Review

The third annual Treasure Island Music Festival more than lived up to its promise and its name as it took over the man-made island in San Francisco Bay (and much of SF's SOMA district) for two days last weekend (October 17-18). With its abundance of indie rock talent including names like The Flaming Lips, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Brazilian Girls, MGMT, and The Decemberists as well as lesser known acts that made a big impression, the festival presented a mother lode of musical treasures to be sure.

The bands are what draws the crowds to the festival, and the stellar lineup came through in spades for the hyper-local production tag team of Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop Industries, with a complete sellout on Saturday and a more than ample crowd on Sunday. That came with some downside, as well, mainly the long lines to board buses to get on and off the island (more on that later). Once you got on one of the green and luxurious buses from Bauer Transportation, the spacious, complimentary ride made for a comfortable introduction to your festival day.

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It would be just as easy to write about the acts I wanted to see but missed at this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, held as usual on the first weekend of October at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, as to write about the acts I caught. And a list of the former would be considerably more impressive than a list of the latter.

That’s more of an observation than a complaint. With six stages (up from five) and something happening on at least three of them at any one time, seeing everything you wanted to see was possible only for people with a very specific and limited idea of what they wanted to see.

If bluegrass and only bluegrass is your thing, you could have stayed at the Banjo Stage all day Saturday and all day Sunday and been perfectly content. If you chose to avoid the big names and seek out the promising and the undiscovered — not a bad strategy, especially since that was probably the only way to avoid the often overwhelming crowds — a permanent perch at the Porch Stage, the smallest of the six performing areas, would have suited you fine.

[Photos posted. Article to come.]

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The 52nd Monterey Jazz Festival kicked off Friday night doing what it does best, showcasing jazz greats in all-star assemblages and introducing young stars into the pantheon. Bass-vocalist Esperanza Spalding made her debut appearance at the venerable festival, marking her arrival on the jazz A-list.

Spalding opened the festival's Arena Stage on a night that would also feature luminaries Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker and others in the jazz pantheon. Barron headed this year's edition of the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars, which also included Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Russell Malone.

Brecker and Lovano were featured as soloists with Conrad Herwig's Latin Side All-Star Band in a 50th anniversary tribute to two of the great jazz albums of all time, John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.

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Although we came to Turin for moe., The Heavy Pets and CAKE — all of whom fulfilled expectations — it was Ani DiFranco who truly intrigued us. After catching her at Bonnaroo and again at the All Good Festival, it was a pleasure to see her at a "venue" where, as she said, she "felt some rapport." In truth, moe.down is but a stone's throw from her hometown of Buffalo, but the attentive late Saturday afternoon crowd at the main stage also didn't have to travel far to be enraptured by her presence. She mused in appreciation, "you are an audience that really understands me," and indeed, her quirky, upbeat, and very personable onstage demeanor established an intimate connection with all in attendance.

It was a mere month ago that I was awed by The Heavy Pets for the first time when they played a 'tweener at the Dancin' In The Streets festival in Denver, so I was curious to see what they could do in an extended slot at moe.down. They didn't disappoint as they gave us plenty of hard-core jams in three full sets on Saturday. Having played together for less than four years, they have amassed a large repetoire of quality, original material covering only a handful of songs from "Whale," their acclaimed debut double CD.