concerts - 1999

Arizona Jeans Music Festival: Jeremy Toback, Sixpence None the Richer, Better than Ezra
OCTOBER 7, 1999
Maritme Hall, San Francisco, CA
I didn't know that Jeremy Toback song "You Make Me Feel" that was on the radio, but I liked it and I liked the rest of his set. He was a nice singer-songwriter guy and he had a lot of passion with his little three piece ensemble. Sixpence was great. Way louder than I would've thought—everybody wants to rock out I guess. But they sand "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes" and it was fantastic and realize how much I love Leigh Nash's voice. BTE finished the night swimmingly. They were fun and jokey and were really into pleasing the crowd and getting us happy. There was a dance contest, the result of which I'm not sure I'm in accord. Nonetheless, they were pretty swell and played songs of the fantastic How Does Your Garden Grow A good time was had by all. At least by me.

Alice @ 97.3 Now & Zen Festival: Scrotum Pole, Fleming & John, Old 97's, Cake, Jewel
SEPTEMBER 26, 1999
Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
This was a pretty cool and pleasantly inexpensive radio station concert with a great line-up. I came because I was really into the Old 97's and Fleming & John at the time. Scrotum Pole was one of the morning DJ's band and they were fine if you like scream-singing and questionable instrument playing, but it was short. Fleming & John were great and played my favorite song off The Way We Are, "Sadder Day" even though Fleming made a comment about it being fitting even though it was Sunday—she sings it like it's "Saturday" but it's not so that was kind of silly. But I suppose so are F&G. She also reflected before singing "Ugly Girl" that no one's ugly and she just felt mean when she wrote the song. No need to apologize, Fleming. But I loved them even more when it was done. The Old 97's were as fantastic as I hoped and wanted them to be. Played "Murder (Or a Heart Attack)" crowd and the rest of their great songs. And then Cake came on. A revelation. A few months earlier I had disparaged their "Never There," but I sat at this concert and heard one of my-favorite-songs-that-I-don't-know-the-artist-of 'The Distance." I sat there asking Matt, "They do this song? I love this song!" And thus my love affair with Cake began. I loved their set and all their songs, and even "Never There" seemed better to me. It was great. Jewel not so much. I'm not a big Jewel fan. I really liked "You Were Meant for Me." She lost me with "Hands." Actually, she probably lost me with the five versons of "You Were Meant for Me" and I wasn't too fond of "Who Will Save Your Soul?" or "Foolish Games" either. But anyway, she was ok, but not anything great at this show. And at some point some guy may have called her a sellout, which I don't think was entirely untrue at that point, and then she said something to him and then somethign else to the effect of "oh, i made you cry" in sort of a mean voice. It was a little bitchy and diva-esque. That's all I'm gonna say about that. But Jewel lifts right out of the memory and with that, the concert was great. Also I got a free T-shirt, key chain, cups, and water bottle. Free!