The Mother Hips

The Friday before Christmas, Jay told me to take the train to San Francisco after work. He was taking me on a date, and it was a surprise. The surprise was that he had tickets for us to see the Mother Hips' annual holiday show. YEAH!!!! The Mother Hips have long been one of my biggest musical crushes. They've been doing their holiday show since 1994, always at the Great American Music Hall , one of my favorite concert venues in SF. I think I've seen them play about 7 times, but that's nothing compared to how many times their normal fans have seen them.

Jay had never seen the Mother Hips before. However he had seen the lead singers, Tim and Greg, incarnated as Ball-Point Birds. We saw them back in 2002 at the Noe Valley Ministry. I happened to find one of my favorite songs from that night, Princess of Darkness, here.

Back to this show. The opener was Brett Dennen, whom we'd never seen before. He has a nice voice, quiet stage presence and good songs. Memorable. I bet he'll be around for awhile.

When the Mother Hips came on stage, they brought Jackie Greene to guest on keyboards. That guy has been all the rage for a little while, but I'd never seen him. I really like his hair. For the encore, Tim carried Jackie back on stage. They have their own side project, called The Skinny Singers. And, Jackie also plays with Phil Lesh. Shake it, shake it, Sugaree...

The whole night was great. I was so excited to see Jay enjoying how much this band ROCKS. Jay won't mind if I mention to the ladies that the lead singer, Tim Bluhm, is cute (and married to a talented singer, Nicki Chambly). Maybe it would sound more mature if I said he has an attractive stage presence. For many years he traveled, surfing up and down the California coast, living in a van. Sometimes I like to live vicariously through a person like that.

The Hips have a new album called Kiss the Crystal Flake, which I bought after the show. I'd like to thank Mark Kafoury for turning me on to them way back when. And that is the end of that story. Long live the Mother Hips!