Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” they are not exactly known for straightforward interpretations. Yet they’re nothing if not versatile, and when the occasion demands, they can play it fairly straight, as they did Friday night on “Yesterday.”

From For Whom The Bell Tells, September 17, 2013:

‘The crowd had come together to see the former Beatle and Wing’s leader, Paul McCartney. He took on the Lands End Stage for a set that lasted close to 3 amazing hours. McCartney kicked things off with the Beatles hit “Eight Days A Week” and included a ton of music from the Beatles era like “Hey Jude,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Let It Be” and “Magical Mystery Tour,” a song which was not part of his current “Out There” Tour.

During a raucous “Live and Let Die” set, Sir Paul wowed the audience with the accompaniment of a pyrotechnics display that lit up the night sky.

McCartney brings up on-stage two girls with signs that read “Paul, Please Sign Me! Be My First and Only Tattoo!” The two decided they wanted his signature on their left wrist so they can have his autograph forever. A bit of a writing challenge and much to McCartney’s chagrin, he had to embrace each girl in order to “get the angle” for proper signage.

Not many artists can do a second encore, but Paul McCartney is one icon that can. Accompanied by a string quartet, McCartney proceeded with the poignantly done Beatles hit, “Yesterday”. Afterwards, McCartney turns to guitarist Rusty Anderson and back to the audience and says, “He tells me one more. Okay, he asked for it,” and goes on to rip right into an amazing performance of the Beatles’ hit “Helter Skelter”.’
CBS San Francisco

Paul is at @sfoutsidelands tonight, on stage at 7.10pm (Lands End). Let us know if you will be #OutThere!

From Twitter

after 2 weeks off, excited to play the outside lands festival in beautiful golden gate park tonight!

Rusty Anderson – from Twitter

Had a blast at Outside Lands. Not as cold as I thought, and we threw in S.F.Bay Blues. That’s all in the US for now. See you soon…

Paul Wickens – from Twitter

#OutsideLands was a religious experience. I know that phrase is hackneyed – but this time, I mean it. Perhaps Bill Graham smiles on

Brian Ray – from Twitter

Last updated on January 30, 2021

Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park

This was the 1st and only concert played at Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park.

Setlist for the soundcheck

Setlist for the concert

1.

Yesterday

Written by Lennon - McCartney

With the participation of the Kronos Quartet

Album Available on Outside Lands- Out There 2013