The festival is warming up to its new location, and returning to its roots.
By CHRIS NIXON
Special to the Register
Friday, Aug. 4, 2006
Cue the eerie carnival music, the drag queens and the burlesque girls. A year after making the move from its traditional downtown spot to the wide-open spaces of Mission Valley, San Diego's Street Scene music festival returns this year with more diversity, more stages and a fresh perspective on booking bands and performance artists.
Headliners such as Tool, Snoop Dogg, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kanye West will perform alongside artists like the Lollipop Girls Burlesque, the Amazing Yard Dogs Road Show (oddball circus freaks) and Babette Schwartz's drag show today and Saturday at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Organizer and festival originator Rob Hagey decided to incorporate a few more world music and performance artists, formerly a staple of earlier Street Scenes.
"I think it's important to bring back some of the traditions we've had in the past," Hagey said recently from his office in La Jolla, as he and his crew prepared for the festival's 23rd year. "Thomas Mapfumo's music is total groove music. His music isn't going to alienate anybody. It's happy music and very much part of what we're trying to do with the festival. I think it's a wonderful way to introduce our younger audience to this great music."
Since its start in 1984, Street Scene has developed from a two-stage festival in a shady part of downtown to one of the premier music events in Southern California. By 2003, the festival had swelled to three days, drawing more than 100,000 people to its increasingly crowded downtown neighborhood.
"In 2003, we were over 100 bands on nine stages over three days," Hagey recalled. "Now we're two days and six stages. But the talent has gone dramatically up in cost. We've put more of a premium on booking bigger acts. With that, the production gets bigger and the price gets more expensive."
With downtown San Diego's growth over the past five years, Hagey and his festival were getting squeezed out by high-rise condo construction and the vestiges of the area's working-class companies. Said Hagey: "We were growing, and the Gaslamp and East Village were growing. There just wasn't any more space. There was not another place for us to go downtown."
So in 2005 Street Scene moved a few miles north to Mission Valley, specifically the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium. On any given Sunday during football season, Chargers fans barbecue their brats in the stadium's parking area. For Hagey, the space and time the venue afforded could not be matched if the festival wanted to stay in urban San Diego.
"We would have never had the time to set up this kind of scale and scope and production in any kind of configuration downtown," theorized Hagey, 55. "So not only are we gaining the space, but we're gaining the time to create and produce this event. And that's critical, because the event's scale and production have grown exponentially with the move."
Street Scene experienced its height of popularity in terms of ticket sales in 2004, when 105,000 music fans turned out to the festival's final year downtown. Last year attendance dipped to 75,000, suffering from public perception that the parking lot location would be hot and uncomfortable. While Street Scene doesn't offer green grassy fields like many of the other major music festivals throughout the country, it does offer convenience.
"In our opinion, it's right up there with Coachella and Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits," Hagey said. "It's really a question of people's perception of how a festival should be. One's in a field outside Austin, in a park away from the city. Bonnaroo is in a field between Knoxville and Nashville in Tennessee, basically in the middle of nowhere. And Coachella is in the middle of a very plush polo grounds in Indio.
"We're in the parking area of Qualcomm in San Diego, but we can take advantage of that," Hagey continued. "We have a trolley service that drops people within feet of the event. You don't get that in any of those other festivals. It's more of a party atmosphere, with the lighting and the bars and the urban vibe of the event."
Tool, the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and Kanye West all put on great shows. But if you're headed to Street Scene, you probably already know about those bands. Here's a few non-headliners not to be missed.
Today
Thomas Mapfumo
6 p.m., Fulano Stage
Affectionately dubbed by his countrymen the "Lion of Zimbabwe," Thomas Mapfumo, 61, continues to churn out his style of African "chimurenga" music. Despite failed revolutions and imprisonment in his home country, the Lion doesn't sleep on championing civil liberties while creating a party vibe at his live shows.
Wolfmother
7:30 p.m., Time Warner Stage
With a simple jagged scream in the opening seconds of his band's debut disc, lead singer Andrew Stockdale tells the world that his band Wolfmother has arrived, and they are ready to revive unmitigated rock 'n' roll. Channeling '70s muscle-car rock, the pre-punk angst of MC5 and Steppenwolf's hard-edged psychedelia, this Aussie trio rocked Coachella earlier this year and will most likely have its way with the Street Scene crowd.
Wu-Tang Clan
9:05 p.m., Zarabanda Stage
After Ol' Dirty Bastard's death in 2004 and Method Man's ill-fated acting career, Wu-Tang fans might gaze suspiciously at the current reunion. But the collective's 1993 debut "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" remains a classic, complete with Shoalin warrior references and tough East Coast-style rhymes. RZA, GZA and the rest of Wu-Tang still pack a punch.
Saturday
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
3:30 p.m., Zarabanda Stage
What's in the water north of the border these days? Apparently, the Quebecois have found the secret elixir for creating infectious pop music. Canada – specifically Montreal – has become the next hotbed for indie rock: Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Metric and now Margot and the Nuclear So and So's. Richard Edward's sincere vocals and richly textured compositions from the nine-piece outfit form the backbone of band's debut 2006 disc "The Dust of Retreat."
Ska Cubano
6:30 p.m., Fulano Stage
Joyfully joining Cuban son, mambo and Jamaican ska, singers Natty Bo (a London-based ska musician) and Beny Billy (a Cuban crooner) form the skipping brassy beats of Ska Cubano. The band's sound – packed with steamy summer dance tracks and classic Caribbean rhythms – should connect with Street Scene's party vibe.
The Shins
7:30 p.m., Time Warner Stage
James Mercer's occasionally somber, melancholic lyrics combined with the band's upbeat indie pop melodies give the Shins a depth rarely seen in bands with only two albums to their credit. Mercer – along with drummer Jesse Sandoval, bassist Neal Langford and keyboard player Marty Crandall – are currently working on the follow-up album to 2004's seminal "Chutes Too Narrow."
