Junkstock a resounding success!
Well yesterday was the first ever JUNKSTOCK. A family friendly DIY music fest featuring junk bands, jug bands, saw playing workshops, make your own kazoo wackiness and way way more.
I must say making my way to the hard to find Marx Meadow by 11am was a struggle, but once I overcame that obstacle the day was a blast. Sure it was kinda cold and foggy, but welcome to summer in San Francisco. I made sure to take part in the saw workshop since I’ve been trying to learn and struggling but with some new tips I seem to be getting it a lot more now. I think a cheaper saw and more practice are totally in my future. The cigarbox guitars / mandolins seemed to be the most popular workshop but I didn’t want to miss bands and so I just went over and watched that one now and then. People were surely rocking the spoons instruction though – it was like a 10 person spoon section for about an hour and it sounded crazy cool! i had wanted to try to make my own bagpipe but the instructor was giving too much information and I hadn’t eaten enough so I left a little overwhelmed and with a lot more information about how to make a reed and DIY oboe out of a straw which was hella cool, but I just wasn’t patient enough for the bagpipe. Sigh.
The bands were for me, the main highlight. Just Henry blew me away, Liquor Cake played my favorite victorian death song and I got to discover some new folks who caught in my heart like Drew Piston and The Goat Family. The Goat Family actually has a couple of indie filmmakers in their ranks and so I unexpectedly ran into a bunch of folks I know from there. SF is a very small world. 5 Cent Coffee and 1 Man Banjo of course blew me away – though I always want 1 Man Banjo to play Blue Fool and he never does… sigh. Vagabonage did well, got the folks rowdy and people were hella yay for us once we left the stage. We both lost our voices a bit – which is always indicative of a good show 🙂
The fest ended with a jam at the end for all of the musicians and anyone who had made or brought an instrument – and so we had a whole lotta folks rockin House of the Rising Sun junkband style. Hilarious and Wonderful Chaos.
I cannot wait for next year.