danieltbromfield, Author at Underscore

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Recap: Day 3 (Ft. No Fog)

4Oct

By danieltbromfieldNo Comments

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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Recap: Day 3 (Ft. No Fog)

On its final day, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass wrapped up with a phenomenal set of DJs and group acts — and there was no fog to be seen. For all the pride I take in my openness to different genres and approaches, one conservative thread lingers from my days as a classic-rock kid: I like to see technical skill when I see an artist or a band perform. DJs and rappers tend to bore me live, because what they’re doing in most cases is essentially hosting a party with their own music on a big sound system, and I prefer parties where I can actually hear over the music and talk to people. And I don’t much care for bands that can’t play; indie rock’s cult of amateurism exalts ethos at the expense of music. Of course, devoting the time and energy to an instrument required to master it is a steep challe...

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Returns to SF: Day Two (Ft. Less Fog)

For its second festival day of 2022, San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert series gave us everything we ever wanted — and then some. Imagine being Elvis Costello. You’ve got a body of work that’s touched the hearts—or perhaps more accurately the bile — of millions. Your first three albums are stone-cold classics, and even your weird experiments in middle age, like the bluegrass album or the album with the Roots, have their own fervent cults. And on the strength of that work, you can stand onstage at Hardly Strictly, play maybe three or four of your own songs, fill your set with off-key and haphazardly strummed Grateful Dead and Neil Young covers, and watch thousands of spectators eat it up. “I know you love me,” the 68-year-old caterwauled towards the end of his Hardly Strictl...

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Returns to SF: Day One (Ft. Karl The Fog)

The beloved, days-long San Francisco music festival has returned to the city — and with it comes the understanding that this outdoor concert series remains in a class all of its own. The first thing that hit me at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was how old most of the crowd was, and I think it’s as much because the artists skew older as because once you get to a certain age, you realize spending money on a festival ticket usually isn’t worth it. When you buy tickets to a festival like Outside Lands or Portola or Coachella, the experience of the show becomes as much about justifying the expense of the ticket as about the music, and past a certain price point, it just isn’t worth it. I covered Outside Lands for The Bold Italic and had a fantastic time, but I suspect that’s only because they got...