Hardly Strictly Bluegrass presents Orchestra Gold
Towers of Gold Stage, Lindley Meadow
Golden Gate Park, 1100 John F Kennedy Dr, San Francisco, CA 94122 USA
1:00 PM, Friday, September 29, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• 1:00 – 1:45 PM   ♦   Orchestra Gold
• 2:30 – 2:20 PM   ♠   Christone Kingfish Ingram
• 4:10 – 5:05 PM   ♣   Lucero
• 6:00 – 7:00 PM   ♥   Dawes

HSB23 Promo banner

[12:58 PM] {Announcements & Introduction from Chuck Poling, Mariam & Erich out alone for the first tune}

1. [1:02 PM] ? »
   [add the rest of the band]
2. [1:04 PM] ? »
3. [1:07 PM] ?
4. [1:10 PM] Keleya (Jealousy)
5. [1:17 PM] Koniya
6. [1:24 PM] Gende »
7. [1:29 PM] Segou Heat
8. [1:33 PM] Dakan (Destiny)
   [1:39 PM] {EH merch pitch & gig promo}
9. [1:40 PM] Mali Senekelaw (with Tequila jam and band introduction by Luis)
   [1:46 PM] {set ends; more announcements from CP}

Orchestra Gold

• Luis Andrade: tenor saxophone;
• Patrick Cress: baritone saxophone;
• Mariam Diakite: percussion, vox;
• Erich Huffaker: guitar;
• Scott Keller: drums;
• Rhonda Kinard: bass.

Slow start this morning gets me worried, so I skip my gas refill in order to save time and get over to SF (this may become a problem tomorrow!). The drive isn't too bad for a Friday: just the usual mess from construction and other unpredictable occurrences that impede traffic flow. I'm too quick to park, pulling into a spot on 28th at Balboa, then passing two closer ones on my four block walk to the park entrance at 30th. There's no line whatsoever as I enter the park and pass through security, with only a brief pause to show my blanket and lunch to the guard who asks to inspect the pockets of my chair: sweet, I'm in!

I'm surprised to see how much the center meadow is filled in at the Swan stage, and again when I get to the Towers of Gold stage. Must be a bunch of hard core music heads here today! Practice and color-memories from prior years help me spot the right tarps at Towers, even though no one is holding court just yet. I park myself on the middle tarp, then get comfy while the band runs through sound check. By 12:30 PM a decent crowd has filled things in up front, and plenty of friend have arrived for the first act: Jon Hecht, Richie Zeno, Bruce W, Dave Helmand, Ted Mattes, and others all arrive in one and twos and fours until things are popping. Lots of happy people now.

Soon enough, Chuck Poling steps up to the mic to let us know it's time to dance, and then Mariam and Erich take the stage to start things off as a duo. It's really hard for me to grok Mariam's lyrics: most anything I write down ends up looking like nonsense syllables, and I'm not even sure I'm transliterating them half-way correctly into 'English' sounds. I'm definitely gonna need help with this setlist!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!