This may go without saying, but playing the early Friday afternoon show at Outside Lands (or any festival, for that matter) is a bit of a thankless task. Your job is to get heads bobbing and bodies swaying and kill time until later acts; anything else is a bonus.
But don’t tell that to Daði Freyr, the Germany-by-way-of-Iceland electronic pop musician who, for forty minutes, endeared himself to everyone in the immediate vicinity of the Sutro stage — and made himself known as the biggest wife guy in the Outside Lands lineup.
For the non-Eurovision-pilled, Freyr’s biggest hit is “Think About Things,” a sweet, groovy ditty written to his newborn daughter, accompanied by a very silly music video. He and his band Gagnamagnið were accepted to perform it in the 2020 Eurovision competition, which never happened, thanks to the pandemic. Even without the competition, the song went viral in a big way: 50 million views on YouTube and counting.
A lot of people at the Sutro Stage were there to see him perform “Think About Things,” this time with a touring band. Behind me, a woman in a day-glo nylon jumpsuit asked her friends, “Do you know the dance at all?” (She seemed to know it pretty well, for what it’s worth.)
But for the unsuspecting, Freyr’s charm offensive was on from his first, lesser-known song, “Thank You,” which he “dedicated to each and every one of you” in his trademark, swoon-worthy baritone.
“If you heard my voice crack,” Freyr joked after the next track — a cover of British girl group Atomic Kitten’s “Whole Again” — “no you didn’t.” He’d flown into San Francisco at 5 a.m. Friday on barely any sleep, after a show Thursday night. “Okay, maybe one — one tiny little crack,” he confessed, to laughter from the crowd.
Even if his otherwise pristine vox slipped a bit, he swaggered and swayed throughout the set. He shook his hips — a lot. He futzed around giddily with his gear on-stage. He skulked across the stage, with a massive inflatable version of his head and hands behind him, an absurdist mix of Sinatra and boy-band heartthrob.
But don’t fall for him too hard; he’s not available. He dedicated “Whole Again” to his wife, as he did “10 Years,” his 2021 Eurovision entry and one of the few modern pop songs about long-term domestic bliss. He even requested that the crowd at Outside Lands say hi to her, along with his parents, all of whom were watching back home.
For anyone still not entirely won over, he played a vaguely drum-and-bass dance-pop cover of “Party in the U.S.A.” The dude came to please; the crowd happily obliged, singing along with glee.
By the time he got to “Think About Things,” the crowd was like putty in his hands, and leaning into being earnestly in love. Couples were singing the chorus to each other — “Believe me, I will always be there, so you can tell me anything and I’ll listen” — while bros goofy dad danced, all flailing limbs and shimmying. (A guy in the crowd next to me, I swear to God, did the running man for a few brief and shining moments.)
At the end, Freyr had done the near-impossible: Making the no-man’s-land slot at Outside Lands feel as delightful as, if not more than, a big-name headliner set. Hope he gets some sleep tonight.
