By Vic Triepke Santa Monica
I was sorry to see the sparse turnout two weeks for the Twilight Dance Series performance of the Indian artist Kiran Ahluwalia, but I truly believe that the bookings this summer were getting a little too weird. Everyone in Santa Monica is appreciative of the opportunity to hear free music on the pier with impressive sound and lighting, but every year it seems like the bookings become more “artsy” and less in touch with what people truly want to hear.
Not all of the shows are inaccessible. The well-attended shows by Dick Dale and Pancho Sanchez are proof that the bookers can choose artists that really cross all age barriers and still have credibility. I am not suggesting that the series should offer tired, generic headliners like Eddie Money or bland “tribute” bands that overrun the calendars of other open air concerts but a headlining act like Kiran, billed as an artist exploring a poetic song form from 14th century India called Ghazal, doesn’t really connect at a huge open air venue surrounded by two or three beer gardens and an amusement park.
Last summer, I took a chance and attended one of the concerts with my 12-year-old daughter. The headlining act turned out to be several men wearing robes and turbans sitting on the floor of the stage exchanging hip-hop offerings about the goats in their native African village. The novelty wore off in about 10 minutes and it wasn’t long before it heard the inevitable question “How much longer?”
I have nothing against new music or international music but it just seems like the more appropriate venues for these acts might be museums, downtown raves, art galleries, Royce Hall at UCLA or college ethnomusicology concerts. It’s also not always fair to the artists to showcase them to an audience who has no idea who they are and pray that they “get it.” When an artist performs that is accustomed to a more focused, intimate environment the audience is usually polite for the first 10 minutes, but eventually the talking in the crowd becomes louder and louder and the performer becomes the equivalent of a lounge pianist playing a happy hour at an airport hotel. I have witnessed a number of performers yelling from the stage “Shut up!” because the crowd has lost interest and the talking has become a real distraction. That never happened when Fishbone played last summer.
Some of the concerts must be a little disappointing to the sponsors. Especially if they are trying to connect with visitors to the city. Imagine a family of four from the Midwest leaving Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and strolling into the concert only to find that they are watching five Irish art students try to sing the entire Tom Waits song catalog from 1984 in Spanish.
Why do some of the shows get so weird? Some of my friends think that the bookers are the equivalent of rock journalists that make up their top 10 list to impress other journalists and show how “underground” they can really get. I am sure they get plenty of praise from other music industry insiders but they really have lost touch with the open-minded audiences in Santa Monica.
Most of the fans of the Twilight Concert series won’t take the time to write a letter like this. They just don’t show up. I did see a lot of the regulars at an outdoor concert this week. Unfortunately, it was at the free show by Jewel at the Grove Farmer’s Market.
We all truly appreciate the free concerts at the pier, but we just kind of resent that someone feels it’s important for us to experience a storyteller that takes us on a musical journey to learn how to paint a fish.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.