Day one at Sound on Sound festival came and went with some unforgettable performances by the likes of Stevie Nicks, The Lumineers, and more and day two had promises to be even better. After what the festival organizers hope to be forgettable lapses in organization that left fans locked in lines for hours, unable to get food, and extensive bathroom wait times the festival promised to have improvements for Day 2.
“Our team is working overnight to expand and reconfigure the viewing area to accommodate more space for all fans, and defining walkaways across the performance field for crowd movement,” they tweeted.
They decreased the size of the VIP area from football field size to more like a tennis court length. The no chair zone was strictly enforce much better and there was one walkway set that helped the overall flow. The overnight adjustments from the festival were surprisingly effective and it made for a much better day at Seaside park. Here are some of our favorite things below.
Day Two Highlights
While there were improvements on the festival traffic, we were still hit with freeway traffic on our way to day two and missed a few of the opening sets, but kicked off the day with rising star Noah Kahan.
Noah Kahan
Noah Kahan has had an impressive year with the success of his single ‘Stick Season’ becoming the number one viral song in the world, and followed up with the early success of ‘Northern Attitude.’ The singer-songwriter mentioned on the Seaside stage that he and his band don’t get to play festivals all that often, but they better get used to it because he had tens of thousands glued to the dynamic performance on Sunday afternoon. Kahan has an incredible live act with the music alone and his soaring vocals, but he couples that with comedic banter with the crowd that is kind of a show within a show. His set has it all and he does an excellent job to give background to his songs like his early hit ‘False Confidence.’ All the way to the song ‘Stick Season’ and crediting fans on TikTok for making it happen and the song changing his life. Kahan has an odd mix of gratitude and self-deprecation which shows as he announces an unreleased song called ‘New Perspectives’ where he describes the moments that your friends get new hobbies and start to feel good about something and your duty to bring them back down and keep them unhappy with you. The commentary got a laugh and the song got fans even more excited for his upcoming ‘Stick Season’ album and tour where he will have more folk sounding songs like the title track and ‘Northern Attitude.’ Kahan is a can’t miss and we can’t wait to hear the new full record.
The Head and the Heart
The Head and the Heart have been killing it for years and it was a pleasure to see them for the first time on the Sunset Stage at Sound on Sound festival. The indie darlings played your favorites like ‘Honeybee,’ ‘All We Ever Knew,’ ‘Lost in My Mind,’ as well as more from their latest album ‘Every Shade of Blue.’ Fans danced to nearly every song they played in front of the Sunset Stage. They closed with a terrific performance of ‘Rivers and Roads’ and it was one of the best sets of the entire weekend.
Gary Clark Jr.
Gary Clark Jr. is amazing. Seeing him up close at Sound on Sound he proved why he is often referred to as the “New Hendrix.” He brought a powerhouse bluesy, soulful, rock set to the festival and it was a performance you didn’t want to end. In a festival that later featured Tim Reynolds, Clark had the most memorable guitar riffs of the weekend. I’m not a dancer but found myself moving a little bit more as Clark played songs like ‘Low Down Rolling Stone.’ If I was listing favorite sets of the entire weekend as a whole his would be in my top 3.
Brandi Carlile
Wherever Brandi Carlile goes, good vibes follow. I was really excited to see her live again. Last time I saw her was at Newport Folk Festival, where after three songs she stopped playing her songs and brought out a surprise guest, Joni Mitchell in the now legendary moment. She announced “you all can hear me play anytime, is it okay if I bring out a friend?” The night continued with a beautiful tribute to and with the queen of Laurel Canyon in the iconic Joni Jam. Seeing a full Brandi Carlile set brought the same beautiful energy this weekend at Sound on Sound festival. Carlile as always was gracious to her band and told stories of their 22 years of playing music together. You could feel all of that experience as they put on a masterclass of how to put on an out of this world performance. Literally, they nearly took us to space with their cover of ‘Space Oddity’ by David Bowie.
The National
The National played the last set of their Summer tour on Sunday night and joked as they began that they would be “mailing it in.” However their performance was far from mailing it in. Matt Berninger brought his classic animated and emotion-filled performance to Sunday’s set as he led them in songs like ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ and ‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.’ But my favorite song of their set was ‘I Need My Girl,’ which Berninger dedicated to his daughter who was seeing them play for the first time since she was little. It was sweet and powerful. A perfect set on the Sunset stage.
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
There was a buzz in the air the entire day among the Sound on Sound crowd in anticipation for the nights headliner Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. Fans around me were taking bets on which songs they would play first when a Dave Matthews encyclopedia next to me confidently exclaimed with conviction that it would be ‘Bartender.’ He was right, and it was a strong start to their closing set. Fans excitement grew more and more with each song and nearly erupted with the performance of ‘Stay or Leave.’ I can only imagine how fans would have reacted as they got to more of the hits as the night went on, but a storm came rolling in. Lightning lit up the Connecticut sky and fans were dismissed for their safety. However, the performance that Dave and Tim put on was a memorable one. Both are masters on guitar and seeing them up close and the sounds they fuse together is magic. Dave was slurring his words and his speech pattern was a bit concerning but then the way he played was mesmerizing and it was an awe inspiring performance from each man.