musical foresight

[reverancepavane]

The Promethean is even nicer than it was a year or so ago. Comfy chairs around the outside, small dance floor, cabaret tables and chairs, not to mention foyer, bar, and gallery. Good stage (with baby grand piano). Not sure about the sound system on offer as I think Rezzalp brought their own. But it, along with the Wheaty (The Wheatsheaf) is on my list of places to recommend to furrin' artists wanting to play live music in Adelaide. The only two problems according to my music orientated friends (who admittedly composed almost the entire audience, if not actually the entire audience bar me), is that it is a venue that is only open when a band is playing (it is very much a performance venue), which means there is no real native audience, and that the acoustics are excellent in both directions (which means that crowd noise (such as people talking in the house) is very noticeable and it is very difficult to play over the crowd in this case. However since the only times I have been here have been to see performers whom the audience wanted to see, and who were good enough so that the crowd was silent for a few seconds after each piece, this definitely wasn't a problem. As you may of guessed, I went to The Promethean on Grote Street to see Melbourne group Rezzalp launch their CD in Adelaide. Unfortunately these girls have almost no following in Adelaide, which is a great pity. I recognised almost the entire audience from the Brillig video shoot. The exception being the Production Director for Womadelaide (who knew the sound person) and two other people off to the side, who knew people who were part of that core. Which means there was a very small crowd to see them. The show opened with Brillig in their smallest configuration I've seen them yet (just Elizabeth and Matt), rendering acoustically some of their favourites. Including The Old Captain. Excellently done. The venue, being an old community theatre, really does have excellent acoustics. This was followed by the delectable Cookie Baker who played on piano whilst singing. I have to admit the style suits her, probably more so than when she is accompanied by her regular partner on guitar, as is normally the case). It was a very relaxed performance, given that she knew most of the crowd by name (and vice versa). But then the true stars of the evening filed in through the room, dressed gloriously in white (from the simple white dress to a full on white ballerina outfit): the four Plazzer sisters (who make up Rezzalp (and the drummer Josh and cellist Prudence* in black). The music was excellent, and definitely should be of interest to those who like contemporary Australian female vocalists. [This is a hint for when they appear back in Adelaide next time.] Styles varied from poppy to jazz, and a number of pieces were greeted with that wonderful silence that comes from the audience suddenly realising that the music has stopped and yet not yet having reattained sufficient cognition to realise that they can start clapping now. [And you have to remember that the majority of the audience were die-hard music professionals when you consider this.] Anyway, plans were made to try and get them to come back to Adelaide again. It looks like there is another group who will be trying to beat the Fringe Artists deadline of 5pm next Friday. And if not, they are trying for the Cabaret Festival and FUSE and gigs at either the Promethean again (Baby Grand!) or the Wheaty. And yes, I am a rabid fanboy now. In addition to whatever natural advantages might accrue from their being cute blondes, I also discovered that Suzanne (at least) is a fan of Inspector Gadget, The Prisoner and numerous over genre shows ... well, lets just say that Helena had to scold her to get her to finish packing up so they could get out of the venue. <grin>: Looking forward to their return. * Yes, she was cute. And even if she wasn't, she still would be.** ** It is an Article of Faith for me that "All cellists are cute." Even if, as was the case once, they are six-foot men with the features of a poor-quality pugalist. He was still cute.*** *** Fortunately he also had the abilities of a poor quality pugalist and at the time I was still throwing people around the mat quite efficiently, which is why he never actually took exception to my calling him cute.**** **** OK I lied. He was too nice a guy to even consider resorting to retribution, physical or otherwise. And he knew me for a Trickster, so the matter is moot. But it did confuse his mother as to why someone would call her son "cute."