Concerts

Sunday, May 7, 2023

We went to see a show called A Billy Joel State of Mind last night. It was really good. You can see from the potd that they had a ton of people involved – lots of musicians playing to a sold-out crowd. We were once again at the Phipp’s theater in Hudson. We went out for dinner (KFC…mmmmm) and were looking at their flyer for shows next season. You can pick and choose any 3, 5, or 7 shows to create your own season. If you get 7 shows, they are only $21/each. I flipped through the flyer and saw a LOT of things to see. I gave it to Keith to be more judicious. He came up with 14 shows to see, with two alternates, so we will have two seasons!

Keith went off to chamber orchestra rehearsal in Eau Claire and I went to two concerts. The Washington Country community band was playing at Central Park, so I popped over there and enjoyed. They played a great variety of tunes I know and like. Since it is a community band, they take all comers, but they had a really nicely balanced band. I took a picture to show Keith the instrumentation. He looked at it – on my phone – and zoomed in a bit to see what everyone was playing. The baritone player in the back was obscured by a microphone – as he was also their announcer – but Keith said, “That looks like Brian. He played trumpet in the MN State band when we saw them. I played with him in Red Rock Swing band (Keith was a sub) back in the day (more than 20 years ago). I held up the program, “Brian is the announcer.” Pretty good for a guy that can’t remember much about yesterday.

I had to leave before they were finished to hurry over to King of King’s church to meet my friend, Carla, for a fundraiser concert for the Pollinator Friendly Alliance by the Spirit Song Choir and the St. Croix Valley Flute Collective. Both groups were really well rehearsed and performed very well, but the concert went on for exactly 2 hours without an intermission (including prelude by the flute choir…which really was just the concert starting 15 minutes early, since they were part of the concert). I have never been to such a long concert without an intermission. Well. Bruce plays longer than that, but you are allowed to get up and use the restroom or get a drink during such a concert. General practice for an intermission-less concert is 75 minutes; with intermission is 1 hour 30-45 minutes. So, this was a little like being held captive by lovely people.

A few weeks ago, Keith took a survey online, at the end of reading an article that had nothing to do with music. It asked how many concerts you would go to this year – including those you’ve already been to. Over 686,800 people responded, and 78% said they would go to zero live concerts this year. Ooof. For those of us who know musicians, that is sad to hear. 18% said they would attend 1-3 concerts, 3% said they would attend 4-9 concerts, and 2% said 10 or more. I think most people answering surveys will pad their answers to look better, so if a person said zero, I think they really meant zero. I am in the 10 or more club, since I have been to 16 so far this year. I did not count seeing live music in clubs/bars or sitting backstage during three of Keith’s chamber orchestra concerts, even if I did listen.

Where do you fall? Put it in the comments. There is no penalty for not being a concert go-er!! I have attended zero sporting events, even though I am quite sporty now (I’ve seen several soccer matches on TV and three sporty movies…)