/>So, last night my friend David Takitaki azurethunder put on a great show with international talents Téada and Cara Dillon at the Kalamazoo State Theater.

I got out of work at 3:30 and hit the road around 4:30. The snow had just begun to pick up, but it was big fluffy flakes. Sure, the roads were a little sloppy, but I had until 7:30 to get there. A fill-up (at $1.55/gallon??!) and a quick grab of a Whopper at BK ($1 for a whopper coupon that's good until Dec 28 and benefits a charity? GREAT deal, btw!) The snow made other drivers slow WAY down. Most of the time driving was less than half of the posted speed limit, even when the roads were clear. Grrrrr. But I managed to make it to the theater a little after 7pm.

The Kzoo State Theater is a great theater with this odd mixture of Grecian and Spanish architecture on the inside with sculpture and faux buildings like something you'd expect to see in Europe or the likes. I'm sure you can find some web site out there that tells all about its history somewhere (Bill Lynch was saying that the architect of this place also did other theaters in themes. Apparently the Bay City theater is Egyptian themed with cats and such too.) The show started a little late (to allow for the snowbound travelers to make their way inside, I suspect), but nothing that was uncomfortably late--maybe just 15 or so minutes.

Téada is a 5-piece instrumental group: whistle player Tommy Martin, harpist Grainne Hambly, flutist Damien Stenson, guitarist Sean McElwain, Sligo fiddler Oisin Mac Diarmada, and Bodhran player Tristan Rosenstock (who was also the Narrator/MC of the evening.)
Cara Dillon is an amazing vocalist and sang wonderfully, however when she first got on stage, she was singing a Gaelic song and was kind of flipping her head around like she didn't really plan on being there that night and didn't have any interest in performing. At the same time, some of the members of Téada seemed a little underwhelmed to be there as well. However, after a few songs, they got into their groove and their energy picked up. Also in the show was Brian Cunningham, a soft-shoe dancer who performed during some of the songs as well.

The show was very interesting. It wasn't just a performance, but a bit of a "show and tell" of traditional Irish holiday customs with music.
To set-up songs, Tristan would talk about different aspects of holiday traditions in Ireland--from The American Wake, to Mummers, to Wren Boys, to "Little Christmas", or Nollaig Bheag (Which apparently is unknown in the North of Ireland.)
(more about the show from the Western Herald article written the day of the performance here)

I think the formality of the event, the people who were there and a little bit because of the way the energy of the performance flowed, the crowd was kind of caught between "I want to participate" and "Um... how do I participate". Cara said on many occasions that the crowd could "join in", but because she would often leave tempo, or sing so slowly or softly, it made folks feel uncomfortable to even begin or try. However, I found myself trying to clap often so as to "lead" the drunken guy sitting near us who would begin clapping for no good reason, and had NO rhythm either. *sighs*

The turn-out was a bit under what was expected and there were a lot of reasons for that -- other events that evening, the show also performing at Central the next day maybe, the weather, economy, etc. Some of us came out at the very least to show our support for Dave. Bill, Emily, Jim, Jenny, Travis (Musk.) and his girlfriend and a few others weathered the roads. Some others drove down from Traverse City to see the show!



The good news here is that the show was great and the performers and theater apparently were very happy with the event. Perhaps this is the groundwork for an annual event.

Afterwords we had a bite at Steak & Shake, then it was the drive back North to home. I expected the roads to be terrible, but they were clear and fine... all the way back to Allendale, which turned into a white-out as soon as I hit the GVSU campus. But other than 25 foot visibility and the drifting snow, the roads were easy to drive and I made it home faster than on the way there (lack of traffic does that!)