Isaw Jack Johnson in the crowd at Outside Lands on Saturday night. It was just before Aussie rockers Royel Otis jumped into their bombastic, viral hit, “Oysters In My Pocket,” a total highlight moment of the festival. The familiar San Francisco fog was sitting atop the cypress tree canopies the way it always does in the early evening at Twin Peaks stage, and here was Jack Johnson, flashing me a smile as he walked through the crowd.

The encounter might’ve otherwise just been the happenstance of seeing a famous musician hanging out in a place where a lot of other excellent famous musicians were doing their thing. But it took me back to year one of Outside Lands in 2008, when Johnson headlined the Lands End main stage at the Golden Gate Park polo field, closing out the first of the festival’

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