Outside Lands: The Waiting Was the Hardest Part

For five months, I’ve been counting down the weekends, crossing off the days and biding the time until this weekend.

I went to the special racks at the Daily Republic and grabbed an extra tray of exclamation points just so I could write this: Radiohead! Wilco! Beck! Jack Johnson! Rodrigo y Gabriela! Cake! Primus! Ben Harper! Widespread Panic! Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!

The waiting was the hardest part.

That’s just some of headlining acts for the Outside Lands Music Festival this weekend at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Nearly 70 acts are scheduled to perform on six stages at the three-day music bonanza, with others including dexterous guitarist Kaki King, indie darlings Bon Iver, M. Ward and Devendra Banhart and far too many to mention.

A promoter told a competing paper which may or may not be based in the host city he thinks it’s “the largest multiday, ticketed event in the history of San Francisco.”

The list of performers makes me salivate. Besides some of the personal must-sees (Radiohead and Wilco, specifically), I’m jazzed because I’m finally going to see Beck, whose schedule conflicted with artists I’ve wanted to see at festivals at least twice before.

As a member of Generation Y — “as in ‘why?’ is your favorite question,” a former boss once told me — I wasn’t around to enjoy the party down the block from the park at Haight & Asbury during the 1960s.

Is it unfair to compare the two? You tell me. Outside Lands is a corporate-sponsored and organized music festival. The Haight/Asbury thing was about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Those hippies had more drugs than a pharmacy and were bought out by the corporations who sold their fun back to them without the chemical substances.

So, no, it’s probably not going to be quite the same.

But it is an important historical musical event in one of my favorite cities. I can’t wait to be a part of it.

Since it’s a given most people will head to the main stage at the end of each day to see Radiohead, Tom Petty and Jack Johnson, respectively, here are five others to consider:

• The Black Keys, Friday, 6:50-7:50 p.m.: Think of The White Stripes without the are-they-married-or-are-they-brother-and-sister subtext. This is a drums and guitar duo from Akron, Ohio, that’s been churning out bluesy garage rock for the better part of the decade. Their 2008 release, “Attack & Release,” was produced by Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse. On Twin Peaks Stage in Speedway Meadow.

• Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Béla Fleck, Saturday, 1-1:40 p.m.: Washburn and Fleck bring their twined-banjo bash to break open the festival’s second day. Folksy, rootsy, bluegrass, whatever you wanna call it, it’s gonna be good. Go for no other reason than to see Fleck, a veritable virtuoso at pickin’ the banj’. On Sutro Stage in Lindley Meadow.

• Kaki King, Saturday, 4:30-5:10 p.m.: Moving from drums to bass to steel guitar is all a part of the act for King, who can and does play every instrument in her act. (At least, she did when I saw her last year). As if that’s not impressive enough, she shows off worthwhile chops on the guitar, complete with signature fret slapping and percussive goodness. On Presidio Stage in Lindley Meadow.

• Andrew Bird, Sunday, 3:35-4:25 p.m.: Bird has the reputation for eclectic, inventive live shows, and his instrument repertoire — violin, guitar, glockenspiel — suggests he’s willing to try different things. Having recorded no two albums that sound alike, I hope his live show will showcase his quirky eccentricities. Twin Peaks Stage in Speedway Meadows.

• Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sunday, 5:55-6:55 p.m.: An acoustic guitar duo from Mexico City which bored of the local heavy metal scene, so they dropped their axes and moved to Dublin, Ireland, to busk on the streets and perfect their craft. A combination of styles and dexterity, the duo’s repertoire includes covers of Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Lands End Stage in Polo Field.