Gigantic mosh pits erupt for hardcore rock legends Turnstile at Outside Lands

When the catharsis peaked during Turnstile’s set at Outside Lands, even the VIP section exploded. A man wearing neon orange surfed over the well-to-do crowd and trickled out of the exclusive enclave into the trench separating it from general admission. After regaining his footing, he hopped right back into the frenzy. The Baltimore band, which opened the pit to host a new generation of hardcore fans, was combusting on the Sutro Stage and everybody within earshot leaned forward to face the fireworks. 

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Turnstile is a five-piece band with no center. They’re either pulverizing listeners with snarling riffs and sing-along stanzas or retreating into mellow remission, allowing flourishes of guitar and synthesizers to cool everyone down. Sometimes guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills trade 1980s-era Smiths- or Police-style licks and then, a minute later, wield distorted strumming to feed the mosh pit. 

At sundown on Outside Lands’ opening night, Turnstile burned both ends of the candle, reminding all the old heads who bemoaned the lackluster headliners and TikTok-friendly middling acts that this is a weekend built on rock ’n’ roll.

A zealous horde had swarmed the Sutro Stage leading up to the start, for one of Outside Lands’ best scheduling treats of the year: Geese opening for Turnstile, an inimitable, one-two knockout. However, Geese’s ferocious performance was hexed by some in the Very Important People section that occupied half of Lindley Meadow. As stoic as a line at the DMV, the bourgeoisie lived up to their blasé reputation with no dancing, just flaunted financing, as the New York City band played a rousing set. 

Once Geese lit the match, Turnstile supplied the powder keg for the remainder of the mob in the meadow.

Brendan Yates leads as a nuanced front man. The singer — who drums in the band Trapped Under Ice — conceived Turnstile in 2010 within the wiry Baltimore hardcore scene. Taciturn and Turnstile seem counterintuitive but Yates balances the act.

He has the demeanor of the quiet kid in class with explosive depth, and Turnstile is the gateway into his inner world. Speaking with the Oakland-based newsletter Blackbird Skyplane last year, he explained his love for an oversized plaid anorak and walked into a metaphor about his band: “Since I was young, I’ve loved big jackets like that — when I got to school, before the bell rang, I could sit there with my CD player, in the igloo of my jacket. Be inside it, in my own little world. I still love a jacket I can escape inside of.”

Turnstile harbored the Outside Lands crowd with similar escapism. Providing a space for intensity, both fierce and loving. 

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Bassist Franz Lyons waltzed onstage in a T-shirt honoring Bay Area guardian angel Mac Dre while drummer Daniel Fang appeared sans shirt. Guitarist McCrory was in a flannel, a fitting fabric to illustrate the band’s everyman appeal.

Opening with the title track from “Never Enough,” the 2025 album that cemented Turnstile as one of rock ’n’ roll’s defining acts of the decade, following their 2021 breakthrough “Glow On,” the band’s setlist equally drew from both records. Songs flowed with the same curves as a Pixies classic, toggling between calm and loud.

Cuts like “Don’t Play” moved with danceable rhythm driven by chugging power chords while the song “I Care” and its swaggering lead guitar reflected the power pop fretwork of Johnny Marr and Andy Summers. Regardless of the tempo, Lindley Meadow responded. The first 50 yards in GA moved as a single superorganism to every beat punched, while a 100-strong mosh pit rotated counterclockwise.

Turnstile focused their hour set on the music and energy, but Yates occasionally checked in to make sure everyone from the front to the back was secure. Two surprise guests hung in the wings of the stage and appeared during the song “Dull” in response to the lyrics: “Deep in the night, I’m waiting for the call.” Lucy Dacus, who’s performing on Saturday at the festival, flashed on the screen with a rotary telephone alongside her partner and Boygenius bandmate, Julien Baker. The couple were committed to the bit, exchanging the handset to pantomime a call before hoisting the relic into the air like a baby Simba to a field of screams. 

Following “Look Out For Me,” the centerpiece on “Never Enough,” Turnstile took a short break backstage to let the show simmer before returning for its finishing blow. The encore was a blitz, three fast-paced songs in succession to leave everyone with a full heart and a sore neck the next morning. During the finale, the VIP section nearly matched the energy on the other side of the barrier. Although there was no mosh pit, the people who paid extra to pee in better bathroom stalls were unleashed like the rest of the mammals in the meadow. 

Yates didn’t let Outside Lands go without a final chance to connect. After his bandmates disappeared off stage, the singer hopped over the barrier to briefly crowd-surf on the adoring mass. It didn’t matter that the songs were over, hundreds of hands flung open to hold him.