Thursday, June 15, 2006

The sky may have been overcast... But the Stars were on stage!!!

Haight Street Fair Day: San Francisco: June 11, 2006:

At first, I was planning on not going... Not that I could escape it, unless I left the 'hood.... A slowly-recovering, soft tissue wrist injury made the thought of lifting 2x4's, stage-building and playing roadie all day, well... not sound as fun as usual.

But, as the crowd out on the street began to grow exponentially, I started to reconsider...and rationalize... Well, I do have a splint I could put on my arm... and I'll just not overdo it... (Historically, in these situations, I've often been the only girl...and not wanting to be percieved as contributing less to the job at hand than anyone else...I've pulled off some amazing feats of strength that surprised everyone... most of all...me.). Sheer determination does wonders.

So, I took Jessi the dog for a good walk and headed for the main stage. I'm so glad I've learned to heed my intuition... the show was incredible! I haven't been to many concerts in my life, thus far, and quite a few of my favorite bands/performers of all time no longer perform... The death of a member kinda makes any future tours unlikely if not a total impossibility.

But, today I lucked out, twice! I was fortunate to be present at a performance by two truly great bands: Touch Me Hooker and Flipper.

I wasn't familiar with TMH and although I had heard of Flipper, from seeing the band's name on flyers around S.F. quite a while back, I wasn't at all familiar with their music. (Although, I must say, the intriguing looking guitarist with the long dreads, looks terribly familiar to me - well, they are a San Francisco band...) (*Update: I now know his name is Ted Falconi*) A good friend informed me that Flipper was Kurt Cobain's inspiration for Nirvana (one of those all-time-faves I'll never see)... and after hearing them live...there's no doubt in my mind... If I could play guitar...I'd take off in a whole new direction in my life!

Touch Me Hooker was fantastic! High energy and spontaneous and the crowd loved them! Flipper was Incredible! Raw, heavy on the bass, high energy punk rock! The crowd in front of the stage was responding in kind...I even saw one guy dive the crowd and get carried aloft for a few moments... Being at this show is one of the high-points of my life, thus far. (Excuse me whilst I take a moment to gush...) I even got to shake Bruce Loose's hand!! ...Ahem...

Blah...blah...blah........ Here's some pictures! Enjoy! xo L.

(P.S....Much Love and Gratitude to Pablo and the entire crew that made this legendary event possible and have for 29 years. And thanks as well as to it's sponsors, supporters, the merchants, the SFPD and all who came to have a good, safe time and did!)