Friday, May 27, 2011
Justyn with a Y - Flo Anito - Beau Finley - J Raud - Mira Yang - The Ash Lovelies -- Dahlak - May 26 2011
Although I took notes on each of the bands, I think I will scrap all the specific items and keep things general. Due to equipment failures, late coming crowds more interested in an unimportant NBA game, and other erratic behaviors, it was simply a little too difficult and unfair to try to come up with anything specific. I have only seen Justyn with a Y previously and have found his music to be quite good. Flo Anito is a good folk singer playing guitar and piano and I would be happy to see her again. Maybe the others if conditions are better. The venue was a decent Eritrean restaurant and bar, but was not equipped for serious musical events. In future, I may go there for a meal. The event was free, so only my time was invested. And that brings me to my theory. It is always a problem with a show when I spend my time working up graphs in my head (as Lisa Simpson once apologized..."I make a lot of graphs"). In this case, I envisioned the x axis being money spent on a show with the y axis being most enjoyment obtained with the investment factored in. If I were to plot all possible concerts (not just the ones I go to), I would get a inverted cosine pattern. Something like below. If you are not following any of this, then I am envious of zen simplicity of your thought process.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteThere have been artists/bands playing at Dahlak for years. As venues go, it is closer to hip coffee shop than a true rock and roll venue. I think it's an ideal venue for singer/songwriter sets, but this hasn't stopped many a rock and roll band from playing there. The singer/songwriter event that you attended is held twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Thursday. Normally, the crowds that are in attendance are there for the music and are not there to watch TV. This was an off night.
The problem with the house equipment is that overused by too many DJs and bands throughout the week. This is the second mixer that Dahlak has gone through, so I'll need to remind the owner of the current problems. Luckily we were able to use my portable amp as a more reliable backup for the rest of the evening. Mira's set was unfortunately hampered more by the fact that all of her compositions were meant to be played on a full 88 keys. The smaller keyboard completely through her off her game.
-Lou
Thanks for the information, Lou. We certainly need many places to play in this city and hopefully as you say there are more positive nights here and in some of the other smaller coffee house/restaurants. I am not looking for the 9:30 Club when I come to this sort of venue, but I do hope for something closer to a Jammin Java experience.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think I'll be playing Dahlak again. This was my last show before a tour and, well, it blew.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Lou, though for setting it up. It was nice to work out some kinks in a low key environment.