hometown favorites

No matter where you gaze from Coors Amphitheatre, you can't see the streets of downtown San Diego that gave birth to Street Scene in 1984.
But what could be seen Saturday and Sunday, when the 23-year-old music festival was held at this 19,468-capacity Chula Vista venue for the first time, was an event trying hard to redefine itself and perhaps regain the essence of what once made it so special.

How successful this quest ultimately is remains to be seen, especially since this year's edition had the lowest turnout (perhaps 10,000 a day or less) of any Street Scene since the late 1980s. Concert-industry giant Live Nation, which co-produced the festival for the first time this year with Street Scene founder Rob Hagey, declined to give any attendance figures.

Coors was a last-minute substitute for the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which was abandoned because of very low advance ticket sales. The low sales reflected a lack of major headliners, which was the result of many top acts having already been booked elsewhere by the time Live Nation received official approval from the fairgrounds board in June.


This meant that England's Muse and Nevada's The Killers (who were briefly joined by two members of Louis XIV) headlined on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, topping a bill of 80-plus acts. The lineup featured a good number of young and midlevel bands and solo artists, but lacked the key major attractions that could have ensured a higher turnout.
"Hindsight has taught me we started booking performers too late," Nick Masters, the president of Live Nation Southern California, acknowledged in a backstage interview early Sunday evening. "If I could turn the clock back, I'd have started booking in January, not May."

But Coors, which Live Nation owns, worked reasonably well for the scaled-down 2007 edition of Street Scene. If the Los Angeles-based company decides to stage a sequel next year (Hagey is now serving primarily as a high-level adviser), this 70-acre South Bay venue is the likely site.

"I wondered if we'd made a good decision to come here (from Del Mar), and I believe we did," Masters said. "I'd be inclined to return here; I'd have to find a compelling reason not to. My head says this is a great event, and so does my heart. But my brain hasn't seen the (financial) numbers yet."

It will be at least a month before those numbers are in, Masters said, and several more before Live Nation evaluates how (and if) Street Scene fits into the company's plans. But no matter where it was held, there was no doubt this would be a transitional year for the event.

Of course, many veteran festivalgoers contend that Street Scene stopped being Street Scene in 2004, and they're largely right. That was the year the two-day music marathon was forced to move to the Petco Park parking lot after outgrowing the once-deserted Gaslamp Quarter and East Village, which the festival's success helped to revitalize.

One can fairly ask whether Street Scene should retain its name when the festival is now so far removed from the constantly expanding urban setting it mirrored for more than two decades. Presumably, Live Nation and Hagey have retained the Street Scene monicker because of its brand recognition. But if the festival remains at Coors, they should reconsider.

Despite being soaked by a brief shower early Saturday afternoon, the Chula Vista venue offered some unique � and very welcome � amenities. First and foremost was the large lawn area at the top of the amphitheater. After so many years with the music being held on city streets and on enormous asphalt parking lots, the opportunity to sprawl out on a soft lawn was almost heavenly.

The lawn was also the site of the Coronado Stage, one of the festival's smallest performance areas, which hosted standout sets by hometown favorites the B-Side Players on Saturday and Sondre Lerche and Elvis Perkins in Dearland on Sunday.

Some of the most rousing sets of the weekend, by Ozomatli on Saturday and rapper T.I. on Sunday, were held on the outdoor stages erected in Coors' east parking lot and on an adjacent dirt lot (which was covered with wood chips). It was in this outlying area that the spirit of Street Scenes past was at least hinted at, if not briefly recaptured.

Coors itself, where Arctic Monkeys and San Diego's Louis XIV (with a vocal cameo from Anya Marina) gave spirited performances Sunday night, offered another feature missing from virtually every other Street Scene: seats, nearly 10,000 of them. The techno tent, a holdover from the festival's final year's downtown, may be a good idea on paper, but a lack of compelling performers rendered it mostly superfluous.

Ultimately, this year's Street Scene was a work in progress, and it's clear that Live Nation encountered a steeper learning curve than it anticipated. But if the festival returns, and here's hoping it does, expect even bigger changes to come. with every order of the Statler Brothers Farewell Concert CD, DVD or VHS set.

** Buy the Statler Brothers Farewell Concert Combo! Buy the Farewell CD and DVD or CD and VHS and save $5.99

** Spend over $29 on Elvis Lives Concert DVD, The Statler Brothers on TNN - Favorite Television Moments, Jim Reeves Greatest Hits CD,Ray Price Greatest Hits CD, Statler Brothers Farewell Conert, American Profile Hometown Cookbook or Alan Jackson's Precious Memories and receive the Statlers Brothers Christmas CD and the Handi-Pal Ultimate Pan and Household Scraper for FREE!
Description
They've entertained millions for 40 years, released 32 albums and sold more than 100 million records. To close out their unprecedented career, The Statler Brothers held a final appreciation concert near their hometown of Staunton, Virginia. Now you can own part of music history.

This unforgettable event is now available as a 2-hour DVD set. The Statler Brother Farewell Concert is packed with signature favorites ... 30 tracks in all ... and ends with a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace! This set is a must-have for country and gospel music fans - or any music lover!