(this took place over the first weekend of October 2008 - mouse over photos for descriptions…on some of them)
It’s always a pleasure to return to San Francisco for HSB (that’s the cool way to say it). Despite weather forecasts to the contrary, the weekend was beautiful. We got to see some familiar faces, as well as a couple of new ones. We also had a few newcomers to the festival in tow - my sisters, Tracy and Lucy, and nephew, Eli, made the trip out west for a short vacation with us. Since our festival obligations really only amount to about 50 minutes, we had quite a bit of free time to spend - which was mostly spent wandering around the festival or looking for stores and restaurants.
One little bit of information that we noticed a few weeks prior to HSB was that MC Hammer was going to be performing (really pushing the envelope in terms of not being “strictly bluegrass”). Having been alive and cognitive in the early 90’s, this was big news. The main obstacle before us in our goal of seeing MC Hammer was that his performance was at 11 am. Not that that’s super early, but it’s a bit of a trek to get 5 people to the festival. Sadly, that trek proved itself too much for us as we miss the show by mere minutes. In fact, as we were approaching the festival site we could hear the pulsing rhythms of “U Can’t Touch This” in the distance. We arrived just in time to see the crowd clearing the area and heading off. The morning appeared to be a bust. Little did we know that all would be redeemed once we headed to lunch as Hammer himself was dining in the very same food tent as us. After Hammer was done with his meal, we attempted to coax Eli into asking for an autograph (who’s gonna turn down a 3 year old?), though Eli was as reluctant as the rest of us. Eventually he caught Hammer’s attention who happily obliged the young fan (fan may be a bit of a stretch as Eli never heard his music until after their meeting).
It seemed like that was gonna be it, but soon a conversation circle formed that included us and Hammer. Our good friend Dawn (she’s the one getting things done around there) introduced everyone and many handshakes were exchanged. Hammer was nice enough to let us get a group photo with him. I must say, one of the stranger things I’ve experienced was watching my Dad discuss the vice-presidential debate with MC Hammer. I definitely didn’t think I’d ever witness that while I was sitting at home all those years ago listening to my MC Hammer tape (that’s right “tape“).
So our brush with greatness aside, the weekend was great and we got to see a bunch of cool people. Getting to see Robert Plant sing 3 Led Zeppelin songs was a definite highlight for me. My sisters are big Iron and Wine fans so they really dug that. Elvis Costello was great too. Fats played steel with him.
Our show on Sunday went really well. We had a great audience - the biggest one for us at the festival. Everyone was pretty high energy and played great. I’ve mentioned it before, but these things always go by so fast that it’s kind of a blur, even right after it happens.
If you’ve never been to the festival, you really should try to make it out there. It’s always a great time. Thanks for having us HSB!!
