[steve k]

Did anyone else catch the Kronos Quartet tonight at the Touhill center?
Man, they were awesome. They played everything from, Blind Willie Johnson to Charlie Mingus, to Ethiopian, Mariachi, Turkish, and American music, a beautiful song by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. When they came out for their second encore, someone yelled out "Purple Haze!" so they sat down and played Hendrix' version of the Star Spangled Banner!

Nothing like an amplified string quartet all feeding back at the same time  They burned the house down! Two standing O's from the crowd. I didn't quite know what to expect here and I was totally blown away.  
steve k

[sturgus]

No wonder I couldn't catch you last nite. Sounds like it was great show. Would have loved to been there. So how do you like the Touhill for concert venues?
Sturgus

[steve k]

It came up really quick. Alison was able to get us all free tickets they offered for her playing in the Desmond Lee Orchestra at Touhill back in February. It's a beautiful building (OK, I'm biased about that sh&t).   Very much a first class venue with excellent site lines and acoustics. THe Busch Performance Hall (where we were) has two wrap around balconies and is proportioned very much like a classic European OPera House.

We were sitting in the 4th row and the sound was excellent. On their amplified pieces, they played through the house system which consists of a pair of speaker banks on each side of the stage covered with curved perforated screens (similar to giant 8 foot high Soundlabs). I could see about 6 or 8 12" woofers stacked behind the screens. Couldn't make out the mids and highs but the sound was very neutral and effortless. They got pretty loud in the Hendrix but it was clean as a whistle.

Their next event is April 8--The Clown Princes. They're going to show 3 silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and the Paragon Ragime Orchestra is going to perform the original silent movie scores to accompany the movies.

steve k