Can’t pony up for a beer at Outside Lands, much less a tank of gas and the $89 ticket to get in? No worries. Just kick back at home and watch live streams of select shows this weekend like Built to Spill, Silversun Pickups, Ween, Dave Matthews and Robert Randolph. Here’s the YouTube channel and here’s the sked: Friday 2:30 Built to Spill 3:30 Zap Mama 4:05 Midnite 5:05 West Indian Girl 5:50 Q-Tip 6:50 Silversun Pickups 7:40 Thievery Corporation… Read More »
This weekend, the choice is yours: Either rock it with the Micro Wrestling Federation at the Last Day Saloon (check out my interview with the 4’6” 292-pound Meatball) – or flee south for 70 bands and a herd of bison at the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park.
A few of the things I learned about Diana Krall in less than two hours: – She has a microwave on her tour bus. – Her kids are busy out in the lobby working the merch table. – The hot-pink stilettos she strutted across the stage were a gift from some guy named Elvis. And no they’re not red. – It happened to be Elvis’ birthday. To celebrate, he was scarfing clams casino at Carmine’s in Chicago. – “Cheek to… Read More »
Even though one fan wanted her money back when she realized she just couldn’t stomach bluegrass, most of the crowd knew what they were getting into as Elvis Costello picked and plucked and hollered his way though a hoedown of a set Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Backed by an extremely intuitive Nashville sextet of seasoned bluegrass and country players, the encyclopedic Brit singer stretched out nearly every song from his new Americana roots country album “Secret, Profane… Read More »
Sunday summer afternoons in Union Square settle into a distinctly European rhythm. It’s time for cappuccino, gelato and wine chilling in buckets; time to find a good sideline seat and watch the crowd of tourists and shoppers spill over into the streets. So imagine the surprise yesterday – 40 years to the day after The Who played “Tommy” at Woodstock – when a flash mob of nearly 100 dancers took over the square for a full-tilt run through “Pinball Wizard.”
To get in the mood for the Wings Over Wine Country air show this weekend, I took a ride full of rolls, loops and barber-pole spins in the ethanol-powered Fagen MX-2 with trusty pilot Greg Poe. After pulling 5 G’s and flying upside down for what felt like five minutes, I’m proud to say I never lost my breakfast – a good thing because I was down for cleaning the cockpit. It’s gotta be the best 60-Second Weekend we ever… Read More »
‘‘How long before the cops show up?” I ask when I meet up with Aaron Milligan-Green and the Jungle Love Orchestra. Blowing horns and banging an oil drum on the weedy tracks in Railroad Square, they’re playing everything from a New Orleans marching band number called “Ain’t My Fault” to Fela Kuti’s “Coffin for the Head State.” I was really only half-joking about the cops, but when you consider the lively rag-tag street band has been repeatedly shut down and… Read More »
In all her travels over the past four decades, Zora Young – the whole lotta blues mama from Chicago – had never played Sonoma County. She’d done San Francisco a few times, but nothing north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Sonoma County Blues Festival impresario Bill Bowker changed that on Saturday, bringing in the underrated, underappreciated singer for a workout of blues classics and love anthems with the Volker Strifler Band. Legend has it she’s a distant relative of Howlin’… Read More »
The Helmet Cam is so 2006. It might be good for riding a Big Wheel down Lombard Street or jumping around at a Scary Kids Scaring Kids show, but for the rides at the SoCo Fair, you need something you can strap on. Something low-tech and hi-def. Behold: The Headband Cam. It’s retro like John McEnroe and inescapable like a spycam. And it turns out you really need two of them because once you start parading around with a camera… Read More »
