Celebration in Streets : Festival: Crowd of 45,000 for two-day Michelob Street Scene encounters an embarrassment of riches.

Another Michelob Street Scene has come and gone, leaving behind 45,000 satisfied customers and the sounds of some truly great music to reverberate among the buildings of the Gaslamp Quarter. By most units of measurement, the eighth installation of the annual event was the best yet.

In terms of available entertainment, the Street Scene has become such an embarrassment of riches that this year its very abundance was responsible for its sole frustration: Only a fussbudget or one handicapped by a short attention span could have satisfactorily retired his musical wish-list.

With more stages (10) operating simultaneously for this Friday-Saturday program than in past years, it proved inevitable that taking in an entire performance by one artist meant missing one or two others. The alternative was block billiards--caroming from street to street (grabbing edibles along the way) in an attempt to catch 20 or so minutes of each of several acts before time, or one’s legs, expired.

Early Saturday night, Street Scene producer Rob Hagey allowed that the popular event probably will not grow larger than the 1991 model. That’s good news to those with catholic tastes who otherwise might be reduced to buzzing the stages in a rented helicopter.

The few missed opportunities produced by this synchronized musical buffet, however, are acceptable; the Street Scene is, after all, a “music and food festival” and not a sit-down concert. As in those supermarket contests wherein the winner grabs all the goods he can in a prescribed amount of time, you head first for the “meatiest” offerings, and as the evening wears on--and here I borrow a phrase from the Police songbook--”you make the best of what’s still around.”

Some impressions headed from the notebook to the scrapbook:

The addition of a Tex-Mex stage this year has to be considered a rousing success. Shows by the Texas Tornados, Joe (King) Carrasco, Brave Combo, Santiago Jimenez Jr., and Mingo Saldivar drew well, and the crowds’ responsiveness to their respective mixes of Mexican conjunto music, polka, country, and rock affirmed that the Texas-bred, hybrid forms have a natural constituency in this bicultural burg.

For many, the highlight of the Tornados’ Friday night show came near the end, when the band’s Flaco Jimenez was joined by younger brother Santiago for a rare, dueling-accordions segment that appeared to have special meaning for both sons of the late conjunto pioneer, Santiago Jimenez Sr.

Predictably, B.B. King--the biggest name ever to play the Street Scene--was the major draw among the blues artists. In fact, his Saturday night performance attracted such a throng to the blues stage at 7th Avenue and L Street that horse-mounted police and their foot-patrolling counterparts had to cut off admission to the area two blocks from the stage.

A police helicopter, meanwhile, circled overhead and announced that those willing to wait would be admitted to the area as others left. There were some heated words between a couple of over-beered revelers and the foot cops, but no serious incidents. And, eventually, practically everyone who wanted in got in.

King himself helped to make room for more fans with a set that frequently wandered into rambling, music-accompanied narratives about his youth and career, one of which segued into a disjointed version of his biggest hit, “The Thrill is Gone.” When the bluesman stayed on the beam, he played guitar with the fluid grace and emotion that made him famous. But King has become an industry in recent years, and, accordingly, his shows have become longer on jive and shorter on playing. For this performance he must have been paid a thousand dollars per note.

The real blues firepower this weekend came from Chicago guitarist Buddy Guy--who demonstrated in Friday’s well-received show that, at 55, he has lost none of his legendary intensity--and from Larry (Arkansas) Davis. The latter is now backed by a foursome that includes guitarist Bill Thompson, drummer Paul Kimbarow and bassist Kevin Henessy of the local Mighty Penguins. Their Saturday afternoon show cooked--thanks especially to Thompson’s rippin’ solos--and elicited a like response from an impressive turnout.

As before, the Cajun and zydeco entries proved a big hit. It was no surprise that the more familiar acts--Queen Ida, Zachary Richard, and Terrance Simien--went over well. But the relative newcomers left a few thousand converts, as well.

Two bands in particular--Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas and the Bluerunners--bring a new generation’s eclecticism to these Louisiana rhythms. The Cha Chas update Zydeco with ska and R&B; strains that had people dancing at both of their Friday performances, while the Bluerunners heat zydeco’s rhythmic sauce with a rock and roll fervor that turned the “Bourbon Street” block into a huge, public party.

Reggae star Burning Spear drew a huge crowd for his Friday show, and latecomers had to watch and listen from a block away, which was just as well. The Burning Band’s bassist must have been testing the limits of his amplification setup, because the low-frequency boom of each note was so oppressive as to drive many people toward other streets, their fingers plugging their ears.

Those who returned on Saturday could have found a remedy in the music of Les Tetes Brulees, the Afro-pop band from Cameroon whose wild body paint, tattered clothing, and extroverted stage personalities kept a huge throng transfixed. The band’s Bikutsi brand of rock features percolating interplay between the keyboards and the guitar that produced the effervescent rhythms of a child’s jack-in-the-box toy stuck on fast-forward.

Les Tetes Brulees would get stiff competition from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in a contest of idiosyncratic musics. Young Fleck is an electric-banjo player with a jazzman’s approach and a rocker’s sensibilities. The biracial Flecktones include keyboardist-harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy, bassist Victor Lemonte Wooten, and percussionist Roy (Future Man) Wooten.

Future Man, who dresses like a reggae buccaneer, plays a Synthaxxe, which is a roughly guitar-shaped synthesizer that reproduces the sounds of a drum set when its various touch-responsive buttons and pads are played with the fingertips. The band’s kaleidoscopic “Appalachian fusion funk” chased away a few of the less-adventurous, but the large crowd that remained was treated to an invigorating set of tunes from the band’s “Flight of the Cosmic Hippo” album.

As expected, the big-time country band, Highway 101, was a highlight of Saturday’s program, although the level of enthusiasm was no greater than that generated earlier in the evening by the local country outfit, Linda Rae and Breakheart Pass. The latter seemed inspired by the large, receptive turnout, and exhibited “national-act” professionalism in a set that covered original material as well as tunes by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Georgia Satellites, and Elvis Presley’s 1959 hit, “A Fool Such as I.”

It’s always a thrill to see deserving talent reach a new audience, and that made performances by the Five Blind Boys of Alabama (Friday) and Marcia Ball (Saturday) all the more enjoyable.

The Blind Boys’ gospel fervor proved contagious as they moved through old and new material that had people clapping and even singing along. Lanky piano player-vocalist Ball and her band attracted a big crowd and then held them spellbound with an exuberant mix of blues, barrelhouse boogie and New Orleans-style rock and roll.

Parting shots:

One interesting footnote to the musical offerings was the amount of stylistic cross-pollinating in evidence. Examples include Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas doing the old Spencer Davis Group hit, “Keep On Running” (which, in truth, made it to that ‘60s British rock-R&B; band via Jamaican songwriter Jackie Edwards); Bela Fleck and the Flecktones re-working the Beatles’ “Michelle”; and Texas’s Brave Combo performing a furious, punk- polka-ish reading of “Hava Nagila.”

In the Growing Old Gracefully sweepstakes, former Animal Eric Burdon won over Mitch Ryder. Burdon’s Saturday night set featuring the great Brian Auger on keyboards had far more good moments than bad. The same can’t be said of Ryder’s Friday night gig with a new version of the Detroit Wheels. Too-fast version of the band’s ‘60s hits (“Jenny Take a Ride”) didn’t help. Ryder’s voice was shot, and his attempt to “evolve” into a purveyor of metalish, riff-heavy hard rock went into the red on the embarrass-o-meter.

Once again, the food available at a variety of booths was generally good. Bargains included a generous helping of shrimp Creole fettuccine for $3.50 at one stop, and a barbecued brisket sandwich at the Dick’s Last Resort booth for $3. Worst bargain goes to the single crab cake offered at Johnny M’s 801 booth. Very tasty morsel, but for $4 you want something larger than a single ravioli.