Fringe Festival
Liette and I discovered the Fringe Festival the year
before. We went to see a dance group and really enjoyed it. I just
assumed the rest of the festival had these kind of high quality but
out-of-the-mainstream acts. As I watched the dance performance with the
music I had the thought,”This might be where my stuff would fit
in.” So I applied to get in the following year.
The people working for the festival were all very
nice but completely disorganized. I think they hired artists to manage
and organize every aspect which was probably a nice, supportive gesture
to artists but as far as managing a festival, a very bad idea. The most
basic things never got communicated to anyone, the venues or the
artists. Things went wrong that I never could have imagined could go
wrong. That was in addition to the things that could have gone wrong
and always did. One of the highlights was about two thirds the way
through performance on the first night at Kaldi’s an angry lady
tried to get my attention. When I looked over for a second she was
angrily pointing to her watch. The only thing I could do was ignore her
but it did sort of rattle my nerves. Then a few minutes later a
bluegrass band started up in the room next door. The two rooms were
only separated by a small open hallway so the banjo and high lonesome
vocals came sailing right in and mixed with my sounds of giant cicadas
and big washes of electronic sound. The date and time of the
performance had changed so many times and Kaldi’s was never told
so they hadn’t changed their regularly scheduled bluegrass band.
And that was just one small thing that went wrong. Every night had
it’s own set of surprises.
I guess as far as the Fringe Festival in general
goes, I didn’t seem to have a clear idea of what it’s
about. I had based my whole impression on the dance group I had seen
the year before but it turns out most of the acts have a kind of sordid
edge to them, to say the least. I’m not exactly a prude but for
the most part I found a lot of them actually revolting. Someone
suggested they were a form of public therapy, people working out their
“issues” in public. I was wondering if that’s what it
is for the audience too. I had the distinct feeling that people
weren’t there for any kind of art experience, but they were there
more to show their support and root for the “cause”,
whatever cause the performance was about. I really couldn’t
connect with it.
Thomas More College
One of the professors from Thomas More College was
there on the last night of the Fringe Fesival. He and his friend, David
Jackson, were the only two people in the audience, except for a table
at the very back who were not interested in the music at all. Anyways,
they seemed to enjoy it and we talked after about electronica and
bands from the 70’s so he asked if I’d be interested in
doing a concert at the college and he could have his classes attend. It
ended up being on Halloween. I did the same piece as I did at the
Fringe Festival. That turned out to be a good experience. People
actually listened. When I know people are listening I’m a lot
more aware of making the music good. And since there is a big
improvisatory element that makes a difference.
I also got to read the students comments on the concert which was very enlightening.
Here are some of my favorite comments:
link(pictures) Earlier David had talked about the strangeness of the
painting of Thomas More outside the hall. Later he wanted to get a
picture of me and Jay in front of it. I was surprised and said,”I
thought you said you didn’t like that painting?” He
said,”I didn’t say I didn’t like it, I said it was a
bad painting. I love it.”
Cincinnati Art Museum: One World Wednesdays
The theme was Iceland. I guess my music made them
think cold thoughts so they thought it would go well for this kind of
event. I thought the theme and the whole party built around it was cool
but the venue itself couldn’t have been more wrong for the kind
of thing I do. It was pure stress from beginning to end. Having
to set up late in the day amid all the hustle and bustle of dj’s
and catering people. Some guy from building management came down and
said there would be a problem with the amount of power I was drawing.
Of course, it turned out to be no problem but I guess it gave him
something important to do. I noticed many of the people connected with
building management there radiate the feeling of “union”. A
few of the guys were standing around watching me load everything by
myself from the truck on to the dollies in the loading dock,
occasionally pointing a finger suggesting an easier way.
After setting up and doing a quick sound check I
left to take a break. When I came back a couple of hours later the
place was jammed. I couldn’t believe how many people there were.
It was the young professional “enlightened” art crowd. The
noise level was that of a really high energy party with the music of 2
dj’s pounding in the large space. They’d take a break and
I’d play during the interim. The music was introspective so it
didn’t go at all with what was going on. I had to turn the system
up higher than it had ever been just to get over the ambient noise and
try and make it seem like it was some sort of party music, which it
wasn’t. It was quite ridiculous but I thought what the heck, just
try and enjoy it.
At the end of the night the dj’s and
caterer’s etc. had all packed up within 15 minutes and were
wheeling their carts out the door. I had been promised help but
there was no one in sight except the night watchmen who were
impatiently waiting for me to get out of there. It took about an hour
and a half to break down. The watchmen were going nuts waiting for me
but again all I got was the occaisional point of a finger and
suggestion of an easier way.
This was over all not the greatest experience but it
did have some positives. The party itself was very upbeat and it was
very different to be able to walk around looking at great paintings in
such a party atmosphere with House music pounding away in the
background. It took the art museum experience out of the rareified
atmosphere you usually associate with museums, so that was good. Also,
I got to hang out with the dj’s after I had finnished playing and
they were very nice. I got to ply them about their trade which is a
whole world I know nothing about.