Wednesday, January 25, 2006, Amnesia, Free, (they passed a hat, but I missed it). No ear plugs. “Gypsy Jazz” the Django band (Monday was his bday) Excellent Accordian player (he got baked at the break) guitar (selmer? Django style) another (same, also got baked and the music suffered for it) Ralph, on sax, and that split reed thing, stand up bass and Pete on drums (he knew Karen Carney)….Excellent, pretty crowded, early show came on at 8:30 and second set ended at about 11.Wed, Feb 1, 2006, Leroy Horsemouth Wallace, with Will Bernard and Groundation. Slims, $16, Packed but not sold out perhaps cause it was raining comme la vache qui pise. Ear plugs maybe 60% of the time.Hoss on him red Sonor Kit with a sweet sounding orange snare (not a picolo). Huge drum sticks. Not enough can be said about how funkily he lead this decent white reggae band from Sonoma, CA. The king of the side stick rim shot. A snare master. And no slouch on the highhat. Also, from Jamaica, and apparently first time with this band, two young, very, beautiful and svelte female vox who sang more than brilliantly and danced as well as that.The set was basically Marley tunes, but perhaps an original or two in there. Packed with an all white santa cruz surfer crowd so it was funny when the chix sang a killer “Mr. Brown” and they were going “Where, where where is Mr. Brooooowwwwwwnnnnn?” Half the audience was female. So it was Hoss, the Vox, then the excellent local jazz guitarist Will Bernard on a Tobacco sunburst redwood fretboard Strat with perhaps 2 minihumbuckers? Into a fender (black face twin?) and some choice floor toys. He was good if somewhat tentative. Blew the roof off when it counted: Space sounds with hand manipulated stomp box during dubs, Lively up Yousef, and The encore: Exodus. There was one song early in the first set where Bernard seemed out of his league. Specifically he ended a beat after everyone else. Hossie and the gals kinda looked at each other and Bernard looked down. His sound was muddy too. However, by the second set, he seemed to get his groove back. For the entire first set I was right up against the stage, as close to Hossie's hihat as possible. Actually I was looking through "curtains" formed by the two gals' long swaying dresses at the master on his drums: perfect for viewing but not great for sound. Moving around during the second set yielded some much better places for acoustics, sound balance etc. Slim's can - but doesn't always - have great sound depending on where you stand. There was very little dub from the sound boy (named Simon?) but some on one or two songs, and alot more from the band members on stage. The female vox kept doing that thumb to thumb rasta hand sign. Their harmonies were exquisite. They were transcendent on “Fussin’ and Fightin”, the old Gladiators song. Grounation, sorry rielley, I think it was a fender 5 on b but beyond that yer on yer own. (kinda a week link this guy) then keysman: played nice clav, and some synth but he didn’t knock me out. Percussion guy should keep it to himself, a brief solo brought out the hearplugs, then a bone and trumpet horn section…. And finally, mr. groundation himself, a small white guy front and center, singing lead of all things, and playin’ thru a fender 2/12 combo, on a tobacco sunburst strat which he laid on the ground between sets: (2 + encore: on at 9:35 (9 was promised) off at 10:45, then 11:20 to midnite 15 and the one thunderous exodus after that. Hoss is amazingly funky. To watch his left hand lay the massive lick shot pon de rim while snappin away on the hihat dere is a clinic in classic drum playing. hoss bass was a red 4 string music man check the groundation web site Thurs. Feb. 2, 206, Grate Music Hall, Jorma, 26 bux. Ear plugs one percent of the thyme. Place packed if not sold out. Next morning ring factor: zilch. All "acoustic." I went up to the stage between sets and it smelled of wood, no kidding, so many guitars. I got there at 7:15 and snaked the best seat in the house with some aging hippies, blah blah woof woof. Tha set began at 8:05 (advertised 8) There were 2 sets and one encore. Jorma made a joke early on saying he overheard the house manager briefing the waiteresses and staff and saying” “It’ll be an older crowd.” And Jorma continues: “And I didn’t know if she meant in the audience or on stage.” Someone was right about a Jorma crowd being all old white balding paunchy fuckers staring at his left hand. Jorma hissef very white hair and beard. I think Jorma’s slowin’ somewhat. He had his accompanist Barry Mindorhorf on banjo, 4 string electric baritone, semi hollowbody (tobacco sunburst), mandolin and some 8 string bazookie shit, Jorma stayed on a relatively J-35 Gibbo the whole time. (web site says J-190 but I couldn’t find a J-190 on the gibo web site. Jormas website also says crate amps (it wasn’t) and aguilar electronix (it was fishman). Nothing but Gibson’s on stage,. A couple yells for Jack always answered by Jorma with, “Well, right about now he’s watching (“csi”, or “nightline” some TV show) Music stand w/lyrics on stage. A Mississippi john hurt song. Now the amplification was good cause it was all fishman and the flying speakers at the GMAC really made jorma’s guitar sing. So, if all the wood on stage was Gibbo, all the electonix on stage Fishman. Mittenhorf actually put black electrical tape over the fishman sign on his amp, so he might not be getting paid off, but jorma had a "fishman inside" sticker on his flight case for his (non fishman) amp. Jorma has a “matrix” (fishman) p/u in his guitzy (low e de tuned on a few of the last songs and capoed up for a few at the end there) into a pretty cool fishman footswitch. His amp, jorma’s was not a fishman, it was the same as last time at the fillmore. some fat obnoxious guy kept yelling for "i can see the lite" and jorma did a good version to oblige. Mittenhorf filled some alzheimer’s gaps for jorma. I coulda snored out loud. Jorma had moments, mainly restricted to nanoseconds. I learned exactly 3 new licks (“Mercy”, “Lamps” and “Hesitation”), which I spose makes tall worthwahl? Blue Railroad Train (eh) How Long Blues (*)3. I’ll Let You Know Before I Leave (er)4. Parchman Farm (uh)5. Keep your Lamps Trimmed And Burning (*)6. Serpent Of Dreams (*)7. Heart Temporary (very poor sappy love song)8. Prohibition Blues (mmm)9. Preaching On the Old Camp Grounds (snnnn)10. Hesitation Blues (*)11. That’ll Never Happen No More (*)Set Two1. BiG River Blues (fuck that)2. I Know You Rider (dead heads dug it)3. I’m Free From The Chain Gang Now, (so what)4. Death Don’t Have No Mercy (interesting)5. I See The Light (responding to drunk’s request)6. More Than My Old Guitar (comeon)7. Bread Line Blues (who cares)8. Come Back Baby (never loved this song)9. Embryonic Journey (drop d always good10. Good Shepherd (drop d, capo 2nd always learn something here)11. Genesis (* still capo’d nice)12. I’ll Be All Right Some Day, (why not now)13. A Life Well Lived (but ending weakly)14. Just Because (why not)15. Encore: 9 Pound Hammer (fuck you, I left)Most songs of the last 15 performances. Sun Feb 05 Superbowl XL Elixir, Stevie Wonder was okay, the stones sucked, but I totally called all 3 songs they would play (and in order!!!) except I thought they’d do a 4th song, a ,Motown cover, aint to proud to beg, and they probably shoulda, kept the others tighter…..cel won the bet (brkfst at boogaloos) on the football part, only cause we let her change her call after the first possession. Thurs, Feb. 9, Independent 20 Bachs, Santa, URoy, supposedly Scientist, but it appeared to be a white guy, and alledgedly Fully Fullwood, but I saw neither him nor Tony Chin, can anyone verify those lies? URoy is great at 98. Santa on fire at 65er. Place pretty crowded. you saw the hype. no doubt it was the top billing that fully fullwood on bass got that enticed you to go see the show thurs. nite. i'm sure the promise of tony chin on guitar did nothing to make you want to stay at home. well, at least you didn't split the second your expectations were dashed on the cruel rocks of the typical reggae bait and switch.fabian cooke, by the way (from bullwackies) is nothing to split early about. lack of scientist might have been tho.(my friend writes:)U-Roy was excellent on Wednesday night at the Dub Club in los AngelesalsoSanta Davis - DrumsFabian Cooke - BassI-Locks - keyboardsFreddy Flint - guitarsaxtromboneJiji - backing vocal plus one additional background singer Good version of I Shall Be Released. URoy super natty in a silver suit. Another friend writes: fully and group pulled out at the last moment seemingly because of a rift between him and scientist. scientist was indeed wrecking I mean controlling the mix; he was upstairs in the balcony on the board. a bit hamfisted for my taste but thats scientist for you.Thurs, Feb, 17, 2006, Eagle, 5 boucks: Bear Rendevous Nite, Whoa Nellies, She El Oh, 5 bucks. Place overflowing with bears and bears who love bears and some “non-bears” as the lead singer in the nellies said, but it was mostly bears. WN kikd butt, opened with celestial harmonies on the Moms and Pops’ “Rock and Roll Music” they did a buncha beautiful female vocal harmony hits from the sixties, “Deep Purple”, “Reach Out in the Darkness” and a stirring “California Dreamin” complete with flute solo. That was Connie Champagne beyond cute on flute, dancing and vox. An acoustic Guitar, Bass and drums and Connie and the other vox rounded out the bill.Then here comes She El Oh, the infamous Doug Hilsinger (Gifthorse) on his Hamer (?) with bigsby, but this one was sunburst, what’s going on here?!?, also fender head (?) into the old legend (?) cab, phaser, delay (?) by boss, Something else, and a boutique one and a foot switch thing which he didn’t touch all nite, he blew the roof off, not as much as I woulda liked but, when he did, it was just like ol’ times, then a (not bruce) drums, (they were all wearing beards, wigs and dresses) Johnathen (Van Beetoven I think) on violin which was screetchy at best, but ocassionaly good, even great with a couple harmonized lines with dug. I certainly wasn’t positioned (cowering in the corner [it was pakt, man!] And covering my ears with plugs, paper, hat and hands….I wasn’t in any position to judge the mix)….then that huge guy who plays a rick bass, and a guy on keys of all things, including a vintage juno 80, and a lead singer in funky guy and great voice. They hit some grooves that were out to lurch. This was a very very good show, noooooooo, very, very good. Place, packed, have I said? With bears. Nothing but bears. International Bear Rendezvous, as a matter of flac, check it at sfeagle.com. It takes a man to hug another man at a place like the eagle, and one to boast thereabout, and as a hetero man, it was good to hug my hetero buddy drummie Bruce there to check out our homo guitar god dug, even if all my other supposedly hetero friends didn’t make yet another great eagle show for reasons as yet unrevealed, let alone unreviled., may your souls all rot in whatever fucking hell you really belong to, you know whom I mean. Are you gay? It’s OKAY! Come out, of the closet, but hidden from my view, and bring it down to SF’s “lovely” (caroleen) Eagle Tavern. And bring your fuckin’ elbow grease. Sat, Feb 18, Amnesia, 6 Bux. Very crowded. I have no idea who was who but billed was Kyonzin Yueni Dekai, (from japan, drummer of King bros) Hank IV, (ex roofies, icky boyfriends, coup de grace) Yikes, (ex coachwhips) Aerobics King (instrumental fitness). It was Don Alan from radio Valencia on drums in Hank IV, I can’t stand him. And he’s the guy from Roofies they’re advertising and it was that hook that got me to go! And he barely played in the Roofies, just some boring bongos! What a rip! The third band was kinda rough as in biker rough. One of the bands was kinda okay, none was mind blowing or even very good, but I left before the final act which I think was the Japanese band. Eli was in the audience but didn’t play in any of the first three bands, Eli of the roofies. Friday, Feb. 25, Emily Anne’s Hot Nuts and The Makeshift Ensemble (or the Whale) Revolution Café, Free. This was pretty good, at least, Emily was. She sang and he played a nice guild 12 string pretty well. She did “Why Doncha Dew Right” and that was good. The other band was okay, 3 Acoustics, lap slide (good) a (standup?) bass and drums and a keyboard. Lotsa singing. Place pretty packed, I hadda stand. No ear plugsThen at 12 Galaxies twas Polkacide, - Kehoe Nation- CarneyBall Johnson, Tickets $8, 9PM, definitely ear plugs the whole time, it wasn’t that loud, it’s just nothing inspired me to lose any hearing. carney started at 10:15 and they were great, alan merman on him blue P bass into kehoe’s bass rig, a boogie hed into a 4/10 and a compressor, also we had Tito on strat with rosewood fretboard, keys, and effects, he was good if somewhat erratic, perhaps moved by the (very cool) moment, good drummie, and Ralph, all over the reeds including singing, snow bells, and dubbed charlie parker esque sax. the songs were…. there were a couple ska’s and any way they have a new cd, then Kehoe and he was good, with him screaming excellent leads from tele into fender mid 60’s white twin reverb, but mostly singing and band leading, then he had a horn, (clarinet and ting) an accordion, a black bull fiddle with white binding, guy was excellent, lotsa fx on this one, drums and then other drummer. This was pretty cool, they even played some polkas….Lead guy was kehoe and he was actually excellent when he did his leads, which was exactly 4 times, did I say screaming leads? Not enuf, but very good.Then up jumps Frank Chu who did an excellent rap that was dubbed by the sound man Ben who basically just run him true de octaver dem, but still it was excellent.place was kinda filling over the course of the opening bands including a guy with a “known associate” t-shirt, then up jumps polkacide, a big strat, bassie, drums, and bone, trumpet, sax, clarinet, and something else. And the place erupted but I left. Sat, Feb 25, Los Super Elegantes and Dream Date. 10 burks. Place shoulda been called soul doubt, but they let everyone in, and so in came everyone...I barely caught mebe a couple notes of Dream Date, it was at least the same trumpet player as our heroes’….los heroes are back: an entirely new backing band (from 10 years ago that is): tite, tite, tite! Better than the Roofies. Drums I couldn’t see, bassie on a musicman 4, not a stingray, into a cool custom blond wood cabinet holding 2 10’s behind a nice dark tweed grill, mighta been a GK Amp…bassie was excellent, then a rosewood fretboarded black strat by a short asian fellow who did not play too many (i.e. “enough”) solos but was entirely in the very deep pocket the whole time, and the icing was this trumpet guy. They opened with “Where’s the Whiskey, Can I have a Cigarette?” They did a funny song with a bad French Accent. One song had the repeated refrain “What up” which morphed into “Butt Up”, “Shut Up” etc… They did a kinda reggae dub song. They did a bunch of extremely funky deep deep groove songs. Their latin shit of course was the shit. By now the crowd is going nuts and it’s an elegant crowd. They did one that went: “I used to be a drunk. Now……..….I’m a drunk.” Then it goes, “I’m depressed.” They danced, they were very cool and still look and sound great and at one point mentioned the fact that they were born in SF in 1995. Afterwards I said Hi to Mario and he yelled “The Chameleon!”Wed, March 8, 2006, Amnesia, Gaucho Jazz, Free (passed hat). Place Packed. No ear plugs. Started at 8:20 or so went till, what Midnite? Two sets. Biscotti’s for the band. Guy on clarinet sat in he was okay but not great. It was the accordion players birthday and he is incredible, kept wondering where that flute or horn or organ sound was coming from and it would turn out to be he. The two guitars, Standup bass. Was there no drummer? So crowded that I couldn’t even tell from the very front row. George bought the CD of the woman who sang in (kinda sounded like Lavay and she played uke, but she was great and the cd’s pretty good). Her name is Regina Maria Pontillo. Ralph Carney was there too, great as always. Wed. 3-15-06, Free, 222 Hyde St., Fist Year Anniversary of Jane 69’s poetry read with David Kelly: this was most extremely excellent. The duble size flier reads: Club 222, recalling 15 features: Jon Longi, Bucky Sinister (an excellent, no his best! long thing about the Chameleon, with references to Debilitated James [“I thought you were talking about me!”] and Karen, all dem. Then Eddy Falconer (she video taped the whole gig and read one about her sisters, she was the last read), Also, Ra Mu Aki (Keith Savage! Taking photos of everyone) Winstong, Charlie Getter, Joe Donohue, (in black leather.) Then Monique Marquisa read an exquisite ‘un, on her hams and knees, with backer on bongos and some cool recorded trax, no, she was good. Then Vlad Pogorelov, who was great, leading the audience in a rousing singalong: “dirty whore”, then a retiring, but extremely moving, Sparrow 13, then Kathleen Wood about a strip joint, harmon leon, then a wonderful, if somewhat shy Clown Bitch Aimee, but as far as I could see we didn’t get “Un Dog” and I don’t know who, if anyone, was Don Altaena. Some guy got up towards the end, I think it was Altadena, and did something pretty good about poems. That guy who plays bass and recites over himself opened and let’s just say that was extremely non-heinous, too.Thurs, March, 16, 2006, Free. I have no idea who this was, I don’t even know where (some art gallery down by Second and Harrison? It was dark, and Jim lead us there) but I do know it was a blond Gibson Jazz Box into a tiny Crate, a stand up bass and a sax. Guys were okay jazzers, place pact w/punany.Friday, March 31, 2006, Make Out Room, $6. We ran into Cramer who was going to see “a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of, sometimes you just have to do that.” So we joined him. The DJ got up and sang some pretty okay songs on an acoustic, then was joined by a seated acoustic (?) playing a tambourine with his foot and another guy on an old keyboard while DJ played a Ric Bass, then we were SO out of there to go see a “bunch of bands I’ve never heard of” (a kind of battle of the bands) at 12 galaxies for $15 (!) first up was Frank (dubbed to great effect by a new sound dame) the show is called “Emergenza” and FeaturedmoragaMobile Estate, Asiago, Plum, The Hills, Echo Of Souls, Amorous, Elektrik Sunset. First was a Green PRS busting leads, a busty hair extended stage presence singer chick, a strat, bass and drums, okay, but not great by any stretch of the imagination or anything else you care to stretch, then I guess the best band of the night, a very bald guy on lilke a angus young’s brothers’ kinda red guitar, leads, bass, drums, then a girl band with a cello who wasn’t loud enuf, then another band with a guy in a zoot suit on a tele. Place pretty crowded but with all those bands, I was probably the only guy who actually paid to get in. Lotsa Noise Pop noise….and we walked out.Tues. Ape 4 45 bachs, (sold out, I got mine for waiting in the rain on a Sunday morning at the Fillmore, where they sell Warf tix to, I hadda get there at 10 am on a Sunday a.m. a montho ago, waiting with a crowd waiting to buy not just beck tix but also the yeah yeah yeahs and ice cube [I bought 2 for him tu, it’s also sold out] good mix of tix buyers to say the lix) War Frat Theatre, 8:35 to 9:50, encore, to 10 (I had called and asked what time the show? and they said 8:30 to 10 thats Queer Chanel for ya.) From Wayne: the show was billed as covering Jeff Beck's entire musical career, from the Yardbirds to the present.The surprise for me was the number of trax he played from his first solo release, Truth, from 1968: he did Beck's Bolero (first song he played), Morning Dew, You Shook Me, and the amazing Howlin' Wolf track (written by Willie Dixon) I Ain't Superstitious - where he plays with a slide _and_ wah wah. Jeff Beck didn't perform any trax from his next 4 albums. From Blow by Blow (1975) he did just 2 trax, I think - a fierce, relentless, gnarly version of "AIR blower," and a gorgeous, "Cause We've Ended as Lovers." From Wired (1976), "Led Boots," which went into some phenomenally fierce future funkification. "Blue Wind," breezed thru - like a hurricane. "Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat" was shortened and sped up, mostly a means to segue to "There and Back" (1980), last album from Beck's prime period, yielded only "Star Cycle".I don't know Beck's recent (post-1980!) stuff nearly as well - it's possible that the 3 trax I couldn't identify are from these 5 albums. Or one or another of them might have been new, I dunno. I know he did play "Angel (Footsteps)" (this is the dub one – seemed to segue into Gregory Issac’s “Nite Nurse”); "Nadia" (the Indian melody, written by Nitin Sawhney); "Blackbird" (the track where Beck imitates birdsong). I'm thinkin there must have been more "JB's Blues," for me the standout performance of the entire evening Beck also revisited "People Get Ready"; the keyboard player put out a convincing gospel style organ line; and the sacrilege of having a big biker bimbo singing it Then there was the 2nd encore - Somewhere Over The Rainbow (another vocal tune I don't now remember was the first encore) thanks for the detail, wayneBest of 4 (so far) Beck shows. One of the best guitar shows I’ve ever seen.Rielley said the bass was muddy. It was a 4 I bleve into what, I dunno, ask him. Bach got some excellent speed with his big thumb. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt, so you could see where the speed came from: his shoulder, bleve it or not. Only occasionally a first finger to augment the thumb action, almost never the middle or other fingers. He refers in a (5 years back) Guitar Player Mag Interview to his “big thumb” and it is. Fantastic right hand in general and that definitely includes the whammy/bridge play. Vinnie Caliuto on massive Gretsch drums, Remo heads, a keyboard guy and bassee. Chick came out and wailed on a couple songs, she basically sucked. Bach all nite on just one white redwood fret strat, presumably his signature model, w/metal nut (and wide fret board), into 3 marshall heads, 4 strait faced cabs, a bare foot wah and something else (custom flanger?) on the floor. No discernable pick all nite. A slide, a half slide that is, sliced longitudeanally, not lattitudedanally. Weird. Some shit w/the slide on the rite hand. Tons of space, jazz and prog, but ultimately rock and royal, he knew when to throw in the blues. Sold out with bald white guys who play the guitar, lotsa hix from the subturds one must assume. Some women, almost exclusively the long-suffering g/f’s of the former.Good sound. We were upper loge hard left, rite in the very loud face of the left side flying spkrs. At one point I went to the very highest part of the rafters, back to the back wall of the joint, and the sound was actually excellent there (high rite.) We made it to a space over the soundboy’s left sholder for the first encore, and that was excellent sound also. We made it to the floor for the last encore and the sound was, well, loud. The Warfield (no longer the SF Weekly) is an excellent hall. Little E was ushering: “I’m a HUGE Jeff Beck fan!!!!,” he said.Sund, Ape 16, 2006: 4-16-06: Chameleon, 7 bux, some overflo from the sisters of perptch indulgence in the park, wearing rabbit hats, otherwize pretty crowded w/mission hipsters. opening band, “Blackbird Stitches” was a fender bass (Paul from the Pacific N/W) w/one p/u into an ampeg? Lead singress she was on a martin? they were great. tobias said he saw her at a house party last nite,. and he's selling photo shots to AP (he took several at the gig), anyway, she was into the SWR, not he, then “vermillion lies”, a tele, a bull fiddle, a violin (w/wah) a great singer, everyone had hats, lotsa chicks, an accordian, this was good and i left before our heroe's the neighbors, the headliners, “El Radio Fantatstique” . Friday, Ape 28, 2006, Benders, Free (and $1PBR’s) Scawnies and Deranged Pussy. place not really crowded. Drummer guy, dan armostrong see threw (she had a leapord skin dress under the see through guitar) into a fender 4/10?, kinda asian babe, then another guy, on a massive sunburst p, into a g/k over a 4/10, good, and the song writing was excellent!, babes all over this one, and nice guy on drums wearin’ a tee shirt that said: scrawniees’, the name of his band, then up jumps the Disadvantaged Pussies, a Trannie, a cutie on blak studio les paul, and dude on real les paul and a monster babe on drums…..this was very cool also. A goi in the audience had a Tshirt on that said: “Japanese Punk Rock Sux”.. Kind of a biker/dyker crowder, some zester said I was cute.Sunday, April 30, 2006, Rite Spot, Django Obscura Free, 8 ocklock. Steve Farzan is an excellent guitarist was the good news here. D.O. is the guy Peter from the Quicksilver Reincarnation (green PRS), he also plays Jerry in the latest version of JGB featuring Melvin Seals, Steve Farzan calls him “my guitarist” and tonite he was on an acoustic cutaway, and Steve was on of all things, riddim guitar (and occasional, like all of one, excellent leads, one exactly, this guy is Mr. Music) drums (a friend said about drummie, “He played at my birthday party.”) and a seated red electric bass, opening was an excellent singer/songwritey whitey chick on J-45 (not soft shouldered) “Denise Sunari”. Not crowded. Django was pretty fuckin’ good, included a singer on a couple songs my buddy knew the songs, and the words. I had no idea. Steve writes: Pete plays an Ovation accoustic with a FISHMAN amp and a FISHMAN pre amp unit. I play a Santa Cruz D-model made in europe in maybe 2001 or 2002 and I use a German AER amp Charlie Harris , ( petes older brother ) Plays a guild bass, and I dont know all the specs...Yeah , Pete and I have been playing together in one form or another for 25 years..Sunday, May 14, Red Devil: 8 buox: InverteBrates, of all People, at the Red Devil Lounge and you best bleve me an Cel got comp’d,Then 10 bux fo 12 gals, may 24, 2006 and dug and his acoustic nervous thumb wa GREAT? So wasy Houston on “punk rock tambourine”, callin alls was good, and pat johnosn. Doe kinda suct ona 12 string taylor. Jackpine Social Club Presents:A Tribute To The Replacements with- John Doe- Penelope Houston- Kelley Stoltz- Dirty Power- Doug Hilsinger- Oranger- The Fabulous Bob Reed- Calling All Monsters- AM Magic- Tim Mitchell- Dan Carr- Denise Campanaro- Pat Johnson- Jeffrey Luck Lucas- Eric MoffatTickets $109PM SF Sat, May 27, Sund May 29. Free. Carnival The Mission (Harrison and 23rd Street Fare], The cool floats featured 4 out of 6 guitars' being strats (one other was a Godin, and I don't know what the 6th was). All basses were elaborate custom 5's. The Bolivians favored tiny Uke-like guitars. One of the better floats was Sistas-Wit-Style and New Release Band. Loco Bloco was also very good "Locolandia" they said on their flyer. At the carnival itself, one of the better bands on saturday was The Ray Obiedo and the Latin Jazz Project w/Pete Escovido(Shiela E's Pop) featuring Ray on his blue sunburst humbucker in the bridge strat into a boss multieffector and a black face twin. Bass, guess what: an elaborate custom five, female keys, horns from hawaii, drums from amsterdamit. Light skinned band. Very good. They did one of the better (of two) "Low Rider" allusions today. One of the following also did a "low rider" quote: Morenada-Bolivia or SambaDaAlso but not nearly as well as Obiedo. Also great on Saturday, w/a red strat, 5 string bass, quasi-reggae ton stylings and key, from trinidad and tobago we had JMC Triveni & Mas Makers Massive. On Sunday, Free. Sila & The Afro Funk Experience was okay, but not great, w/beth custer's guitar player. Better by far, even than yesterday, was Pete Escovtich, w/Ray Obiedo and none of the others from yesterday, except the drummer who is from Amsterdam, as it turns out. all in suits and ties. A Custom 5 on bass, rielley, like everyone's been playing all wkend: custom 5's. Word up. Junen 8 07. Free, El Radio Fantastique, my downstairs neighbors at café revolution. Packed. Giovianni on harap, guitar, theremin and accordion and mebe somethin’ else. His dame on keys and vox. No cello but the dame on violin. Trombone who also played accordion, stand up bass and drums w/brushes. Mega phone and perx. Then guitzy w/harp, flute/oboe (chick) violin (chick) drums. Then they did a Dylan tune, that guy w/ the guitar. Then they did a ckikc cham w/out him the song I walked out on wa a bass (bowed) and bass (plucked) double bass solo. Stnd ups. ExcellentSat. June10, 07 Free, Amoeba Books, 3 Guitarists, one of whom sang, sitting in a circle in this bookstore, surrounded by books, not more than 10 people there, the show was hush hush cause they were playing a paid gig at hemlock that night all in support of a John Fahey tribute album only one of them sang, but they each did one, then sat while the next did, I bleve this is called a song cycle. The red head brit bitch on high pitched vox shit on a six cut away was my least fave. Sean Hayes from brkly, did some blues influenenced Jorma-esque stuff, but him still learnin’ dem. Then this brit naemed james broxley (?) on a finger pikx 12 string and this was sublime, sparkly, dynamics, great voiceings, slow/fast, quiet to a whisper then bang bang bang. Very Very impressiveSun, June 11, Free Hae Stree Fair free. Marcus James(?) acoustic slide and singer, versus african harp/ghord perhaps a Kora, thing into a boogie!, ghord drummer, and a didgeridoo/maracas guy. Pretty cool. then. The Twots were an excellent custom into a marsh half stack, a cool singer practically flopping out of her halter top, but she had tape on her nips, and a very skinny P-Bass into a Carvin? Something cheesy, and a drummer who mooned the audience and threw about a million drum sticks into the crowd on Masonic, then merl (actually just him son tony on great [!] bass) on stanyon a smokin’ 5 string bass, lead singer a whitey on vox and acoustic, and a drummer. Flipper was a great sing along punk show,now this was good, whitey w/very long grey dreads on a strat, a bass player who traded on and off bass w/another guy, they lead sang when not bassing. And Ben on Drums. Very good, actually, and at the end they threw a bunch of drum sticks. I think there was another band in there throwing T-shirts and someone was giving out (aledgedly pretty decent) ganja cakes. Wednesday, June 15, 2006 $6, Hemlock 3 bands, I was there to see Bee and Flower. Dana “Gift Horse” Schecter on lead vox, a “bunch of germans” including keys, a percussion/drum machine, a trap set, a bassie on the gift horse bass and a violin player. Oh, and Dug "gift horse" Hilsinger on the first 4 songs. He was seated, played the Kramer is it? w/much abused whammy and slide on the last three songs. The first one featured a screaming lead, and ya know what? For a second there, it sounded like gift horse and all was right in the world. Then for the rest of the set some other presumably german guy played (seated back to audience) a tele (?) and lots of slide and the band built on what dug had laid down until they hit a couple crushing crescendos on the last couple songs, dana practically writhing on the floor, belting out the lyrics which I couldn’t really hear. Good songs. Not too crowded. Dug’s friend videoed it and said, “I don’t think they’ve played together in public since Gift Horse.” This one gets double thumbs up. Up what, you don't wanna know.Thurs, June 15, Eagle, 5 bachs…”Southern Girls”, a Hilsinger Cheap Trick Cover band extravaganza: great dug on screamin leads, same (Kramer? Cherry sunburst, w/bigsby) guitar from last nite, into a marshall head (?) and Peavy (?) 4/12 (?) not too many stomp boxes, but one was a Boss DD-3 or so (?). good dude from the Eno band on Dean Markely sunburst Flying V, some (not bruce) drums and some (not Maurice) bass….this was so good as to be laughable, some of the deeper belly laffs commin’ from this screamin screatch dug launched in the midst of this one solo…Man, this was LOUD! Ring factor the next day pretty high, despite both ear plugs and paper ontop of that with a ski cap pulled over that. But I was up front. okay, twas a P-Bass, Riels and everyone was wearing wigs and dresses. Some of them complained about the wigs and the bassie tore his off at the end. Not too crowded. Then up jumped a great Judas Priest cover band and then a friggin Kiss cover band, complete with make up and leads till ya puke. The guitarist in Kiss stuck a roman candle in his guitar peg head at the end and almost blew the roof off. Despite this Priest was a little better than Kiss. Not crowded, but a very cool, mixed, and mixed up, crowd, some drinking mixed drinks. Sat. June 17, 2006, Cyclone 5 bachs which I didn’t even consider paying for one second, this being my home turf more or less or something, but which my friends (4) all paid. They left after 10 minutes but I stayed to the bitter almost end, so you do the math. Billed was Knife and Fork who didn’t play (my reason for not paying), but Bee and Flower did, w dug on the first 4 songs, I thought they were great and my friends wanted to kill me for ever even mentioning them, but I thought they were even better than thurs nite at jah eagle and easily worth to me all my friends' admissions, so, friends, I owe you. "Too slow" for their tastes they said. I thought it to be beautiful and melodic. Either they or I was WAY off on this one. Captured By Robots (unbilled) opened with Capture on Drums so funny I was laughing out loud at one point, but he was ultimately too loud and kind of annoying. Also playing were the Enablers, not as bad as the last time. Not crowded, but Eagle Sperm Cannon (he has a habit of leaving even before Rielley does) and Bruce and Laurie Hall (of course) were all there. Dug was great and Dana’s band was brilliant, good songs, good playing, but my friends all hated it, so maybe I’m deaf. Riel’s comes in with the bass rig: “Bass rig was a Hiwatt 100 watt with 4x12 speaker cab (by Hiwatt) with Dana's 80's natural Stingray 4 string.”June 22, 2006, 8:30pm Amnesia Gaucho Django Band on the longest day of the year, a scorcher bringing out everyone. Free, tip jar. Place pppackeddd, they did a good “Nuages”….Gaucho tonite was a hodgepodge of guest drummie, bull fiddle, guest female fiddle, that guy on the cherry sunburst acoustic national, mike on django guitar, and our hero, Ralph carney, brilliant as ever, yawn, but best of all on amazing vox (“Awl of Me” and a breakneck [“It was so fast:”] “Honeysuckle Rose") was our heroine, you know the one, known as ‘Baby Lam’, we know her now as Emily, from Emily’s Hot Nut’s, let’s hear it for….Emily was carrying around an enormous Rabbit head and you could wear it (in the heat).....She said she got it this morning at the costume shop wear she works. Her voice is really weird, even speaking. She sounds GREAAAT! She's doing a voice over of a Betty Boop as a side project. And she looks GRRREAT! Her band, Emily’s Hot Nuts is playing Rite Spot on July 3rd. Marcus Something or other came on afterwards, notable for the tobacco sunburst 335, but into an silver face twin, and otherwise, just jazz.Okay, this was outstanding. There’s been a gay pride march for years and then a while back the dykes felt left out so they have their dyke march Saturday night. Now welcome to the second annual Tranny March. Now this, on the yard dem wah some shit. June 23, Dolores Park Free. Tranny March Concert featured a couple excellent punk bands, then a standout (I caught no names:) a left sunburst epi les paul So Cool!, back line (sound by Jornan) 2 marsh half stacks and a half SVT. Bass a Ric, lad, er LEAD, guitar a thinline, big “gal” on drums. Everyone a tranny. High point: Lead singing tranny singing (not the beatle tune) “I wanna be your man, I wanna be your boy.” She was excellent. Introduced lead guitar tranny as Frank Doe. Another great line: “Trannies: We suck better, we fuck better.” Another “We’re intrasexuals.” Frank Chu was there and managed to make it to all the t.v. coverage of the event. Everyone in the huge audience a tranny. This was not a bunch of gawkers going to check out the freaks….this was a park full of freaks. Some anti-gay slogans as gay is, I guess, considered a cop out by some trannies. (?) We’re not boys, we’re not girls, we’re not gay, we’re “gender queer.” “United genders.” Very well dressed crowd to say the least. There were also a couple rap bands. Jay Leno the supervisor spoke and then Kamila Harris the DA did and she got picketed for arresting trannies. We then all marched down Dolores street for tranny rights. Friday, July 1, Hemlock 7 bux! Jibz Cameron from Los Super Elegantes is now in a “band” (solo performance art to recorded trax basically) called Dynasty Handbag. It was PACT and she’s a genius, and this, tho’ no super elegantes, was mildly hilarious. Eli from supers produced her cd.Sunday, July 3: Potrero del Sol parque: Free. Trashtronix (myspace.com/trashtronix) was the red strat with only two humbuckers, a farfisa kinda sounding keyboard and a bass player, these guys jammed and the lead guitar woman was excellent, then another female guitar fronted band just her and a drummer, she played a PRS at one point they may have been called "Crystals?" then yet another female guitar fronted duo: Tartufi and they were excellent, everyone was. That was the last Trashtronix gig. Not pact, very pleasant in the park.Sat. Jul. 15, Lidia’s Roof Free: Stir Ups Country and Fugus (?) Mexican. All very good, cops called twice.Wed. Jul 20. Free Amnesia: Gaucho: No singer just 2 guits, an accordion, drums and bull fiddle. Very good, even w/out Ralph (at Camp Mather) and w/out Baby Lam (?) Crowded but not pakt on a beautiful nite. Sunday, July 23, Free, Precitas Park. Good live hip hop at the Mural Show. Les Paul, Peavy Bass, woman singer and guy up front too.Sunday, July 30, $12 (but I was on guest list, thanks Tim!) Café Du Nerd. Paul Green’s School of Rock Allstars came to town for a 3:00 pm show. This is that rock school of all those movies. David Hooper, 13 year old son of Tim Hooper, whom I hadn’t seen in 25+ years was the youngest of a band the oldest of whom was 18 or so. David plays sax and keys, also in various configurations were a strat, a shred sled, a bass, another keys and drums. They played various cover songs in various configurations, one heavy metal circus on a fretboard (that kid was great!) "Time Warp" from rocky horror picture, and various other representations of different genres including sensitive singer songwriter etc etc. Believe it or not, and I wouldn't have, this was surprisingly, dare I say, excellent. Mike Knealy, Zappa’s guitarist sat in on a song cause he’s thinking of opening a franchise in SoCal. Tim looks great, his son is a great kid and kind of a hot dog. Good musician, of course. There was a LOT of Fender on stage, Tim insists there’s no sponsorship going on. Kneally had a couple almost comically excellent solos, but the surprise here was how good the kids were. Green’s kinda a trip wandering around on stage, directing the kids, very much the school marm of rock. Place mebe half full, lotsa kids, duyuh. They’re on tour, up and down the West Coast in a bus. 3 Parents come along, I think the kids pay something like $500 to take part. They have to qualify, only the allstars get to tour. My other old rock buddy adi wrote: “And the school or rock all star drummer (or one of them, anyway) is Zack Miller, the son of an old colleague at the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.”Friday, Aug 4, 12 Galaxies, $12, Loop Station opened for That One Guy and some other guys, but we only stayed for Loops. Robin was hella late (“It wasn’t my fault.”) so we were treated to a rather long Sam solo (not too many foot switches on this one, he just kinda winged it on electric cello (into a fender blues deluxe kinda thing) and it was excellent, then Robin showed and they did there thing, at times it was transcendent, this was a very good one, almost all new songs, place got crowded as the show progressed.Monday, Sept. 5 Oakland Art: Bunch, the best being Angie Stone, place to crowded we had to leave, but her beat was excellent, 4 backing vocalists, drum bass guitar (only whitey) and keys. She’s older than I thought and has a HUGE voice. Good songs. Saturday, Sept 9 Sharon Meadows: Michael Franti and Spearhead’s Fifth or sixth annual Power to the Peaceful Concert Free. Franti was okay, better riddim section than I recalled, but the heroes here were Blackalicoious (from Okaland I bleve) turntablist, huge rapper, backing vox, maybe a guitarist or bass player, definitely an excellent drummer. Funky melodic hip hop songs that most the audience seemed to know and which I kinda recognized – either that or they were just that catchy.Concert audience an over the top showing of hippies, pretty crowded for such shitty weather. Also saw Nu Monsoon which featured a banjo and a screaming lead SG, kinda sounded like zappa. Bunch of other forgettable hippie bands.Friday, Sept 15, Eagle, 9th Anniversary, Free, w/Tons o free Food. The Cinammon Girls. Excellent. Except for exactly one song (the third) which kinda stumbled, everything was amazingly tight...bruce drummie pounding away, dug screaming lead after screaming lead. Okay, I think I’ve finally figured out what that guitar is, it’s more or less an Elliot Easton signature Kramer with an aluminum neck. It’s not on their web site, so this must be a very rare version. Band was Dug (he’s pared it down to just 5 or so stompboxes), Bruce, don’t know who had the P’bass into the massive Boogie cab arrangement, and the guy from Dirty Power, I think is name is Patrick Goodwin. Anyway, Patrick’s an amazing riddim guitarist, at first on a red les paul into a combo, then they took a break, but only cause dug broke a string. Patrick came back with a huge gretsch orange hollowbody (falcon?). He took exactly one (nice and tight) short solo all nite, but he’s a great riddim player and he and Dug sang very well together. Opened with an excellent Mr. Soul, the jams in Alabama and Southern Man were out to launch, psychedelic excursions that Neil Young only wishes he were capable of. Ohio was great. Place not too crowded, band not too loud (for them). At one point, out back there was an enormous bare chested woman shoving pieces of meat into her mouth straight from the grill with her hands, juice running down her chin and onto her enormous chest and belly. Band came on around 10 or so, they were still going strong at about 1:30 as we left.Saturday, Sept. 23, SF Civic Center Plazzy. Free. This was a crazy street fair supoosedly feateruing grand master flash. Fuck techno. Lotta freaks. Massive attach, massively absent. Get down with your techno idiocentric selves. I left afer exactly one lap.Sunday, Sept, 24, Paramount ina Okalnd, Jeff Beck, for like a bazillion dollars and worth every last one. No this was hella tite. My seat was “B-12” front row of the balcony, wedged between Biker and Surly. W and T were up by G124, much mellower, great, loud but clean sound thru out the house. Made it to the floor for the encores, and the sound down there was louder. Ear plugs for mebe the last ¼ of the show.White strat, metal nut, not lace sensors, rosewood fretboard, neck looked almost like mahogany from the back. 2 Marshall heads (a third was not lit up), into 4 Marsha cabs, and to the left (and I think this was his main rig) were a buncha fender heads ‘n’ stax.he switches back and forth or even blends them. i've always only seen him thru marshall. i was guessing the main rig to be the fender cause when the show was done he went over and turned the fenders off, it's probably rather that they were the main rig for the last song. kinda funny gesture, that, mega rock star taking the trouble to turn off the amp. Pedals out front, a chorus, a wah, but mainly t’was him hands, some pick, more tonite than last show (at the wharfield when he only ued it on one song)The right handed slide extravaganza...good but not as great as last time. But this was a very good jeff beck show, or as good an any one show one might hope to see this year. Brought out his female who sang a couple songs, split, then came out and sangered a couple mo’. Beck had stunning (big thumb) solo after stunning (big thumb) solo. Day in the life was one of several first encores, the second encore set was a solo somewhere over the reindeer. All the hits from Blow by Blow, Wired: “Blue Wind,” “PorkPie” and an Exquisite! “B-cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”! opened the floodgates for many an eye waterhead in the pool dere. The best of his latter stuff too, not so much techno, the reggae of "Behind the Veil" (that was the rite hand slide) and mournful "People Get Ready" -- saving the best for last with an incendiary version of Freddie King's blues stomp "Goin' Down."This was over the heals and out to launch guitar solo heaven....Beck would get insane grooves going, take a solo, let a few bars go by, take a solo, move to the front of the stage and take a solo. Then, step back, take a solo, ending with a whammy bar freakout, and seguing into another guitar extravaganza. Then would play a guitar solo. Lotsa blues type vamps, all with amazing guitar solos in dem. Place not sold out, tix to be had on the floor for 35 via craigs list, I’m not even gonna tell you what I paid for my seat. Beth Hart on vocals on mebe 5 songs, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums his set had “I Hit Things” written on it, Jason Rebello on keyboards and Randy Hope-Taylor on (music man 4 string into a svt? And a wall of amps – not marshall – whose name was written in big gold letters on the cabs but was obscured by bassie standing in front of it, beganw with the letters MA?). Bassie Hope-Taylor replaces Pino Palladino, who was recently swiped from Beck's band by The Who. Said Beck: "Roger (Daltrey) lives about 5 miles away. I was going to fix him up so he couldn't sing."Friday October 6, 2006, at 7:00 PM at The Warfield Theater. You + a guest are confirmed for the All-Star Tribute to SF Music, Past and Future.No, this was bizarre, a very well funded benefit for free? I never understood those things. The invitees (I was an interloper, the invitees were industry bigwigs, I just responded to an email address buried in a newspaper article) were treated to free food downstairs, I was upstairs. The upstairs was practically empty, but the bar was packed, there was even a (decent) jazz band out there in the bar between sets. (Live music by the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet in the Jazz Lounge, upstairs mezzanine bar) .This was strange! Walking in I was handed a little pouch with the THPro Logo on it: ear plugs. How thoughtful.First set a bunch of local bnds, one called mud, one called Bean(?) they were all pretty good, all hard rock. Then a longish break and then out comes slash kicking ass, mostly doing covers, some led zep. He did “Take me back to paradise city where the grass is green and it has big titties.” that GnR song. Scott Weiland sang. Joe Satriani traded licks. Over the top guitar soloing all night, and yuh know what? Slash is alright. He kinda shoved Satriani aside. Satch on his Ibanez, only red. Slash on a bunch of (duh) les pauls. The backline was marshall, boogie, and a peavey 5150 stuck in there somewhere, and I believe a fender tank reverb. All stacks, and miles of them. Also an SVT, the bass player whoever that was (I mean for the finale see below) had a P 4. Opening were about 5 local bands I had never heard of. Two drum set ups for the finale, one was Ulrich’s. The other was traded off(?)Out front, waiting to get in (the guards apologetic, saying “you’ll be inside in 5 minutes.” How often does that happen? Out front in the grime of market street at fifth, waiting to get in we were entertained by A performance by Down Beat magazine award-winninghigh-school jazz choir Singappella. They were kinda good.There was an auction before I got there: The Magnificent Music Memorabilia silent auction, with packages from Green Day, The Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, the Hard Rock Cafe, and many more.Then the finale: A Tribute to SF Music, featuring> Camp Freddy and a list of All-Star musicians you've neverseen together on> stage:In addition to Slash (who was not billed)> * Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver)> * Chris Chaney (Janes Addiction/Alanis Morrisette)> * Billy Morrison (The Cult/Circus Diablo)> * Matt Sorum (Guns N Roses/Velvet Revolver)> * Donovan Leitch (son of legendary folk singer Donovan)> * Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind)> * Steve Jones (Sex Pistols)> * Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray)> * Lars Ulrich (Metallica)> * Chester Bennington (Linkin Park)> * Joe SatrianiThen as we left we were each handed a bag containing a: cool TShirt commemorating the event, 2 guitar picks, a button, a sticker, a cd. Too cool, and all free! Dennis McNally listed as PR on the event’s web site – with his AOL email address and cell number.Saturday, October 07, 2006, Free, Golden Gato Park, Hardly Strictly Greengrass: Earl Scruggs is a million years old, they should put old boy away. He had a Gold Banjo, but didn’t really play much, sitting in the rear perhaps in a wheel chair. His bass is his son, (custom 4 into a SVT half) sang and lead the band pretty well. Then TBone Burnout with Jim Keltner and tho’ dubious and skeptical, I ended up impressed. Keltner on amazing! drums! He alone was worth the price of admitting this. Some bald guy on standup bass, mark ribbot on amazingly great! atmospheric guitar (slide, echo, all kinds of shit on a werid dan electro) and a keyboard guy. They did a dub tune. Have I said yet how cool Keltner is? Maracas in his snare stick hand (apparently a signature move). He can ride a cymbal like none other. Looked like a Schoeps on the hihat. Ribbot was good too and got some applause after his solos.TBoner played a bunch of dan electro guitars too, I guess he’s getting paid to. Beautiful venue, (the Star Stage) unbelievalble weather, crowd, sound etc. Sun setting and crows flying. Everyone else was off seeing Gillian Welch down the meadow so we could get right up close and personal. Then out comes Elvis Costello and he sang a gut bucket blues tune with these guys. Pretty well, too one might add.Then up jumps The Jerry Douglas Band. And this was some shit, probably the best guitarist all weekend and in three days I saw slash, joe satriani, bob weir, jorma and countless others. Douglas in Purple, sleaker and younger looking than we recall. Several dobros, strapped in horizontal style. Drums, another bull fiddle, a great lead player on acoustic, but once on a tele to round out the band. A fiddle and whereas I generally don’t care for the saw bones, this guy was excellent. Not a lot of singing if any. Did Douglas sing? He might have. He took a mini-lap steel stinging screaming lead and afterwards said, Sorry I had to get that outta my system. Quoted Hendrix (3rd stone) in the first song. You might like junior brown, but that’s just gymnastics. This was soul! Excellent cascading solo after E.C.S. Kinda Bluey grass set in a weird way, tho’ it was genre-transcendent: hard rock, country, you name it. Beautiful night only the first couple sets were marred by “the airplanes” as tbone called em. Sunday, October 08, 2006, Sticktly Blue. More fucking free music, ya know what? By now I’m by now getting sick of music, although it was a beautiful day. But I bit the bullet and rode my bike out to the park for yet another ridiculously great free concert. This is from Jorma’s web site: “The music was everywhere. It was one of those magical fall days in San Francisco in which a golden light surrounds everything.”I counted 13 black people all day in a crowd of 300,000. Even the dogs were white. Emmy Lou Harris, for whom this festival was founded (and paid for by billionaire investor Warren Hellman) made a shout out to this baseball player who founded the negro league hall of fame and he died on thurs. That was about the extent of the African American representation, but then this was bluegrass, not black grass. Yesterday TBone Burnout said something about lightness, but I don’t think he meant the crowd. Ceratinly no one on stage was darker than Alejandro Escovedo, 2 oklock on the rooster stage. Excellent. He’s related to Sheila E, Pete E and dem. A.E. on a black SG, accompanied by a guy playing a black cello, a guy on a black strat and a guy on a tobacco sunburst p, everyone wearing black. This was Excellent! Perhaps best band of the day (black) pedal steel in there too. AE is formerly of the SF punk band the Nuns, he then moved to alt country, and is now based in Texas, apparently with the big Hep C. He made some crack about pain medicines. B4 that, I had seen on this stage: Iris Dement, and she sucks, an unbearable, but very popular, esp. w/ a certain femail element, she’s a female singer songwriter, self accompanied, I didn’t even like her vox…. Before that was a certain Hazel Dickens, some Virginia (?) based trad bloograss singer who also inspired this event. She got invited up by Emmy Lou to sing a final song apparently on the final stage, after I had split. Then (on this stage, that is, keep in mind this is a 5 ring circus, stages popping off left and right, just climb that little hillock in the redwoods over there here in Golden Gate park to get to then next stage) TBone Burnout acoustic w/Elvis and this sucked major. On the Rooster Stage in the shade, on the hill tho, so who’s complainin? I was. Elvis can be great (electric new wave hits) or horrible (Burt Bacharach, anyone?) and this was the latter (suckery).Then the Flying Udder Brudders, so unbearably and undeniably weak. Back on the Grateful Dead Stage (the Arrow stage) and I hate them. Someone said they’re just a buncha rich fucks who pay their way on stage, but I think Jack Cassady sat in with them, prob. for the cash. Okay here comes why I was there: for the finger picken’ clinic from Jorma, same stage.But Jorma was dormant. He barely struck out…relying on that asshole Mitterhoff for the leads. Buncha new shit. A high light (hahaha) was “I see the light” Jack all over it on him gold epi, but there was a blown cue here, and this was supposedly the best song of the most promising Sunday Band. An extremely good version of (I’d never heard him do this one) the excellent les paul/mary ford song “blues, stay away from me.” But Middleoff took the lead on a (Gibson, duh) baritone. I Know You Rider to end it, all the dead heads – and there were a boat load there-- loved it, and at least Jorma took a couple 5th fret solos for Christ Saks Fifth Avenue, I was waiting for something like that. A Mann’s Fate quote in there for Saul Glass. Lotsa capo action, I dunno what that’s all about.1. That’ll Never Happen No More2. Blue Railroad Train3. Blues Stay Away From Me4. There’s A Table Sitting In Heaven5. I See The Light6. I Know You Rider7. Bread Line Blues8. I Am The Light Of This World9. Just BecauseJack and Jorma were the only ones to actually benefit from the blue angles. The B.A.”s came in during acoustic jams, stated their piece and split, and it fit, unlike with other sets this week. And it set up the perfect line from Jorma: something about Jefferson Airplanes. On his web site he says he used to like air shows as a kid and seeing the planes halfway thru the set almost brought tears to his eyes. (check the waycross song “aeroshow”)Jorma in Pink, soft shouldered Gibo. Jack: “I played here 40 years ago and it was freezing!” (today was hot and cloudless, great sunset) Jorma: “You don’t know, you can’remember!”Overall, Jorma was very disappointing, he might be done as a live attraction, who cares about barry mitterhourf? Jorma punting on almost every lead occasion. So I decided to give Richard Thompson another chance, and sauntered over to his stage now. But he still sucks. He’s out there singing about his boots and so fucking precious. He’s a decent guitar player but then so was syd barrett, no Richard Thompson is a dick and should go die, perhaps taking out all who love him in the same tommy gun fusillade.Then up jumps the Del Mccoury band over on the Banjo Stage, and they’re too fucking bloo grafs, so I split, for Richie Murray back on the Arrow (hippie – some guy was selling ganja candies there), he did his hit: “Kind Woman,” (well!) with him buddy smoking leads on a white strat (rose frets into a silver face twin) and guitzy’s son on great bass, good drummer. This is the guy from Buffalo Springfield (he had the tshirt but did none of their songs) and of Poco (lotta their tunes, ran into JC there who was all over this shit, but I was all like, who cares?) he was pretty good in an overtly hippie way, at least he’s still standing. then we moved over to the Banjo stage for Emmy Lou Harris, a sentimental favorite, did her Patsy Cline song: “Sweet Dreams” which was okay but painfully slow, and overall EMH was kinda boring, tho amazing pipes and good vibes all around, but who needs that, buncha white men singing and backing her up. Over on the rooster stage (wonderful redwood golden gate grove, sitting on the hill, in fact, he had a song about the hill) Robert Earl Keen. And he was okay, kindof surprisingly good. Remember how every singer songwriter who came along was supposed to be the “next” bob Dylan? Well REK is the Last Bob Dylan, thank god. No he really really sounded like Dylan, only with funnier lyrics. BGP was passing out flyers advertising the Dylan Show at the Bill Gram Memorial Auditorium, as a matter off fat. This show was produced by the staff of Great American Music Hall (make belive ballroom, Hellman’s an investor) and Slimm’s.Anyway, this clown was good, with him backwards trucker hat. Lead man, whom Tom knows some how, on a maple fretboard black strat, into a deluxe? Or a silver face was good, I think it was the deluxe. He was quite good, perhaps the best guitarist of the day and could sing. Lotsa fender tonite. This guy was, as Tom promised, was excellent: with a smoking (and long, no really, he wouldn’t let go of it, I thought it would turn into a cover of this song) China Cat Sunflower quote, (and Weir, the guy who came up with that riff is playing over the hillock on the next stage, too much!) And for some song by his boss that had nothing to do except perhaps the key with the dead song of the same name, whatever. Lotsa Grateful Dead Tshirts on old farts, over on the hippie stage. I had a tshirt from the Friday nite free slash show and I saw another elderly bald white guy wearing one too. The sunset was great but I had to split to the dulcet sounds of Emmmy Lou shouting “I”ve been to all 6 of these shindigs and I’ll go to em all!” Incredibly, there were so many bicycles there it took me 10 minutes to find a bike parking space!Fri, Oct 13, 24th and Mish Dancemission artstudio's outside wall, Free: www.flyawayproductions.comgood but not great. for me dance is kinda like rocket science (and unlike rock and roll), in that it is not much of a spectator sport. the music for this performance, however was excellent, no, brilliant, and the music woman Carla Kihlstedt, was the real star. the part she composed with an auctioneer as vocalist is simply brilliant. gongs, keys, real trap drums, textures, the sound track was very very cool and apparently danceable. Plus the sound repro out there at 24th and mish, blve it or not, was excellent. good crowd, hipsters and first dates, but nuff nuff locals just passin' thru and kids. the setting was great too, people driving by almost colliding as they craned out their windows to check it out, buses honking, ambeelances roaring by.the dance itself is kinda, no is really, boring, i found myself hoping someone's cable would snap for some REAL drama. there are basically 3 segments: opens with 3 dancers in "cages" bouncing off the walls. then a single woman up top (this was the auctionner's soundtrack) throwing her hair around and threatening to jump. then the best, the final part, was two women dancing around a sideways table set with two chairs, very cool. move over to the west side of mishion street so they're right above you for this one. overall, i'd say it's worth seeing cause it's so weird, but don't expect a lot of screaming lead guitar in terms of overall audience satisfaction. Tues Oct. 17th Bill Gram Auditorium, but this was an Alternate Planet prod not a BGP, and the difference is palpable, carressable, loveable. We so prefer these APE guys to “BG”P….p-p-p. N.E.Weigh, Dyland’s last 2 years have been more or less all at alternative planet venues, which is appreciated. This time round, this was the second of two in a row here, at this joint in SF’s sfic center, on a muy beautiful night: $50.50 for the tix and another 10 or so for the cover charge. Chuck Berry’s birthday is tomorrow, so Diglyan did a rollicking Berry Rocker, sounded kinda like quotes of Blue Suede shoes thrown in there too on this one song well into the set. Dile came on at the quoted (thanks: “your friends @ alternate planters!) “8:40 and change” after a very loud opening band (from san jose?) who have a big hit which they played well and loud 4 songs from the end of their set. Dylaudid comes on without a backdrop, but the crowned eyeball came on as a backdrop for the 3 encores, later, after that. Dial-