Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Day Two

HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL

GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO

04 OCTOBER, 2014

Mavis Staples. In Charge.

Day two of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was taken at a more leisurely pace than the brutal day one, but it matched up in terms of diversity of acts and intensity. Fortune had us finding a base camp in the shade of the Towers Of Gold Stage, courtesy of a fellow NY expatriate and his lovely wife, which became lovingly known throughout the day as "Camp Mike". Deltron 3030 got things off to a magical start, the horn section providing an energy boost for Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala, and orchestra conductor Dan The Automator. The ever-reliable Built To Spill carried the flag. Even having just seen them at FYF Festival, one can never get enough of Doug Martsch and crew. Soul icon Mavis Staples, having recently celebrated her 75th birthday, showed absolutely no sign of it, as she charged through a set, balancing cherry-picked classic rock tunes with civil rights anthems, along with the de riguer Staples Singers standards. She was feisty and in form, and her crack band responded in kind. Mike Ness showed no signs of slowing down, and Social Distortion danced with what brung them there, as it were, sticking to the meat and potatoes punk sound that has galvanized more than one generation, ending with their epochal cover of Johnny and June Cash's "Ring Of Fire". In a gesture perhaps most symbolic of the festival, the message was that a great song can still take flight, even (on paper) in the most unlikely of hands, and you got the feeling, as the band stampeded the chorus, that somewhere, Warren Hellman was nodding along. Finishing out the day in style, Chris Isaak packed the Star Stage, and the hometown hero noted his six block commute with no small delight. He can still hit the high notes, his Nudie-style suits got a big thumps up from fashion cops in the audience, and his latter-day Orbisonisms went over perfectly in the late San Francisco afternoon. A perfect note to finish on.

DELTRON 3030

BUILT TO SPILL

MAVIS STAPLES

SOCIAL DISTORTION

CHRIS ISAAK

miscellaneous

Best seat in the park...

Greetings from Camp Mike!