These Hedwigs really want to see you this weekend

If you will not be joining the throngs descending upon Golden Gate Park this weekend for Outside Lands Festival, do not despair. There is plenty happening around the Bay including 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' Live, The classic GODZILLA, a Big Ass Hillbilly show, Cheech & Chong (and War) and the poems of Allen Ginsberg put to music.

(Although this is not to say, going to outside - Outside Lands and enjoying Paul McCartney from a blanket in the park isn't a good idea. Why not? You might even catch a renegade band playing out in the grounds somewhere)

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Cheech & Chong (and War) promise a smokin' good time

1) Friday August 9th 8pm - GODZILLA at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. The original, uncut Japanese version (with English sub-titles). Tickets $5.

2) Friday August 9th 8pm - Shelby Ash Presents: The BIG ASS HILLBILLY SHOW at Slim’s with Emily Bonn & The Vivants, The Muddy Roses, and Shani Chabansky. Info and tickets $15.

3) Saturday August 10th 3pm - Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Boxcar Theater. This show has been running to sold out audiences for several months, get your half price tickets on Goldstar! $18-22.

4) Saturday August 10th 7:30 - Cheech and Chong with War at America's Cup Pavilion. Get your half price tickets on Goldstar. $25-35.

5) Sunday August 11th 1pm & 3pm - Ginsberg in Song the Contemporary Jewish Museum. With poems arranged by Conspiracy of Beards musical director, Daryl Henline, performers include Afi Ayanna, Allison Fenner, Berel Alexander Steinberg, and Peter Whitehead. $5 Members; $15 general (includes Museum admission, advance tickets recommended).

Another year, another Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park. I (happily, these things are tiring) didn't get there all three days, but was surprised with a VIP ticket to Sunday, which was the BEST day to be there. Two words: STEVIE WONDER.

But first things first. We got there early to see this Italian dude Jovanotti, who was SUPER fun. His fabulously hooky song "Tutto L'Amore Che Ho" was featured on the festival's site and I just had to  see what his deal was.


Turns out this guy can rock a crowd, hard. His energy was infectious, reminding me of Manu Chao, like this video...



And guess who was playing? The Brother's Comatose (a fabulous local bluegrass band)! And I later found out that's where The California Honeydrops and Tumbleweed Wanderers had been playing all weekend, to pretty large crows! I'm glad that local bands got to play for the throngs in such a fun and quirky spot.

A totally oversaturated photo of Amadou y Mariam. With those colors I couldn't resist

He really did whatever he wanted. It was pretty obvious that the band was pretty used to Stevie changing the order of the setlist, calling out keys and songs, and teaching them (Beatles) songs on the fly. Everyone was having a ball.

Aisha Morris, Stevie's daughter is second from the right.

I was particularly mesmerized (as I often am) by his backup singers. Not only were they too hot for words, but Aisha Morris,  STEVIE'S DAUGHTER,  is one of them. 

Saturday August 13th was just another amazing day in San Francisco, after the fog burned off in the afternoon anyway. There was a perfect breeze and the sun was out and I had music all around me.

We bounced back and forth a lot today, just following our mood. On the agenda was OK Go, the Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, The Roots and Muse if we felt like it.

OK Go. I know the joke is that their music is nothing special, but I totally dig these guys for their continuous outpouring of creativity. Their videos are obviously incredibly innovative and fun, but they also do crazy stuff like play a whole song on the hand bells (like the video below). These guys are true artists and performers, in every sense of the words.

And let me just say that this might have been the one time in the whole of the weekend that I wanted MORE VOLUME.




Ok GO also cracked me up continuously calling the crowd a bunch of "dirty sinners", what San Francisco has always been known for. I can't say I disagree with them. He also mentioned how overwhelmingly white the San Francisco crowd is, can't disagree there either.

The Roots: So fun. I wish I was Jimmy Fallon and have these guys has my house band. They paid tribut to Fela Kuti, Guns and Roses, Zeppelin and some "Jungle Boogie."

Girl Talk: This is performance you really have to experience live to really get I think. Imagine all your favorite songs coming at you in enormous speed, sometimes only teasing you with one hook or one chorus. Some of the mash-up pairings are so awesomely funny. I need to get some of this for working out.

FOOD:
I ate this (I did not eat it all myself, in fact we couldn't finish it, it was too insane):


Good Lord, what is that you ask!? It's peanut butter mousse, chocolate fudge crust, candied bacon and caramel. Don't believe me?


The couple across the picnic table was eating this chocolate covered Oreo, marshmallow stuffed thing. It was too amazing not to photograph.


Later we also ate this from Criolla Kitchen : OMIGOD SO GOOD! Shrimp Po'Boy and Yam-Yam Tater Tots. I will definitely be visiting the restaurant in the Castro. Seriously... SO GOOD.


I did not eat this, but enjoyed the sign, imaging what these would be like:


Like I said yesterday, there were a ton of fun things to do not appearing on big stages. I found out more about the "mimes" I had seen the day before . Not mimes at all. Turns out it was a folk opera and installation called “Flotsam’s Wake” featuring Mike Shine and the Carny Bastards.


I enjoyed the banners in front of the Twin Peaks Stage. They were weird.



Theses lovely ladies practiced some yoga in front of us for awhile during the Arctic Monkeys and OK Go.


And an Australian sword swallower at the Barbary Tent. Crazy I tell you.


I'm skipping today's festivities to see Adele (rescheduled from last month when she was sick), which is okay by me, my feet are tired!

Outside Lands Fest was surprisingly fun today. It was a shitty typical cold and overcast day in San Francisco (just the way I like it!) and I got to see The Original Meters, Phish, The Shins, some acrobats, a drumcore samba brass band, art installations and hippies (both old and young).

Here's some photos I took, and maybe a video or two.

Phish - My friend wanted to get super close-up for the Phish set, so we charmed our way through the crowd to a pretty close up spot. It was totally worth it. These dudes are still so awesome. I saw them a bunch in high school and college and it was fun then and it was fun today.

And I just wanted to say, these guys are jamming their way into middle age and I love it when rockstars just look like normal people. I had to post this picture because Mike Gordon has the most awesome "play face".

And yes, I was very pleased to see that Jon Fishman still wears the polka-dotted mumu, this time with a hoodie underneath to keep warm.


Can't have a Phish show without balloons and beach balls...


The Original Meters: Art Neville on keys, Leo Nocentelli on guitarist, Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste on guitar, and George Porter Jr. on bass. George kept welcoming us to "Senior Citizen Fun 101" This was fun, but too bad Leo's amp kept getting out of whack. We got to hear some awesome jamming, but lost lots of time to hear songs. We did get to hear "Cissy Strut" though, and that's all needed. It doesn't get much funkier.



The Shins - Great. They played a tune off the record they are working on and almost done with. It was really awesome. Let's just say it had a little bit of a Caribbean feel to it...

And wait-a-minute, I believe there was a female guitar rhythm guitarist up there also doing backup vocals, does anyone know anything about her?

See all the lights in the audience below? This picture was taken during the first song when all of those cameras came out. So funny.


Inspector Gadje and The Loyd Family Players - found these local folks playing out in the open. Two bands playing as one: one part Eastern European Brass, one part samba/drumline. An awesome team. We followed them into the forest and into Cocoland.





Choco Lands: I'm not sure what was going on here, but I liked it. In the forest there were art installations all over the place: huge wind chimes with a rope swing in the middle (so that when you really got swinging the top of the rope would hit the chimes), a mime show, structures, parachutes... very Burning Man.







The Barbary Tent: with vaudeville, burlesque, acrobats, SF local boys from the Jazz Mafia as the house band, magicians, etc. Another perfectly SF addition and a great place to actually SIT IN A CHAIR. I'm getting old, standing all day is making me stiff.

This guy, Ethan Law, is doing one of those Cyr Wheel Cirque du Soliel awesome things. He's from SF's Circus School!


People - Because of Phish, the Burning Man vibe was strong today. Tomorrow will be another story (tomorrow is Muse, the Black Keys, The Roots, Girl Talk, etc.)





Oh, teenage girls at festivals: you are so cute, and yet probably so annoying to some folks. I remember being that excited about everything!



(This picture is a little creepy, but this little girl had the coolest face painting, and I caught this blurry shot right before she got super smiley for the cameras.)