STERN GROVE

Every Sunday during the summer Stern Grove Festival puts on a series of concerts in an outdoor amphitheater out on 19th Avenue. The site was named after Sigmund Stern, whose wife gave the land to the city back in '31. With its natural acoustics she decided it would be a great location for a park and concerts.

Free concerts.

This has been going on since 1938, so almost 70 years of free shows in the city, which is pretty amazing. Seeing as this was the first time I actually made it out to a show since i've lived in SF, that's almost 8 years of missed free shows. Between my friend Andrea, who I went to the show with and who was also making her first trip to Stern Grove in her 8+ years in the city, we figured collectively we had missed roughly 175 worth of free shows since living in SF. As we walked into the theater, which is situated down in a natural bowl framed with large giant eucalyptus, redwood, and fir trees, on a beautifully sunny Sunday our lament was more or less summed up as we marveled at the hidden gem of the location and Andrea commented that more than anything it was just down right embarrassing that we hadn't been to Stern Grove before now. Seeing as Stern Grove is at most a 10-minute, straight-shot bus ride from our neighborhood, it was embarrassing indeed. Well, we can hold our heads up now.

It took the lure of seeing one of my favorite new artists, Jackie Greene, to get me out there. Given the especially warm weather, which I cringe to say was almost too hot given that it's often cold and foggy in these parts during the summer, the theater was brimming with picnics spread out on wall to wall blankets - you can bring in your own food & drink which is another nice perk - but fortunately we were able to squeeze in on the lower bowl with a great view of the stage. Jackie Greene, who was actually just the opening act for Mavis Staples who we did not stick around for, played for about an hour - jumping between the electric and acoustic guitar, the piano and organ, as well as the harmonica for good measure - all of which sounded even better live than on his discs. If you're not familiar with Jackie Greene his sound is a mix of blues, folk and rock. The only disappointment was that he didn't play longer and that he didn't play my favorite song of his, 'Gone Wandering' - which currently sits at #2 on my top 25 songs played (by play count) on my iTunes, which means I like/play the song a lot, and that Kristin is probably really sick of it by now. But otherwise he was great, as was the venue. We're hoping to get a full dose of Jackie Greene as the headliner when he returns to SF in November to play the Warfield. So if you're a fan, or want to become one, you should check him out.

And if you live in SF and haven't yet been to Stern Grove you should be, well, embarrassed.