[fringe] orsino nation

[reverancepavane]

This was the first Fringe show I've been to where I haven't seen the performers perform before. However I liked their (self-produced) blurb in the Fringe Guide and the music on their MySpace page was interesting, so I decided to take a gamble and see. I thought that they weren't as good live as the samples on their website suggested. I put this down to a number of different reasons. Firstly, the sound mix was painfully bad. Admittedly the Jade Monkey is not the easiest venue to mix (because of it's shape), but still (apparently there is only two decent sound people in the pool of five the Jade Monkey normally uses, which explains a lot). I'd really like to listen to them mixed competently. Secondly, after having been to some very good choir and a capella performances (and workshop, which definitely didn't help) in four of the previous five days, I was used to people able to sing well. Especially when singing together. The lead vocalist was about average for a pub band. I would definitely preferred it if she exhibited a greater vocal range (of course, this facet was probably lost under the bad mixing). Finally, and while it may be a minor point, whilst the lead singer was highly enthusiastic and leaped around madly, the other members of the band didn't look like they were particularly enjoying themselves. This served to warp the energy of the performance inwards, rather than out to the audience. A minor point, but it definitely added to my dissatisfaction. However I did enjoy the themes of several songs. There is a lot of promise there, and I hope with a little cultivation (and more practice at live gigs), it will come to light. Tomorrow is another unknown Fringe group, this time the newly-formed Adelaide University Fringe Club, whose mandate is to put on a Fringe show each year. [I quite like Uni-formed amateur theatre groups (apart from the Theatre Guild, which has about twice the political problems common to amateur theatre groups outside Uni). I have fond memories of The Crescent Company (which actually was formed out of the Adelaide Uni Law Review, if I remember correctly).] This time they are doing a play they bought from the Edinburgh Fringe, The Adventures of Stoke Mandeville, Astronaut and Gentleman. It's the final performance, so if you want to see it, you'll have to join me. Otherwise I highly recommend The Idea of North, and I hear that some sort of minor world music festival is happening (I'm disappointed, but not surprised knowing who is currently on the WomAdelaide board, that it is becoming less of a World Music Festival and more of a Jazz Fusion festival). Oh, and afterwards I'm off to see Dandelion Wine at Live On Light. ETA: My original comments about the band was overlly harsh, purely in comparison to the abilities of the bands I'd seen around them (AUCS, the Idea of North, Brillig, Dandelion Wine).

Comments

[molokov-au.livejournal.com]

The only artists I've seen at the Jade Monkey have been Holly Throsby and her support acts.

The first time she was supported by Stephanie Dosen, and I found both performances wonderful. The second time, it was a band I can't quite remember the name of, but they weren't that good. They also supported Holly when she performed at Jive, so it's obvious that they didn't make much of an impression on me considering I've seen them twice and can't remember their name...

In any case, I didn't mind the Jade Monkey as a venue, especially for the quieter acts like Holly Throsby and Stephanie Dosen - the crowd is usually very quiet during the songs and she does have a somewhat "light" and quiet voice, so it worked quite well in a small venue. My biggest issue was that there's no lights directed onto the stage so the performer's faces are usually in the dark.

It is a nice, small, intimate venue, but isn't really suitable for any act that relies on electrical guitars/basses or heavier rock and roll sound. Acoustic guitar and perhaps a quiet drum or double bass accompaniment is probably better suited.

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

As a venue, the Jade Monkey is quite nice, until you have to mix sound for it. Then it gets very tricky, because of it's effective "Y" shape (or perhaps V shape is closer to the truth), usually with many of the guests located in one arm of the "Y" (or "V"). Not that I've done so myself, although I know how difficult that sort of shape is to get good sound in. And an important part of good sound these days is having someone competent run the sound desk. This is especially true if you are relying on musical fidelity, such as with a predominantly acoustic act. For most rock/pop acts though, or standard pub type bands, who tend to play loud, I agree the venue is very very bad. And I don't like any of the chairs (although I'll admit I haven't as yet tried the armchairs in the back), as, after 45 minutes of so, I begin to get the feeling that I want to gnaw my right leg off to stop the pain, which is rather distracting when one is attempting to listen to the music. Then again, good music would make me ignore that (at least for a while). And then it's also probably the bands I've seen there haven't quite been to my taste, since the majority of them were ones I hadn't seen before.