You haven't heard of Mary Halvorson?
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Does it have to deal with the lack of seats at the venues? That’s sorta the deal-killer for this otherwise completely wonderful festival in terms of my being interested in attending.
I can stand for a show once in a while, but I cannot walk to venues and stand for most shows for several days....My flat feet just won’t put up with it.
In terms of standing / walking...full disclosure:
If you just get a normal pass, a few of the venues are mostly standing. Many are fully seated, and some of the standing rooms DO have a few seats. VIP passes and higher get access to areas with additional seating. There haven't been any shows since the first year I went where a room had NO option for seating, but it does vary.
The walking is hard, but it turns out (thanks to Ian's then-impending surgery) that there are shuttles that can help bounce people between venues.
Slightly more detailed context about standing/sitting:
- Mill & Mine: mostly standing, huge room. There are seats along both sides, and an upstairs area with seating for both VIP and regular folks (but somewhat poor line of sight). Some of the shows also have people just sitting on the floor (MEV and Rzewski solo did this to great effect)
- Two churches, can't recall names. Both fully seated. Standard church pews.
- The Square Room: smaller room, sometimes hosts electronica/laptop/smaller jazz stuff. Depending on the artist, they'll set up seats.
- The Standard: small to mid room. Mostly standing, but there are places to sneak a seat if you're careful. More than any other venue this is the one that suffers from a lack of decent seating options.
- The Bijou: lovely mid-size theater. Fully seated. Great balcony with excellent line of sight.
- Tennessee Theater: huge operahouse theater. Fully seated.
There are a couple of other venues, but I've not had as much experience with them. On the whole, I think many of the venues do offer seating choices. It's just the Standard and (to a lesser extent) Mill + Mine that are either SRO or mostly SRO.
thanks for the full picture!
That's one issue for me.It's not that i'm incapable of standing( i stood for This Is Not This Heat recently, i didn't like standing but i toughed it out).I just prefer to sit; i'm not a young man anymore and i get antsy if forced to stand in an enclosed location with bodies in close proximity.Walking isn't an issue.
Mostly it's my lack of desire to sit through hours and hours and hours of music.These days a couple of hours of live music is fine, maybe music in the morning,some more later in the day, something in the early evening; but not music starting at 11 am and ending at 2 am(with breaks for meals, relaxation,walking to venues etc).You have to want to cram as much live music as you can handle to get your moneys worth from these festivals, and i don't have that urge anymore.
walt - it's cool. You can just admit you get sick of me and my schlock after the first 10 minutes or so. I'm a big boy. No tears.
:lol
I have reserved lodging for Vladimir and myself. Tickets soon. Concerning seating commentary, I too have that severe discomfort/challenge. After the first set at Mill & Mine this year I decided to avoid further shows at M&M and the Standard for the reasons discussed above. I did go back to M&M twice, but no Standard performances. The Knoxville Museum of Modern Art also had chairs which was effectively used with its surrounding space by Rova Sax Quartet in adding sound dimension by walking around the audience while performing. I was quite successful in "rescheduling" part of my schedule due to the number of venues and artists. With that in mind I am (hopefully) prepared to accept that some favored artist announcements will land in my "blacklisted" venues. I have complained about lack of seats in each survey.
So bring on the next wave of artist announcements!
BTW, will see some of you folks at ProgDay!
Cheers!
One other thought, specifically for Mill & Mine...I'm considering bringing my own chair (one of those that collapses into a nice tube shape). They'll likely search the bag on the way in, but I don't see them necessarily turning anyone away either.
That might be harder at the Standard, because even with a chair, line of sight would suck.
The Standard is clearly the major problem venue, I usually manage to find a spot on a raised platform on one side but you have to get there early to be at the front of the line. I used my shooting stick at the Mill and Mine last year and it worked great, the sight lines are still good if you are far enough back. I'll be bringing the shooting stick again this year though my knee is much better post surgery.
No, it's this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_W...(jazz_drummer)
So, more announcements today...looks like one of the "big" names is going to be Alvin Lucier (he'll apparently be there performing as well as having his works featured).
I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just going to copy the blurb from the email:
In 2019, Big Ears presents two composers who, during the last half-century, have changed the world’s very conception of music: Alvin Lucier and Joan La Barbara.
Fifty years ago, Alvin Lucier penned a peculiar piece called I Am Sitting in a Room, a transformative work of twentieth-century art. Indeed, Lucier sat in a room, recorded himself reading text that doubled as a score for and explanation of the work, played that recording aloud in the room, recorded that playback, and repeated the process until the the haunting resonant noise of the room, amplified with each repetition, engulfs his speech. Dubbed “the most profound statement about what it is to be human and have ears that has ever been produced” by The Guardian, it is a beguiling beauty. At Big Ears 2019, Lucier will again sit in a room and perform this landmark.
I Am Sitting in a Room is but one part of a program meant to celebrate Lucier’s prolific career. During its first concert ever in the South, the Ever Present Orchestra—launched in 2017 to play Lucier’s music—delivers several of his hypnotic works for larger ensembles. (Big Ears veterans Stephen O’Malley and Oren Ambarchi, who presented the North American premiere of Lucier’s Criss-Cross at Big Ears 2014, are Ever Present members.) Lucier himself will also perform the quixotic Bird and Person Dyning. Clad in microphones and holding an electronic bird whistle, Lucier slowly moves through a space, eliciting feedback between the bird and surrounding speakers. Nearly impossible to capture through recordings, Bird and Person Dyning is something you must witness.
Joan La Barbara, who has been singing Lucier’s works since 1972, joins his celebration. But she also presents a rare program of her own transfixing vocal compositions titled Voice Is the Original Instrument, the title of her groundbreaking 1976 album. For decades, La Barbara has been one of music’s most distinctive and exploratory singers, a composer and performer who has boldly used her voice as a laboratory of experimental sound. A true innovator of extended techniques for the voice, she learned circular breathing, much like horn players Evan Parker or Roscoe Mitchell. She grunts and growls and coos and cries, turning each of those sounds into pieces that challenge our perception of what the voice we all share can do.
This essential quality is what unites Alvin Lucier and Joan La Barbara: For half a century, their work has stretched our understanding not only of how music can sound but also what it can be. That is itself an animating principle of Big Ears, the proud host of these two titans in 2019.
No idea.about either of these could be great might not be.
I am familiar with Lucier...frankly, from a "living legend" standpoint this is kind of a big deal. I know the room piece, and it could be very cool to see done for real.
This sound interesting. A bit of a trend over the last couple of years.
I suppose the Big Hooks come close to the on sale dates.
I saw Joan La Barbara a couple of times.First time at The Kitchen,NYC, circa 1980,solo voice with electronics.Mind blowing would be two words i'd use to describe that evening.Second time was a duet with keyboard/electronics by "Blue" Gene Tyranny.Probably 1990 or 1991, also at The Kitchen,Good but not earthshaking like the first time i saw her.
Sorry to say i haven't seen Alvin Lucier live, i had chances over the years but just punked out.
Two highly esteemed figures in the history(present and past) of "new music".I expect there will be full houses for their concerts.