Have you ever seen a really great street performance -- a performance that makes you stop in your tracks and watch, forgetting that you were on your way to the dentist, or to work, or to Old Navy? I've been lucky enough to witness several of these and there's something magical about them -- like you and the small handful of others in your immediate vicinity are in on something that the rest of the world doesn't know about, even though the performance is free and open to the public. But it's deeper than that, because all of the other people on the street who aren't stopping to watch and listen aren't in on it with you either, even though they're right there! It's gratifying in an elitist I-get-it-and-you-don't sort of way. I think if I was a famous (and talented) musician, I'd put on impromptu performances all the time just to create that environment as often as I could.
So lately these web videos have been popping up featuring impromptu public performances by famous and talented musicians and enough of a critical mass has formed around them in my online and offline lives that I decided it was time to write a post about them.
Last week, The Washington Post ran a piece about an experiment they conducted wherein they took a famous musician playing some of the world's greatest music on a world-class instrument and placed him in a busy DC metro station during commuting hours just to see what would happen. How would people react? Would they recognize great art and stop to smell the flowers, as it were, or would they treat him like any other panhandler and walk on by? Given the particulars of the venue and atmosphere, the results weren't that surprising (and some have criticized the experiment for being all too precious in its attempt to show how we are a culture of philistines).
I'd like to think that I would have recognized a talented musician and stopped, but if I was in a rush on my way to my stressful government job? Maybe not. And while I like to think of myself as a person of taste and at least some culture (I do own a Joshua Bell CD, albeit a newgrass recording he did, not classical), I'm not sure that I would be able to tell the difference between a "world-class" talent like him and a merely very good professional violinist, if recordings were played for me back to back. Hopefully, I would at least be able to tell that the man standing in the corner of the metro station was no ordinary street musician, but who knows?
Now here are two new videos (thanks MeFi) that almost make for an interesting comparison. This time the venues are the streets and courtyards of Montmartre, Paris (the setting of Amélie) and the musicians are The Shins. They receive a warmer welcome, but then it's Paris, they are playing pop music rather than classical, they are several guys including a drummer instead of one single guy, and there is a video camera swirling all around them as they perform. Oh, and at one point, in front of a cafe full of people, a guy announces them as "Le Shins!" So it's not a scientific experiment, but the Shins videos are easier to watch -- more relaxed and natural. Setting is everything.
Spine and I went to Disney World together in the early nineties. We smoked a quick joint of strong, skunky weed in the parking lot before heading through the gates of the Magic Kingdom (ah, youth) and the very first thing we stumbled upon was a quartet of clarinet players doing amazing things in four-part harmony just inside the front gates. We didn't know how to properly process what we were seeing and so we just stood there and watched, giggling to each other at how completely awesome it was, as hundreds of other park attendees passed us by on their way to Tomorrow Land with only a cursory glance at the clarinetists.
I don't really have an end to this post, so I'll just ask you readers to tell your own stories in the comments of amazing, private (or semi-private) little performances that you have been witness to. Some others that I can recall include Matt Hutton and John Ward on Church Street (in the summer of 1989?), Steam Jeanie at the Radio Bean, Neil Cleary at various Xmas parties at my house, Sarah McLaughlin on St. Catherine St. in Montreal, Fats Terminal at the Last Elm Cafe, The Pants at the Last Elm Cafe, Suzanne Vega on the green at UVM (1987?), some incredible Indian musician in South Beach in the mid 90s (with Spine) and most recently, Vehicular at the Molotov Lounge in Austin, TX (while Luke Wilson shot pool 15 feet away).
