It is a rare treat to see a band play at a venue that they have long since outgrown. On a tour filled with dates at places like the Fillmore (capacity: 1,250) and Montbleu Resort (1,400), bluegrass behemoth Yonder Mountain String Band stopped in Sacramento for the first time ever and played a nearly packed house at our very own Harlow's. Capacity? 300 and change. It was amazing. "We're gonna have some fun tonight!" frontman and mandolinist Jeff Austin proclaimed a few songs into the first of two rollicking sets. "This is the most intimate show we've played in a long, long time." As you might expect, this proclamation was met with an enormous, prideful roar from the gathered throng. I

 This Sunday Harlow's nightclub continues it's spring-long blitzkrieg of High Sierra Music Festival performers, once-and-future, with Colorado's pied-pipers of bluegrass rock, Yonder Mountain String Band. "Yonder Mountain String Band has always played music by its own set of rules.  Bending bluegrass, rock and countless other influences that the band cites, Yonder has pioneered a sound of their own."  Yonder has been a stalwart on the festival circuit for more than a decade, playing their unique brand of feel-good jamgrass for massive crowds at Bonnaroo, Rothbury, Austin City Limits, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and their own Northwest String Summit. I, and about 200,000 of my closest f

 OK guys and gals, get out your favorite college team colors and jerseys or an old lettermen insignia as this is the time of year that has those of us who are passionate about college football ready for the start of a new season. The 2010 season officially kicks off with an opening round of games starting on Thursday night. Whether or not if you enjoy big time college football or cheering for one of the smaller schools, if you are like me you will enjoy a host of games to choose from. Since I am a fan and blogger of college football I intend to be glued to my TV for most of Saturday afternoon. For local teams Sac St. and U.C. Davis they will look to impress more people other than their d

 Dominic Cooke was a normal college student athlete until a car crash his senior year paralyzed him. It doesn’t stop him however, from hand cycling in a triathlon. Cooke, 30, was injured when he was 22 years old. His athletic ability and passion for helping other hurt athletes is what made him start “Team TFO” this year for the 37th annual Eppie’s Great Race. TFO — which stands for Try for Others — is a nonprofit organization Cooke created in 2005 to aid injured athletes. “I played rugby before here in Sacramento at Jesuit High School and then at UC Berkeley,” Cooke said. “I was getting a lot of phone calls from injured rugby players. We help them with their immediate medical needs.”

Is bigger always better? That is the question that has been circulating the landscape of college football for the past few weeks in the aftermath of revelations that the Pac-10 conference had not so quietly been trying to lure several teams from other conferences to join its Pacific coast alliance. Teams that were initially mentioned to join the Pac-10 have included the usual suspects of Utah, BYU, Colorado, Boise St, and even Texas was thrown in the mix. For area college football fans particularly those fans and alumni's of Pac-10 town near you. Let the chaos begin now that the first two dominoes have fallen in the pond of reshuffling, as Colorado and Nebraska are leading the wave to gree