Treasure Island Music Festival made quite the comeback after a year off. Sure, it wasn’t on its namesake island, but on Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, the two-day outdoor concert co-produced by Noise Pop Industries and Another Planet Entertainment still delivered the same picturesque view of the San Francisco skyline and an eclectic lineup of two dozen acts. Here are some highlights:
Sunday, Oct. 14
Tame Impala
Closing out the festival on the Town stage as the city glimmered across the bay and fans embraced each other and swayed, the Australian psychedelic pop band Tame Impala beautifully capped off the rebooted Treasure Island Music Festival in Oakland on Sunday.
Like a lot of the artists on the bill, the group led by Kevin Parker is between album cycles (Tame Impala’s most recent full-length release is 2015’s “Currents”) but that didn’t seem to bother the approximately 8,000 fans who stuck it out for the last set of the weekend.
Sounding remarkably polished, Tame Impala ran through several favorites, including “Let It Happen,” “The Less I Know the Better” and an encore version of “New Person, Same Old Mistakes,” which was given new life via Rihanna’s cover “Same Ol’ Mistakes.”
While the band didn’t pull out all the pyrotechnic stops like Saturday’s headliner A$AP Rocky, it did come with some heavy duty fog machines and confetti cannons that seemed to work overtime. The visuals also provided plenty of woozy thrills for those who managed to abstain from mind-altering substances.
#TIMF fans are happy here! Thank goodness the weather is awesome today. Too bad @tameimpala had to stop their set short at #desertdaze2018 due to ⛈⚡️ This fest certainly knows how that feels (2016!) pic.twitter.com/yNt48vKtOY
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 15, 2018
After having its scheduled headlining set at the Desert Daze Festival in Perris (Riverside County) abruptly cut short due to thunderstorms after just three songs on Friday, Oct. 12, Tame Impala seemed to relish every moment on stage on this gorgeous night.
— Aidin Vaziri
U.S. Girls
With her stage-sagging eight piece band in tow, Meghan Remy, who performs under the name U.S. Girls, brought a jolt of life to the festival on Sunday afternoon.
On tour in support of the outfit’s breakthrough sixth album, “In a Poem Unlimited,” Remy stalked the stage, called out members of the audience and worked up a fervor around politically charged songs draped in girl group harmonies, sumptuous saxaphone solos and Afrobeat rhythms.
With shades of Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense,” the band members became more and more unhinged as the set progressed, flailing around violently in the end as Remy ended up with her back on the floor.
— Aidin Vaziri
Playing in a haze of dust kicked up by shuffling feet in the heat of the afternoon, the shaggy maned Australian singer-songwriter brought some serious volume to the festival.
With a set that leaned heavily on songs from her most recent album, “Tell Me How You Really Feel,” Barnett powered through confessional, dissonant tunes like “Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Self Confidence” and “I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch” with ferocity and force.
With the lineup for the rebooted festival highlighting EDM and hip-hop acts, she provided one of the weekend’s few straight rock and roll sets — an electrifying line back to Treasure Island’s roots as an offshoot of the Noise Pop Festival.
— Aidin Vaziri
Warriors Dance Mom
One of the biggest celebrities at TIMF — outside of the performers themselves — may have been Robin Schreiber, the woman best known as the Warriors Dance Mom. She was found on the festival grounds throughout the weekend sporting Dubs gear, taking selfies with fans and, of course, dancing.
On Sunday, she even learned some new moves thanks to the help of TURFinc, an Oakland dance crew.
The @warriors Dance Mom got #turnt with the @TURFinc crew 🙌🏽 @timfsf #TIMF #DubNation #Oakland #TIMF2018 pic.twitter.com/U6GFkpsR7J
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 15, 2018
— Mariecar Mendoza
Sharon Van Etten
The New Jersey singer-songwriter/actress rocked the Town stage on Sunday afternoon. It didn’t matter that it was a school night (Van Etten is in grad school pursuing a masters in psychology), it was the last day of the Treasure Island festival and nothing was going to stop her or the crowd from enjoying the sunny Bay Area.
Van Etten’s roughly 50-minute set was only the third show on her “very short tour,” but she promised fans “we’ll be back!” Performing her latest single, “Comeback Kid,” she reminded the crowd that she’s plans to release her new album titled “Remind Me Tomorrow” at the start of 2019.
— Mariecar Mendoza
Saturday, Oct. 13
The New York rapper showed up more than 30 minutes late to his headlining set on the Town stage, but made it up to fans with a spectacle of a show that lit the Oakland skyline. While performing bangers off his latest album, “Testing,” including “Praise the Lord (Da Shine)” complete with a saxophone player, jets of smoke and fire shot out into the air as he hopped around in front of a giant crash test dummy head.
But A$AP Rocky saved the biggest light show for his closer, setting off fireworks to close out the festival’s first night.
“This sh— has been electrifying. I love y’alls energy,” he told fans. “Thank you for this love. I really appreciate that.”
— Mariecar Mendoza
Pusha T
Pusha T has made headlines for lots of things this year, but the rapper and penultimate act on Saturday night proved that despite the drama, he’s one of most skilled hip-hop acts performing today.
After opening a cappella on the City stage and launching into “If You Know You Know,” Pusha T nodded to his most recent album.
“I want to welcome you to the ‘Daytona experience,’” he told the crowd. “When I talk about ‘Daytona’ I’m talking about the album of the motherf—ing year.”
But Pusha T also veered from a predictable set; in addition to a couple tracks made with Kanye West (“Runaway” and “Mercy”), Pusha T threw it back to his days with Clipse, rapping on 2002’s “Grindin’.”
“We’ve been coming out here a long time,” he told the Oakland crowd. “It’s great to be here now representing my G.O.O.D. Music fam.”
— Alyssa Pereira
Aminé
Amine proved he’s got star power as he commanded a rapt festival crowd during a beautiful sunset performance on the City stage on Saturday.
“You’re beautiful,” he would tell them.
In return, he asked them to reply, “I know.”
And it was game everyone seemed to love to play as they danced and bounced on his cue.
.@heyamine really knows how to get the crowd going #TIMF pic.twitter.com/QDfq7pEthn
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 14, 2018
It was a testament to Amine’s stage presence. He engaged his fans — and won new ones — as he performed a mix of original material, like his 2016 hit single “Caroline,” and throwback hits from the ‘90s and aughts that made for several memorable sing-alongs during his roughly 40-minute set.
“We’re in the f—n’ bay. This is where you n—s get hyphy,” he exclaimed, paying respect to the Bay Area’s hip-hop scene. “You’re beautiful!”
— Mariecar Mendoza
Santigold
Santigold is as natural a fit for Treasure Island as any act could be. High energy and quirky, the electronic pop act and her two tennis apparel-clad dancers livened the crowd with uptempo cuts like “LES,” “Unstoppable” and “Disparate Youth” as the sun began to set.
.@santigold band was having a lil snare problem but it's all good now! They're UNSTOPPABLE #TIMF pic.twitter.com/E0QIt5WkyF
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 14, 2018
Midway through her performance on the Town stage, she paused to invite the audience to participate.“Who wants to dance?” she yelled. “Come on! Get on up!” About 30 fans took her up on the invite and jumped onstage for 2008’s “Creator.”
As she rounded out the set, she nodded to her former home, telling the crowd she’d be playing “Brooklyn, We Go Hard,” a collaboration with rapper Jay Z.
“I don’t live in Brooklyn anymore,” she said, “but in any case, I still go hard.”
— Alyssa Pereira
Hiatus Kaiyote, led by vocalist Naomi “Nai Palm” Saalfield, hit the Town stage Saturday afternoon to a growing crowd at the edge of Middle Harbor Shoreline Park.
Saalfield, with glitter on her eyebrows and a red wolf on her metallic briefs, sang, howled, whooped and rapped through the experimental soul group’s 50-minute set, and occasionally picked up a guitar, too.
The best moments of the set by far were those where Nai Palm flexed her voice on melody lines; her wild scatted phrases and winding jazz scales make it obvious why she made fans out of Prince, Drake and Mahershala Ali.
— Alyssa Pereira
Silk City
Silk City, a project of Diplo and Mark Ronson, was one of the festival’s most anticipated acts as it marked only the second time the duo has performed in the U.S. But the two major producers somehow delivered a lukewarm set Saturday night on the Town stage that didn’t get anywhere near the kind of energy they are known for with their other collaborations.
.@SilkCityMusic performing only their second set ever in the US #TIMF pic.twitter.com/2cFlrMFEbj
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 14, 2018
For instance, despite sampling a little “Uptown Funk,” Ronson’s track with Bruno Mars, lacked much of the energy and funk fans loved when the song first hit the radio.
Diplo also didn’t bring his twerking dancers and giant inflatable hamster ball, a signature element when performing his Major Lazer sets, to the festival. As a result, he had a more subdued presence onstage, where he only offered a handful of hype-man shout-outs to make sure the crowd was still with them.
That said, Diplo and Ronson certainly put in work on the turntables and attracted one of the largest crowds on Saturday.
— Mariecar Mendoza
Transportation
Despite grumblings of no on-site parking, Treasure Island festivalgoers found getting to and from the outdoor event over the weekend was relatively painless. Shuttle buses transported people from the West Oakland BART station to the entrance gates at the park, alleviating traffic on the Bay Bridge and surrounding streets.
The shuttle service was similar to how organizers regulated traffic during Blurry Vision Fest, Goldenvoice’s hip-hop and R&B outdoor concert at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in May.
If you see a gold bus called The Twerkulator at #TIMF inquire within. I did and this is what happened: pic.twitter.com/vXkEVXOh1U
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) October 14, 2018
Curtis Nelson of Vallejo also helped transport festivalgoers — in an unofficial capacity — via the Twerkulator. He debuted the gold shuttle bus at Burning Man 2016 and has since been using it to drive partiers to various festivals and events. Nelson even used it to deliver supplies to North Bay communities last year after the Wine Country fires.
— Mariecar Mendoza
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