It was accidental… really…
Three concerts in three days… and two dead authors…
Late Friday night… With two down, and one to go I am exhausted…
Two really good concerts, the next maybe better… this has however has
no effect on exhaustion…
It might be appropriate to see how we got here…
It all started with an announcement of a concert, the Big Ass
Hillbilly show, featuring Good
luck Thrift Store Outfit on an August Saturday… It is a show produced by the
owner of a local record store, Shelby Ash…, I am on his mailing list… I like
Good Time Thrift Store Outfit… Their song, Tow Truck was the theme song for the
recent cannon ball run to Florida… I
(and the wife) like Great American Music Hall, the venue… I was ruined… and I
bought tickets in late June…
Now, August… Mumford and Sons are playing in Monterey… they
announce a special Friday evening show, a benefit for the Steinbeck Center… in
Monterey… I buy two tickets and invite the daughter. It will mean a quick hard run after a day at
work, but it is possible, and I like Mumford and Sons, and have tried to get
tickets to events in the past… Now two concerts in two days…
Then, on Tuesday, before the Friday and Saturday concerts,
the lovely Tina announces that she has tickets to Brandi Carlisle at the Mountain Winery…
on Thursday, the day before Friday, and
Saturday… on each of which I or we already have concerts… Now three in three days… I look forward to all the music, all the shows, it is looking
like a long wonderful weekend… but it is also looking like a hectic slog…
Thursday… Leave work
at 3:00, closer to 4:00, or was it 5:00, to pick up Tina in Mt View… I rush to
make it in time… I am getting tense… I arrive in Mt View a little later than planned;
then, together we have a fast, very fast, faster than planned drive to
Saratoga, and the venue… The (free) tickets include VIP parking and hor d’voirs
at Club Masson… these are special good
tickets (no, Great Tickets)… We park… we walk in… we find a café or is it a grill, and order salads and adult drinks, find a table and sit, and relax. We are in the hills overlooking San Jose, the
Silicon Valley… near by are redwood trees… above on the hill are vineyards… We can hear the warm up act doing their sound
check… After the rushing and tension, the relaxing is especially welcome…
After a nice dinner (Ahi and Shrimp salad, me a beer, the
Lovely Tina wine) we find our seats, then go to the patio, aka Club Masson, where we find a table, the special hor d’voirs
and a private bar… (and bathrooms… private bathrooms can be important) The tempura shrimp are really special… there
is a cheese platter with a fig relish which with a bit of brie on a cracker
could be dinner on its own… There is a Cesar
salad, and other shrimp and other stuff…
The warm up band is the Barr
Brothers (4 members, from Canada, including a pair of brothers named Barr…) We watch from the patio, Club Masson… (who, we were once told, would "sell no wine before its time...")
We go downstairs to our seats for the main act… Brandi Carlisle…
We have seen Brandi before, at the Great American Music Hall, at Slims… Brandi
is special… As expected, tonight she was
special… She and her band were on… (the band included the twins, her long time
band, but also a drummer, a violinist (also Mandolin) and a cello… ) At Great
American it was her and the twins… they were lean and mean and came to play… at
Slims she was solo, but pulled in the warm up act, the Secret Sisters… (the sister’s
album was produced by T-Bone Burnett… it is worth checking out…) It was stripped down, intimate… you felt close
to the music… it too was good. But that
was in the past…
Thursday, with her full band, Brandi could preformed the
songs as heard on her new album… but
could also step back, and with the twins, or solo do other songs. Half way through the set they covered Bohemian
Rhapsody as a sing along… The last song
was Brandi solo doing Lenard Cowen’s Hallelujah… Tina teared up… we left
satisfied… we had seen great music…
Now, Friday… I am planning to leave work early… 3:00 or so… but due to work issues get away later… again,
tension… anxiety.. . get home, daughter (today’s concert companion) not yet
home… She gets home… we leave, headed
south in heavy traffic, but arrive before the show, early enough to stand in a
two block long line…
This time the show is different, a tribute to Steinbeck, possibly
American’s greatest writer, for the Steinbeck center… three songs, speakers,
reading Steinbeck, performing Steinbeck, discussing Steinbeck… and three really good songs by Mumford and
Sons… I find that I know the quotes,
quoted… Steinbeck’s writing seems to speak to me… making the evening all the better…
The evening, the music is followed by a two hour drive back,
interrupted by a stop in Salinas at In and Out for burgers and a caffeinated
cola… A burger goes real well with a
straight road and a long drive. Steinbeck
may have discussed this in the 2nd chapter of Grapes of Wrath…
Now, 6:00 pm, Saturday… The doors of the Great American
Music Hall open at 8:00… Show at 9:00… time to think about leaving (not leaving
yet… just thinking about it.). I suspect It will be a long night… dinner is included… dinner at GAMH is a
secret… buy dinner tickets, get seated first… ahead of the unwashed (cheap)
masses… many of them may buy food, spending as much as we have for our dinner,
but they are seated later, behind us…
Commit to the dinner, get good seats…
Eventually, into The City… (to those of us who have lived
around San Francisco Bay long enough to be considered “local”, “The City” is
San Francisco, none other)… Traffic again is bad, but we break away as we get
off the freeway… up Van Ness… left onto O’Farrell… past the Mitchell Brothers
theatre… (Hunter S.
Thompson, the original Dr Gonzo, (or was it Roul Duke, or uncle Duke of Dunsbary), the truth, the reality and the fiction are frequently difficult to identify, was
once their bouncer… He also can lay claim to the greatest of American authors... the inventor of the gonzo journalism... ) past the Great American Music Hall, and just beyond we
find a parking place… The concert gods
are protecting us…
After a quick stop at will call, we are shown in… there are
few dinner tickets, and we are seated upstairs, above the stage… The place fills slowly… we enjoy dinner and a bottle of wine… music
starts with the Harmed Brothers
out of Oregon…Chris Doud of the GTTSO is
sitting in the corner, signature hat, back to the wall, watching the merc table…
Willie T is nearby… the Brothers are
followed by the Trespassers out of
Mariposa… Then, about 11:00, (in the
p.m.) the headliner, the Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit comes on… They are rocking… they are good… sound is a bit
muddy, particularly the vocals…
Tina notices something I don’t think I knew, when at a
concert, I am happy… and recently I am often not happy… I need to work on that.
Music done, sometime after midnight, closer to 1:00 (am) we
walk out onto the street… it is less
than a block to our car… but in that short distance we see two drug deals, and
a midget dressed like a street walker, maybe a street walker… we didn’t take
time to investigate. Hunter S. Thompson’s
ghost was likely nearby… Ah! The lure of the City late at night… As the good Dr. said, “Buy
the ticket, take the ride.”
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