Relisten

View NotesHere are Hodon's notes from Day 1

It's Rocktober and festival month..... and kicking it off, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, with Hodon sleeping in the trees and visiting Golden Gate Park during the day.....   You get the five he saw I guess... I stayed home on the beach!  Here's the quick Hodon report:

Manchester Orchestra -- this normally blistering Southern rock outfit was stripped down to 3 guitars and so brought their tasty songs for a much more discerning taste, but a great start for the weekend....

Freakwater -- The closest-to-bluegrass (really alt country) act for Hodon of the day, full form female vocals, nicely done.

Low (w/Trampled by Turtles for half the set!) -- this was great.  The venerable Low, indie rock from Duluth, played half their set as Low, and half their set with Trampled by Turtles, the slammin rammin pickers -- both from Duluth, MN!

Father John Misty -- this alt freak who writes some great songs was, for Hodon, at his peak yesterday.  Take away all the freakishness and the band chaos, strip the former J. Tillman down to his songs, his words, and his guitar, and his very unique songwriting, and you have one excellent set!  Of course, the problem of HSB started to rear its head during his set -- the free crowd, since they can bring in all the alcohol they want, and since they can drink all they want, and since they don't really have to care about the music, get louder, and louder.  I'd say at this set no more than 50% of the crowd were listening to the music, and the rest were in active, sometimes loud, conversation.  Fuck that shit..... so this guy is playing his fantastic songs, and you can see them for free, and you are going to ruin it for everyone who is there to see music?  The tape still sounds good but the talking is there.... and Hodon moves around a bit to avoid it.... but it's almost impossible.

Conor Oberst -- unless you don't like Conor, this was a fantastic set -- loose and tight in all the right ways, and a combo of the old and the new, classics all.  And the WORST fucking crowd EVER, EVER, EVER.  At this set, where Hodon was the oldest by 20 or 30 years up front, the kids poured in and then, many not even facing the stage, talked for the entire set!  If you can get over the talking, or more I suppose if you can imagine what it is like with a bunch of people talking while a great show is going on, well, there you have it.....  it's worth the listen, really....

Low

chairkickers.com	

Duluth, Minnesota’s Low presents striking vocal harmonies that represent perhaps 
the group’s most distinctive element. Critic Denise Sullivan writes that their shared 
vocals are “as chilling as anything Gram and Emmylou ever conspired on - though 
that’s not to say it’s country-tinged, just straight from the heart