McLaren Park Kicks Ass

07-18-09_1539

I drove through McLaren Park once before, several years back, and concluded it seemed like a pretty great place to get shot or stabbed or raped. On Saturday, I went back for the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival‘s all-day free concert at Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, and it was all very pleasant. Right off the bat a skunk crossed my path, so I felt like I was really getting back to nature.

Also, Jerry Garcia Amphitheater! Who knew there was an amphitheater in there!? And it’s a pretty nice amphitheater with lots of seating and a big grassy hill! Kudos to the festival’s organizers for finding this spot and recognizing that it would be an ideal location for a day-long showcase of local and touring musicians. Here’s hoping more festival organizers recognize this in the future.

Rubies were pretty good.

Kelley Stoltz is kind of starting to look like Elvis Costello.

The festival continues through July 25th at various venues in San Francisco.

Oh and here’s a better picture by someone with a actual camera.

8 Responses to “McLaren Park Kicks Ass”

  1. TJ says:

    McLaren Park really is great. And if you’re a fan of golfball then, in my opinion, Gleneagles is the best the city has to offer if you take into account cost and convenience. Just be ready for a lot of sloping lies and be sure to keep up the speed of play.

  2. zinzin says:

    McLaren Park – particularly on the end where the the amphitheater is…SFs best kept secret.

    it’s horrible. don’t go there. especially don’t take your dog up to the reservoir. they’ll hate it. giant alligators. raping, stabbing alligators. really, don’t go there, and don’t bring a picnic, or look at the view from on top of the hill on the left of the path up to the reservoir. don’t bring your mountain bike either. and don’t hike up to the water tower. and don’t look out for all kinds of fauna, particularly the red tail hawks and the occasional crane. it’s a horrible place overall. just skip it.

    also, don’t go watch semi-pro soccer in adjoining crocker park on weekends…with a beer at broken record afterward.

    (that said, the end of McLaren where the golf course is, over by the sunnydale houses, can be a little sketchy, for real).

  3. sfortunata says:

    Excelsior represent!

  4. DFS says:

    had a good time…although I gotta disagree the Rubies were good…thought they were kind of awful.

    D

  5. teamawesome says:

    thought rubies were horrible as well…

  6. Paul says:

    I really missed seeing the Tidal Wave festival this year. The Tidal Wave is an annual two-day metal festival held each year at the amphitheater. It has been held every year for over 10 years. This year it didn’t happen due to lack of funds. It’s always a great crowd — lots of families and kids seeing music that they would otherwise never get to see.

    Let’s hope it’s back for 2010.
    http://www.thetidalwave.org/

    Metal forever.

    • jay says:

      That’s because Possessed was scheduled to headline, and since the members of Sadistic Intent always make everything a money issue, they weren’t able to raise the correct amount of cash. Tidal Wave has always been a great festival and it’s always been about entertaining all the families who want a nice day in the outdoors to enjoy great music. Bottom line: Possessed flakes out on most of their shows, because their management is composed of posers.