The Week in Preview

If you've wondered what the performers at Burning Man are like, here's an example: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping will be bringing the anti-consumerist gospel to R5 Records, 16th and Broadway, Thursday evening at 7. This hasn't been widely promoted, but it might be worth missing Sarah Palin's performance at the Vice debate to see. There are a number of clips on YouTube of Billy, but I didn't find one that summed his gig up quite as well as the promo trailer for the recent film about him, What Would Jesus Buy?



Thursday night, you can get your blues on big time with the veteran picker Guitar Shorty, who will play Vegas Nightclub on Second Street in Old Sac. This guy is the serious business...check out this clip of him down with da peeps.



But the big musical event of this week is once again in San Francisco, where the FREE three-day festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass will run from Friday through Sunday. Honestly, there is no other festival where you can see this many great acts for free. Nowhere. Doubt me? Friday night's headliners are no less than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss! Who else? Well, also on Friday, the brilliant bluegrass veteran Jerry Douglas! But it really gets going on Saturday, with sets by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes, Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis, Mickey Hart's Global Drum Project, Richard Thompson, Desert Rose Band, Dave Alvin, Nick Lowe, Robert Earl Keen, Odetta...you think I'm kidding, right? Not!

And that's just Saturday! Sunday, there's Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Scaggs, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Gogol Bordello, Kevin Welch, Greg Brown, Iron and Wine, Loudon Wainwright III, Iris Dement...anyone who's into acoustic music will go off their minds on this one. And again, it's free, in Golden Gate Park. For info, go to www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com.

Who to play? How about some vintage Emmylou?



Back in Sac (zzz), the Dark Star Orchestra will bring its reversions of Grateful Dead classics to The Crest on Tuesday night. They are, essentially, a Dead tribute band - and the singers can be every bit as "pitchy" as the Dead at their most mediocre, but that's alright...if you love the Dead, this is for you.



Also on Monday night, the retro pop group Mates of State will play Harlow's.



Goldfinger will play the University Union Ballroom on Thursday night, perhaps to wash that debate nonsense outta your ears. Here's Goldfinger, giving you a classic pop punk fix:



Back in San Francisco after the HSB weekend, David Byrne will be bringing a show of his collaborations with Brian Eno, from Talking Heads to the recent Byrne/Eno reunion album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, to Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday nights.



And finally, for the sophistos in the crowd, classic saxophonist Wayne Shorter will play Yoshi's in Oakland tonight through Sunday - damn, his sound and melodic phrasing is so completely unique. Amazing...



Oh, and there's that "So You Think You Can Dance" Thursday night at Arco. Whatever...
I'm out...