Elvis in the Park

Elvis Costello performed in the park on Sunday in San Francisco as part of a free concert called "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass." MC Hammer was one of the opening acts on Friday. Allison Krauss and Robert Plant headlined friday night but I opted to watch the Sox game in Oakland. There were about 50 bands in all but I'd only heard of a few of them.
I heard that they had valet bike parking over the weekend in the Golden Gate park so I rode my bicycle over on Sunday. It was a short ride, mostly down hill, and I found the bike lot without any problems. They gave me a ticket and "parked" my bike for me. It took me a little while to find the Star stage but I got there early enough to get a patch of grass under a tree about 75 to 100 feet from the stage. I was fortunate that an annoying country and western cover band was playing, which probably deterred a lot of early arriving Costello fans from sticking around till the show. I read and ate some cranberries and pumpkins seeds I'd brought along.
Ben Kweller was the act before Elvis. I'd heard some of his much before. It was OK, generic but he had a good voice. He sounded like he was trying to be Ryan Adams. The fans started to roll in and soon I was surrounded by a lot of hippies and dogs and families with folding chairs and blankets. It was sort of annoying that I'd been there for about two hours and then some dumb couple shows up 10 minutes before the show and basically sits on my lap but I didn't say anything. I guess that's standard at outdoor shows.
Elvis came on at 2:30, as planned, and kicked it off with Angels wanna wear my Red Shoes. His back up band, roses and whine or something, wasn't spectacular but Elvis sounded great. He seemed into it too, bouncing around in front of the mic stand. He did a couple more standard Elvis concert tracks and then Wild Night
by Van Morrison. A lot of the songs were countrified, fittingly. A few more songs, then back to back great performances with Friend of the Devil and a track off his new album, My Three Sons. The latter wasn't received all that well but I thought it sounded perfect.
After a duet with some guy who's name I missed, Emmylou Harris joined him for Love Hurts and Scarlet Tide. The Tide was his last song, and it was a good choice. Emmylou can really wail. She was almost overpowering Elvis.

I picked up my bike, tipped the valet, and made it home to watch the Red Sox.
They lost, in 12 innings, but they won the series tonight in dramatic fashion with a Jed Lowrie walk-off single that scored Jason Bay from second. Now for the Rays.