A Fine-Tuned Street Scene

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Street Scene has reached that enviable point in its evolution where it needs only an annual fine-tuning to maintain peak performance into the next century.

The ninth edition, which took place Friday and Saturday nights over an 18-block grid of the Gaslamp Quarter, offered more and better food, the diverse mix of musical talent that remains the event’s strong suit and a now-standard sparkle achieved with art-carnival lighting effects.

The Gaslamp never looks more gussied-up than during Street Scene, when even the mammoth alfresco murals in this urban-renewal melange contribute to the ambience of a multicultural musical theme park.

Earlier this summer, Street Scene producer Rob Hagey vowed to bring the culinary quotient of the festival more in line with its cornucopia of musical talent, and the 1992 event was a step in the right direction.

The centrally located “Taste of Gaslamp” gave people an opportunity to sample food from nearby restaurants for which, at other times, they would have to fight trendy crowds. The pork and mussels dish from Cafe Bravo was a memorable offering. “Bite of New Orleans,” which featured chefs, seafood and seasonings flown in from the Crescent City, was a palatable success. Its servings of mussels, crayfish etoufee, jambalaya and gumbo proved so popular that on Friday the corner system of booths ran out of everything but jambalaya early in the evening.

Food at independent booths was more hit-and-miss. The generously sized carne asada burrito grande served outside Cabo Cabo Grill was a bargain at $2, while a chicken fajitas taco offered a block away at a stand near the “Salsa/Blues Stage” was skimpy and chewy at $2.50.

The spring rolls purveyed at a sushi booth just north of the Javaland setup were hot, thick and juicy, with a tasty peanut-based sauce. By comparison, the combo plate of gyros sandwich and Greek salad served at a booth at 5th Avenue and K Street was so emaciated and unsavory that one might have thought it was prepared by the Service America folks at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The stroller in need of libation could choose from among “Javaland,” an outdoor coffee emporium with tables and chairs; the “Micro-Brewery Tasting Festival,” at which each of 15 West Coast micro-breweries served two of its beers, and a “Wine Tasting Vineyard,” set up in the parking lot of the Cost Plus store. All three seemed to be doing booming business, although some of the imported brews were not rave-worthy. Not surprisingly, the full-bodied beers at the La Jolla Brewery’s booth fared very well in competition with their Northern counterparts.

As varied and delicious as the Street Scene food fare might be, however, it will always play second-chair to the music. Even with the last-minute defections of the vocal group Wilson Phillips and soul-blues belter Etta James--both reportedly due to illness--this year’s all-you-can-hear, outdoor music buffet had something for almost every predilection.

Someone with catholic tastes, or at least a natural curiosity, inevitably succumbs to the Sunday-brunch syndrome and overloads his plate, with the predictable result that everything begins to run together. But that, too, is part of the fun of Street Scene. Herewith are some impressions of the weekend’s musical presentations:

On Friday night, lanky Western-beat singer-guitarist Jimmie Dale Gilmore might have sounded the theme of Street Scene with his performance of the canter-tempoed “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown.” The slide-guitar and mouth-harp blues, “Midnight Train” and other tunes from his album “After Awhile” made his set at the KSON “Rockin’ in the Heart of Texas” Stage an underappreciated highlight of the fair.

Gilmore has the perfect physique, appearance and voice to do Hank Williams, Sr., material, and he closed his show with a rendition of Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” whose subtle treasures were somewhat lost on a modest, early-evening gathering. Williams’ heartache glides smoothly on Gilmore’s thin rail of a voice, and film producers would be well-advised to keep him in mind for future Williams projects.

A couple of blocks away, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band faced an equally uninformed crowd at the Digital Cable Radio/KPBS-FM Louisiana Heritage Stage. After a couple of numbers, the trumpeter for the large New Orleans ensemble addressed the situation head-on. “Y’all look like some cold fish!” he shouted, “C’mon, move, people, move!” That did the trick. The brass-and-percussion stalwarts’ mix of skittish funk, martial blues shuffles and N’Awlins parade music soon had fans gyrating in all directions.

Another Louisiana band, the Radiators, gave a well-received performance at the Bourbon Street Main Stage that at times suggested what the Grateful Dead might have sounded like had that Bay Area band grown up in bayou country.

Alejandro Escovedo, late of the bands the Nuns, Rank and File and True Believers, played to an unfortunately tiny crowd at the “Rockin’ in the Heart of Texas” Stage. This uncle (not cousin, as reported) of Sheila E., who has two brothers living in San Diego, opened with some somber, ponderous rock (his wife recently committed suicide) that might have chased a few people away. By late in its set, however, Escovedo’s quintet had built to a fine fury, play some good-sloppy, Faces-like, blues-rock with a freshness not often heard these days.

Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias must have been a sight for those not educated to the New Orleans aggregate. Arrayed in their colorful Mardi Gras-Indian headdresses, “Chief” Dollis and his band of guitar, bass and five percussionists brought the Louisiana Heritage area to a boil with its calypso-flavored rumbas and second-line N’Awlins funk.

At the south end of Street Scene, Tito Puente and His Latin All-Stars seemed to be cooking for a thick mob of salsa fans, although it was hard to tell. An inadequate sound system muffled much of the large group’s efforts, and Puente’s mid-set solo on vibraphone was all but inaudible. Too bad, because these guys are great.

The unlikely combination of organist Brian Auger and ex-Animal, ex-War lord Eric Burdon certainly was an improvement over Burdon’s pairing with Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger a couple of Street Scenes ago. Still, any performance by Burdon has a better-than-even chance of going into the toilet--at least for its “humor”--and this one was no different. The best thing about a millennium-long version of “Spill the Wine” was Auger’s blistering solo; the worst thing was Burdon’s sodden, juvenile, doper-ific, mid-tune soliloquy about smoking marijuana with an attractive woman in Mexico City in 1973. Eric, go away .

The Gospel Tent was a qualified success and one that should remain a permanent Street Scene fixture. Fans whose exposure to Gospel has been minimal had to come away edified by the wide range of styles.

The Holmes Brothers exhibited the country roots of their music not only in execution and song selection, but also by utilizing a pedal-steel guitarist (!). The very church-y Omega Aires Gospel Singers, meanwhile, used the age-old call-and-response device to build one selection to a fever pitch. To say they were spirited would be an understatement. The Omega Aires made it especially difficult for their successors to the stage, the somewhat more toned-down Gospel Hummingbirds, who tapped into both the Oakland-style R & B bag and performed a couple of pieces reminiscent of early Motown.

Other noteworthy performances included EDward II’s mix of horn-peppered, accordion-enhanced melodic ska; John Mooney and Bluesiana’s slithery bayou blues-mambo; Boukman Eksperyans’ hypnotic, Haitian political dance music; Michael Penn’s bookish pop-rock songs, which provided a nice contrast to the festival’s Tex-iana/world-blues sounds; Outback’s mix of everything from Australian to African instrumental influences; Thomas Mapfumo’s multiple-pulse, kalimba-driven rhythms; John Mayall’s hot blues set, and singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading’s surprisingly high-tech performance.