The highly anticipated San Francisco summer music festival Outside Lands was a mixed success and was very much a production of its host city. With eco-friendly info booths; vendors serving up raw vegan burgers and flatbread cheeseless pizza; recycling and compost bins; hippies and hipsters (there were more hipsters in line for food than at all of Stanford), people passing joints and plenty of fog, the Golden Gate Park event was precisely what it should have been — despite a few bumps in operation.

The bumps mostly came early on. Before Radiohead took the stage on Friday night, festival-goers — who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, numbered more than 150,000 over the three-day weekend — had already trampled barrier gates. The attendees without tickets (which cost 80 bucks a pop) were jumping fences behind Port-a-Potties and dissolving into the massive crowds.

“This is a zoo,” exclaimed one woman as she surveyed the mass collective listening to Beck at the Sutra stage. Though many attendees agreed Friday was slightly more hectic than projected, by Saturday afternoon, Outside Lands had simmered down to a manageable festival atmosphere. Crowds trickled to the grounds and meandered between the six stages, stopping at clothing and food booths run by local businesses, many with a “green” focus. Besides slight organizational missteps, the major problems of the untried festival were technical. Twice during Radiohead’s performance and several times more during Tom Petty’s act on Saturday, the amps cut out completely.

By Sunday, the California sunshine broke through the mist, warming healthy audiences who watched bands like Stars, Broken Social Scene and Wilco before setting romantically as headliner Jack Johnson took the stage. Though concert promoters touted Radiohead as the first band to ever play in Golden Gate Park at night, Johnson had the pleasure of being the first to play under clear skies, a welcome, laid-back end to a very tiring, but well spent, weekend.

RADIOHEAD

Radiohead, without a doubt, was the main draw to Outside Lands on Friday night. During Beck’s pre-Radiohead set, throngs of concertgoers made for the exits — they wanted to get good seats for the headlining act.

The early birds weren’t disappointed: As usual, Thom Yorke and company met even the loftiest of expectations. The quintet — seven years and seven albums into their career — brought a fiercely creative and energetic show to Outside Lands. Radiohead played the main “Land’s End” stage to what looked like the largest crowd of the entire festival. The huge grass clearing in front of the main stage was packed with onlookers, all huddled together between spidery park trees and under a foggy night sky. An estimated 5,000 gatecrashers also added to the fray.

Visually, Radiohead was the best experience of the concert. The band adorned the cavernous main stage with a series of hanging columns that reflected LED colors and light, a large panel of colored bulbs above and two large video screens on either side of the stage. The band’s generous use of colors echoed the songs’ musical moods: a soft red for “All I Need,” midnight blue for “There, There” and angry scarlet for “Paranoid Android.” The clear columns also refracted streams of white LED light, chopping up bits of color to create sparkles. Meanwhile, the large video screens were broken into four panels, each broadcasting off-center video feeds of the band members as they played. Lead singer Yorke came off as twisted and passionate, while the Greenwood brothers came off as cool and cerebral. Two Tibetan flags adorned the stage as a part of the band’s decades-long advocacy for Tibetan independence.

Musically, Radiohead’s set drew heavily from their most recent LP, “In Rainbows,” but also dabbled in their earlier albums, particularly “OK Computer.” The band began their set with the breakneck clicking intro of “15 Steps,” as they sauntered onstage to look out at the waiting fans. Soon they moved on to “Reckoner” and the sinister echo of “There, There.” Their only selection from “Hail to the Thief” was both haunting and beautiful, particularly when paired with a light show that resembled the claustrophobic forest of their music video. The next song, “All I Need” was a fragile highlight until it exploded with fat piano chords and sparkling noise.

The band only grew better as the set went on. Another outstanding new tune — they played virtually the entirety of “In Rainbows” — was “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.” Lyrically the song is a tense tale of dying and finding bliss at the ocean floor. Sonically the guitars were repetitive and light, and visually the set was a stunning ocean blue. Next was “Idioteque” and Yorke’s best moment of the night: dancing like an insane raver during the song’s final twitch-pop breakdown. Later, Johnny Greenwood channeled Jimmy Page by used a violin bow on his electric guitar to create the ghostly atmospherics that underpin the simple piano chords of “Pyramid Song.” “Karma Police,” meanwhile, was a bit disappointing, but still enjoyable. Instead of a textured, bass-heavy sound like in the recording, the acoustic guitar and organ were flimsy sounding. Even so, the band built up momentum and delivered a memorable final minute to the song.

Throughout all the set, Radiohead had three secret weapons working for it. First, there was Yorke’s voice. Chords and beats would swirl chaotically underneath while Yorke’s voice remained flawlessly in key. Also, Johnny Greenwood added his signature electronic soundscapes. As his bandmates worked away at traditional instruments, Greendwood used computers, ondes martenots and synthesizers to add ambient noises and programmed beats. Finally, to my surprise, Radiohead relied heavily on its drummer. Phil Selway played with a clean proficiency that created an exactness of timing that the wildness of their melodies lacked.

The only real problem with Radiohead’s set was technical. Midway through “Airbag,” the unthinkable happened: Radiohead went totally silent. The band kept playing but nothing was amplified. Thousands of enraptured fans began to murmur in confusion. (“Was this intentional?” we all asked) But as the seconds of painful silence slipped by, the confusion turned to anger. Finally — after what must have seemed like a lifetime to the festival promoters, but was in fact only a half-minute — the sound returned. Yorke would later quip, “Somebody spilled beer on the plug!” But the joke wasn’t quite over. The music went out again during “All I Need.” According to Rolling Stone Magazine, Radiohead’s advanced gear was just too much for the PA system. Fortunately, the music returned again after another half-minute. But if it hadn’t — and if Radiohead had not handled it like such professionals — it could have tarnished an otherwise outstanding set.

The first ever Outside Lands Festival was a definite success — and there was nothing better to start it off than Radiohead’s wildly original and entertaining live act, glitches or no glitches. -PC

BECK

Beck’s most recent album, “Modern Guilt” loomed large in his somewhat disappointing set on Friday. Sequestered to a side stage just an hour before Radiohead took the main stage, Beck tried his best to tame the overcrowded and unruly audience but to little avail. After launching into “E-Pro” and then “Sun Eyed Girl,” he veered toward tracks like “Gamma Ray” and “Chemtrails.” -PC

BLACK MOUNTAIN

As the guitars cut out in the middle of Black Mountain’s entertaining set, the audience was left with just a booming bass and massive drumbeat. Then space-age synths created some mood and the band found a groove. Sonically, this was a highlight for the band, which finds itself lodged somewhere between The Secret Machines and Black Sabbath. Black Mountain’s riffs were talkative and trippy, while the female background singer had a serious, stoic gaze. The larger result was a mid-tempo, stoner-friendly crawl sound that won over Friday night’s restless crowd. -PC

LUPE FIASCO

One of the only hip-hop acts at the festival — and certainly its best-known — Lupe Fiasco and Bishop G put on a high-energy show, appealing to a crowd that gave little back. Dressed in all black with a gold medallion necklace, Lupe dominated the stage, giving a much more featured performance than when he opened for Kanye West on the Glow in the Dark Tour. Though Lupe gave stellar performances of fan favorites like “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” and “Go Go Gadget Flow,” the crowd warmed up when he finally unloaded the song they all came for, “Superstar.” Though Lupe was out of his element with the crowd, he was in his element on stage. -KM

REGINA SPEKTOR

Regina Spektor charmed fans with a simple, clean performance of mostly songs from her third album, Soviet Kitsch. Alone on the stage in a green tent dress and popping red lipstick, Spektor managed to make a large, festival-style venue seem extremely intimate. A large, dedicated following mouthed the words to her signature quirky lyrics, and shouted out many “I love you Regina”s, to which she whispered throatily into the microphone “I love you, too.” -KM

RODERIGO AND GABRIELA

While many of the bands at the Outside Lands Festival are easily classified as “world music,” Roderigo and Gabriela truly live up to this broad label. Born in Mexico City and currently living in Dublin, the duo plays percussive, quick-fingered acoustic jams. They even impressively managed to cover “Stairway to Heaven” and a bit of “Seven Nation Army” by slapping out beats and picking forcefully at their strings. -PC

ANDREW BIRD

Dressed in a very dapper tie/blazer/jeans combination, Andrew Bird came off like a mad scientist tinkering in his musical laboratory on Sunday afternoon. The New York Times blogger and former lead singer of Squirrel Nut Zippers played small bits off several instruments, looped them and gradually layered the parts to create an eccentric, shape-shifting sound. Songs like “Fiery Crash” and “Plasticities” were much more muscular live than on Bird’s latest record, “Armchair Apocrypha.” While the studio versions are driven by delicate silences and clear over-dubbing, Bird’s Outside Lands approach was much more aggressive. -PC

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

To end Broken Social Scene’s fun, rollicking set, bandleader Kevin Drew asked the audience to let out a collective, cathartic scream. “For every love you’ve ever lost, for every love you’ve ever had, for everything you’ve ever wanted to do, for all the fear pressed down on . . . scream!” The resulting roar was an exciting ending to an excellent set. Broken Social Scene’s strength is its socially extroverted attitude, an ability to bring people — including their own disparate roster — together with music. For the Outside Lands Festival, the super group’s rotating lineup was at more than eight.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the band trotted out their unique blend of horns, melody and shoe-gaze guitars. Broken Social Scene truly constructs a wall of sound, layering instrument after instrument — three or four guitars, a synthesizer, drums, bass and three horns — to create a single, enormous melody. The band, constrained to a 50-minute set, played just the highlights of their three studio albums. “7/4 (Shoreline)” was propelled by dueling female vocals and a tricky 7/4 drumbeat. The crescendo “Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl” (dedicated “to all the ladies”) was a sentimental fan favorite. The set’s highlights, however, were two new songs off band member Brendan Canning’s recent collaboration, entitled “Something for All of Us.” “Churches Under the Stairs” was a spacey ode to New Wave with a beautiful, restrained hook. Meanwhile, “Love Is New” — played by the band live for the first time — was a disco-inflected dance groove with a wicked saxophone solo.

In the end, you could tell that Broken Social Scene was just happy to be playing music together — and the crowd was just happy to be listening.

— PC

STEEL PULSE

This band, which originally formed in England in 1975, played classic — “roots” — reggae early Friday evening. After almost 12 albums of channeling Jamaica, the band is good at what they do: The guitars were buoyant, the band dynamic was loose and the mood was laid-back. “Not King James Version” evoked a particularly positive reaction from the crowd.

— PC

ROGUE WAVE

Rogue Wave’s musical palette is not unlike its “Descend Like Vultures” album cover: It consists of light grays, marine blues, beiges and a flourish of fiery red. The Sub Pop band’s indie pop is, at its best, deeply personal and musically creative but, at its worst, bland. On Sunday afternoon, the band openly fought this tendency with great songs like “Love’s Lost Guarantee” and “Bird on A Wire.” Zach Rogue’s voice is nasal, indeed, a nasally, perfectly pitched treat that carried a score of otherwise plodding tunes. -PC

WILCO

Kevin Drew introduced Wilco as “America’s best rock band.” While they didn’t necessarily live up to this high-praise, they may have been the best American band at Outside Lands. As always, Wilco proved that noise rock, country and classic rock can mix perfectly. Playing on Sunday evening, Jeff Tweedy and company ripped through their recent catalogue. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” was a repetitive crowd-pleaser, while “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” was balanced with a perfect level of noise, and the new “Hate It Here” was fun roots-rock.

— PC

VIENNA TENG

Lesser-known act and Stanford alum Vienna Teng ‘00 drew a healthy crowd to her Sunday-afternoon performance. Introducing songs “Antebellum” and “Grandmother’s Song” off her upcoming album, Teng delivered the same soulful, richly toned melodies her fans have listened to since her debut of “Waking Hour” in 2002. The singer-songwriter gave many thanks to the audience, even joking that she would have left her own performance to head over to see Andrew Bird.

— KM

JACK JOHNSON

Those who could stand to watch a (gasp) mainstream act headed over to Jack Johnson after Wilco on Sunday night to see the last performer of the weekend. Johnson took the stage under blue skies as the sun began to set beyond the edge of the park. While the artist could have plugged his latest album, “Sleep Through the Static,” Johnson kept the crowd interested by playing old favorites like “Taylor,” “Bubble Toes” and “Banana Pancakes.”

Johnson kept the audience on their toes, bringing up many guest performers including Hawaiian singer Paula Fuga, Clover City Dove Collective, members of Animal Liberation Orchestra and Zach Rogue of Rogue Wave. Bassist Merlo Podlewski rapped during “Staple it Together,” and pianist Zach Gill rocked out on his own featured song “Family.” The variety of musicians onstage propelled the show forward, making Johnson’s loved, but sometimes underwhelming performance, multi-dimensional.

Despite the large, mainstage crowd, Johnson maintained his Hawaiian surfer dude-like calm, except when a small green spider landed on his microphone. The band continued to jam as Johnson nearly dropped his guitar trying to blow the spider away, and then switched out for a freshly tuned instrument.

By far the most family-friendly headliner of the weekend, Johnson drew a less rowdy, more eclectic group of listeners. Older children sat on their parents’ shoulders and mothers swayed babies asleep to Johnson’s lullaby-like singing and quiet guitar. He ended his encore with a solo performance of “Better Together,” putting a slightly mushy, but nonetheless satisfying end to the weekend.

—KM