Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Still Whining After All These Years

When the tornado came through down town Fort Worth on a Tuesday in 2000, my most pressing concern was if Caravan of Dreams would be open by Thursday for the scheduled John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers show.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have compassion for those who suffered damages. I did. But I also had tickets for a front row center table. And Mayall at the Caravan was guaranteed to be a good show.
Downtown was too damaged for that show to go on and the gig was canceled. Not rescheduled, canceled. Caravan of Dreams was done. I just didn’t know it yet.
Shortly after the twister visited, the Caravan closed it’s doors.
The beautiful, best-music-club I’ve ever been in was replaced by another of Cowtown‘s cultural experiences. For a gastronome, it made little difference. For the music enthusiast of Boomer age, it was a tragedy.
The Bass family opened their music Hall and thought that might help pacify Caravan’s fans. The Hall performances are first-class, the venue is classical, the service is mostly impeccable. But it’s a different experience. The Caravan was the perfect mix of concert and nightclub. Bass Hall doesn’t come close to fulfilling the Caravan’s paradigm.
Fast forward six years. I was one of the approximately 180 people at McDavid Studio recently to hear Alan Haynes with Jim Suhler & Monkeybeat play two sets of quality guitar-driven rock-and-blues based music.
A nightclub “atmosphere” seems intended by the set-up, with comfy chairs around tables for four, and a table bar set up in the corner of the large, acoustically sound but otherwise cold, sterile room.
If using standing room, I’m guessing it could hold three hundred friendly people or two hundred patrons allowing personal space for furs and jewelry.
Bothersome were the blazered employees paired together in the studio, hallways and entrance. Poised and professional, they were noticeable in the sense that I couldn’t figure out what the purpose was.
It’s a find-your-own seating policy so ushering wasn’t needed. They were very helpful as I negotiated the hallways on the initial bathroom trek, and smiled as I passed thereafter. But would a place employ people merely to help others find their way to the bathrooms? Or was it more of a security squad to keep wandering the halls to a minimum, which would be easy to do in the multi-use building? It was very hard to tell.
During the performance, the mostly middle-aged crowd cheered and clapped, and one happy-footed woman stood up and danced to one song. Bless her heart, she moved from dancing near her table to the far side of the stage. It’s hard to dance like no one’s watching when your table is front row center.
The blazer-ed brigade mostly sat around the perimeter during the show. I thought at the time, and still do, that they could have been much more productively used as cocktail servers. They aren’t your average cocktail server type, but who needs stereotypes anyway?
The bar service was easy and the tenders friendly and drink prices were probably average for downtown and less than Nokia Theater. The price point seemed to be six dollars. Add a dollar tip each drink and it’s two dollars over what I pay at my usual haunts. But maybe I’m just lucky.
If you live downtown, and haven’t yet attended a McDavid studio show, it won‘t hurt. Just plan on finding a hot joint afterwards, where your happy feet have company and you can get your groove on.
Mr. Bass, I knew Caravan of Dreams and McNair/McDavid studio is no Caravan.
But it is a really nice place to hear music.

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