It’s county fair season, which means a steady march of one-hit wonders, tribute acts and bands with one original member are coming to a carnival stage or rodeo arena near you.
For my money, the Alameda County Fair reigns as the king of summertime concerts in the Bay Area, with a healthy booking budget and a three-week schedule that this year has included WAR, Sugar Ray, Too Short and county-fair mainstays (if not outright record holders) Tower of Power.
But a very close second? That’d be the Marin County Fair in San Rafael.
Let me state my case: In Marin, amusement rides are free with fair admission. There’s a fireworks show not only on the Fourth of July, but every single night of the fair. You can get there by train, the station for which is near the last A&W restaurant in the Bay Area with a trademark “pilgrim hat” roof. And the concerts are held on a land-tied island, out on the fairgrounds’ scenic lake, surrounded by water.
This year, Marin’s fair time concert highlight is a July 3 show with TLC — or, at least, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, who perform hits like “Waterfalls” and “No Scrubs” without original member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who died in 2002.
