Tightwads,Tom Waits fans: Rejoice!

I'm hardly into bluegrass, but strictly into cheap live musical festivities. So in the spirit of artistic exploration and honoring events that don't trick you into purchasing $225 three-day passes (that you don't really want) or try to scam you with greedy fuckwit service-charges, I'll put up with thousands of blubbery middle-aged asses shaking (completely out of rhythm to the music, of course) for this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival Oct. 3-5 in Golden Gate Park. Kiss me, free festival, you. Gogol Bordello, Bonnie Prince Billy and Robert Plant, not in his Zep costume but with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett (Autolux producer), among others, are mighty worth a trek to the park. Just as Tom Waits, who announced his "Glitter and Doom" summer tour this morning in a Sebastopol press conference, is worth an 11-hour drive to Phoenix on June 17. Doubt Waits' capacity to lure out-of-state rock revelers to McWar, ahem, McCain territory? Check out exhibit A, highlights from today's press conference: