The Waybacks Sunday, July 10, 2022 2 p.m.
Amendola Vs Blades Sunday July 17, 2022 2 p.m.
Citta Di Vitti Sunday, July 24, 2022 2 p.m.
Native Elements Sunday, August 7 14, 2022, 2 pm at Mitchell Park bowl (note change of date)
2022 2 p.m.
“Back To Where We Were” by San Francisco Mime Troupe Saturday, July 30, 3:30 p.m.
Erik Lawrence/Akira Tana Duo Monday, August 8, 2022 5 p.m.
Rova Saxophone Quartet w special guest Thollem McDonas Friday, August 19, TBA
Johnny A Friday, September 9, 2022 7 p.m.
Tammy Hall Saturday, September 10, 2022, 2 p.m.
Steve Poltz Wednesday, September 28, 2022 6 p.m.
Mads Tolling Thursday September 29, 2022 6 p.m.
Chase Elodia Thursday, September 29, 2022 6 p.m. (co-bill with Mads Tolling)
Marley’s Ghost, Friday, October 7, 2022 6 p.m.
Note: all outdoor shows in Palo Alto parks by Earthwise Productions are free and open to all comers; we offer RSVP or registration via EventBrite, as a courtesy to fans and attendees. All events are under permit from City of Palo Alto (although subject to First Amendment and “freedom of assembly” Earthwise and or Mark Weiss of Palo Alto do sometimes engage with casual walk-up and pop-up concerts that are not subject to the bureaucracy beyond adherence to certain noise ordinances and common sense. Meanwhile City of Palo Alto has announced a schedule of events at Rinconada, Mitchell Park and Magical Playground that also feature live music (mostly cover bands). Earthwise has produced eight indoor concerts in 2022, mostly at Mitchell Park Community Center and will likely resume such in late fall, 2022 and winter 2023, lord willing and the crick don’t rise. Shout out to Packard Foundation and Stanford Theatre, 227 University, across from Lytton Plaza, for announcing a run of 38 films starting July 9 and thru September. I also recommend the Elvis fantasia currently at the Aquarius Theatre.
Venues:
Lytton Plaza downtown — University Avenue and Emerson Street; in 1975, City Council voted to buy the 0.2 acre property via eminent domain from banker “Bart Lytton”. Amended in 2009 via a public-private partnership with a group of landlords whose names adorn a plaque at the plaza, including former mayor Le Levy whose name is on another sign, at the fountain, which doubles as bleachers for the concerts.
Johnson Park –Edith Eugenie Johnson Park, between Waverley and Kipling Streets, Everett and Hawthorne Avenues; 2.5 acres; established in 1968, named in honor of one of Palo Alto’s first physicians, 1907 to 1960, who was said to have delivered 3,500 babies.
Mitchell Park Bowl — 600 East Meadow Drive, loosely speaking Middlefield Road at East Meadow Drive; J. Pearce Mitchell Park comprises 21.4 acres. Mitchell was on City Council for 31 years and also was Registrar of Stanford University. The park was dedicated in 1957, while the first community center was added in 1969 and rebuilt in 2014. There’s 600 trees at the park including one named El Palo Nuevo planted in 1969, 200 years after Portola found El Palo Alto and 75 years after incorporation of the city.
Cogswell Plaza: none of these 14 shows are scheduled at Cogswell, named for the former longtime editor of The Palo Alto Times, and very near Johnson Park and Lytton Plaza, roughly splitting the distance. This was the site of the Brown Bag series — noon concerts, up to six each summer, for many years, including a 2003 show by my July 10 headliner at Mitch Bowl the Waybacks — and I did a one-off there on October 8, 2021 with blues diva Diunna Greenleaf who was in the area recording a new cd at Greaseland – -she also played that fall at The Mitch indoors. Half an acre.
Other Palo Alto Parks:
Stanford Palo Alto Playing Fields: mostly thought of as a soccer field, or two of them, this amenity is also the source of the name of this blog Plastic Alto. I fantasized about hiring Ornette Coleman, who used an acrylic saxophone on some songs to play there. Also, I remember thinking about how to define the function of the park from the perspective of the little, black rubber pebbles that fly up in reaction to the path across the green larger pieces of plastic that the leather soccer balls displace, that parallax. Five point nine acres. Maybe song cycle for “Tilted Donut”, stay tuned.
Foothills Park, or as I say Foothill Park, sometimes called Foothills Preserve: 1,400 acres. The late great Monica Parker pka Sista Monica did a show there co-sponsored by Bay Area Action, circa 1998. When the Lee family spoke at a dedication of the infamous 7.7 acres, some said that they envisioned a concert series there — you can bus in the fans from a park and ride spot.
Earthwise has produced 18 shows so far this year, including one in Santa Cruz at Kuumbwa and several at Mitchell Park Community Center El Palo Alto room, hard-ticket (several more in that space were cancelled or postponed, due to the pandemic). Adding these 14 shows to the year-to-date tally puts Earthwise in striking distance of its most prolific year as a production company which was in 1999 and included shows at Cubberley Community Center, The New Varsity 456 University and Stanford’s CoHo. Someday, I’d like to coordinate a site-specific concert series with new works in all 34 of our parks. (Source: PAHA booklet, circa 2006)
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 