Sam Smith Moves On, Elton John Looks Back at Outside Lands
“To be playing before Elton John is a dream come true,” an elated Sam Smith told the 70,000-strong Golden Gate Park crowd as he kicked off his triumphant main stage set on Sunday, the third and final day of San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival. But it was an emotional moment in more ways than one for the multiple Grammy-winner, as he explained that the album that earned him all his accolades, In the Lonely Hour, has become difficult for him to perform live.
“I fell in love with a guy three years ago who completely broke my heart, and it was the hardest thing for me to go through,” Smith admitted onstage, reflecting on the heartache that inspired his debut album. “It’s kind of hard for me to sing some of these songs, because I have gotten over that guy – which is a good thing, but now I can’t relate to these songs as much as I did in the beginning. So now these songs are no longer my songs; they’re your songs,” he told the audience, as he introduced In the Lonely Hour’s most tear-jerking track, “Not in That Way.”
Perhaps it was Smith’s desire to move on from his old material that prompted him to pack his hour-long set with quite a few covers, delivering a brilliant and sumptuous vocal on Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry on Their Own” (which segued into a groovy extended medley of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and Chic’s “Le Freak”) and singing snippets of CeCe Peniston’s “Finally” and Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (the latter was particularly swoon-inducing).
Smith also performed the collaboration he originally recorded with Naughty Boy, “La La La,” as well as the solo ballad version of his duet with Disclosure, “Latch,” introducing the latter with: “This song is very special to me, because a week ago I released my second song with Disclosure, and it just feels full-circle.” Sadly, Smith didn’t perform that new Disclosure single, “Omen,” but since he’s really working the festival circuit this summer, hopefully he’ll add it to his setlist very soon.
Smith’s set may have been a major hits-filled crowd-pleaser, but he still seemed like a rank amateur next to the almighty Sir Elton John, whose headlining, two-hour revue boasted a positively staggering number of career-spanning hits, starting with the perfectly tone-setting “The Bitch Is Back.”
Oh, Elton was back, all right. “Bennie and the Jets," "Candle in the Wind,” “Levon,” “Philadelphia Freedom,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Rocket Man,” “Your Song,” “Sad Songs (Say So Much),” “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting"… this was a breathless, nonstop, greatest-hits tour de force, all banged out with glee at the legend’s grand piano while he wore a to-die-for cobalt "Captain Fantastic” coat.
John’s epic set featured many highlights, obviously, but the Almost Famous-esque crowd singalong to “Tiny Dancer” and the garish pastel ‘80s-screensaver graphics that ran on the Jumbotrons during his guilty-pleasure classic “I’m Still Standing” were particularly memorable and fun.
And then, with one final la-la-la-la-la audience singalong of “Crocodile Rock,” Outside Lands 2015 came to a close. Click here for Yahoo Music’s other reports from Friday and Saturday, and see you in Golden Gate Park next year.
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