TML 10, Audience 8

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So here I am, liveblogging from the NorthStar.  

M and Professor L gave a great lesson and as I write there are 5 couples on the floor, all of them with at least one beginner.

A very nice crowd - and more so, since our local tango orchestra, Tango Much Labia, seems to be taking the night off.

I am not surprised as this is the first full week of school; the violinist teaches at the local school system and if it were me I'd take the night off too.  They will be back in two weeks.  

I hope.

TML is a game bunch and very talented, to boot.  I've written seven or eight tangos with them in mind - or ear.  Not all are performed but they are seriously considered.  There isn't time to play every clever piece that comes down the pike.

My friends played a part in last weekend's shennanigans up in Thomaston.  They provided the first night of music for Saltwater Tango and also played on Labor Day at the Picnic for Alternative Energy in Union.

I suppose there are lot's of reasons to take an alternative approach to Labor Day.  Anything that takes away from an holiday ("a holiday"?) meant to make American celebrations of labor a part of the agenda of industrialists is a good thing in my book.

This particular event was about as alternative as they come.  For one thing it was so alternative that no-one seemed to know about it.  For another it struck me as strange that the second thing set up (besides a rather nice portable stage/sound system) was a large gas-fired outdoor barbecue immediately employed to start scorching beef for alternative burgers.

Or maybe they were cleverly disguised ears of corn.  I don't know.  I suppose they were using propane as an alternative to using wood.  I never would have thought of that.  Perhaps if I thought less then global warming would go away.

Or not.

TML played a solid set very much like those we hear at the NorthStar - considering the venue that seemed a good choice.  Additional support came in the form of 6 demonstration dancers (a demonstration - you see, it really was "alternative") who danced to the music.

I was thinking fast enough to set my laptop up in front of a speaker in an attempt to capture some audio from the gig.  The sound was not the best, of course, but the parts were all there.

It was one of those strange affairs made up of having a crowd smaller than the performing ensemble.

There was every good chance that more people would have shown up in time, I mean, what with the barbecue and all, but I didn't have time to wait.  Sadly TML opted to be foolishly professional, both starting and ending on time, leaving the potential for a larger crowd for later groups.

What is the moral of this story? 

Hell, I have no idea.