Oh!
Last night, I saw Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys for the first time!! They played at the Steve Allen Theater, which they do the first Thursday of every month. Wow!!! Firstly, to get the audience in the mood, they played 5 short films and cartoons from a gentleman named Jerry Beck's collection, all from the ’30’s. And I do mean films. On a real stand-up screen. From a real projector, not a video monitor. Then there was a short intermission and afterwards, JK and the Boys came out to play. Not only was Janet just cute as a button, doing her little dances and gestures, but her vocals and the musicians’ playing were amazing...so authentically from back in the day! They play wonderful songs from the 1910’s, ’20’s, and ’30’s—songs so old that most of us have never even heard of them, let alone heard them. Really charming and funny songs! All of the old traditional instruments were used, like ukulele, piano, violins, stand-up bass, banjo, cornets, and Django Reinhardt-style guitars (and they had some of the old-fashioned microphones, the kind you see in old big band film footage). No percussion, but really, you didn’t even miss it, there was so much going on everywhere else. And like jazz, all of the musicians got a chance to shine, doing solos while the others faded a bit or backed off entirely.
The audience was lively and so into the music—you could tell they were old-timers, having been to these shows before. People were singing, bopping in the seats, making comments from the front row. It was like sitting around someone’s parlor while music was made for the guests, and you could sing along if you knew the words. It did my heart good to see so many people enjoying the same kind of love for the old days as I do. Some people were wearing old-fashioned dresses, glasses, hairdo’s, clothing. One gentleman wore a newsie hat and a bow tie. Some of the musicians wore fedoras. Janet had this perfect 30’s-looking dress—all checker pattern and ruffles—and mary janes (my favorite kind of shoe!). I wore my cloche hat, my vintage burgundy velvet coat, my mary janes (naturally). You have to go in costume! It’s like Ren Faire—street clothes are not an option.
I met a nice guy—I was by myself, he was by himself, and he asked if the seat next to me was available. I said that it was. Conversation ensued. We talked about old films, old music, old-fashioned fonts, graphics, PhotoShop, ProTools (talk about juxtaposition—the old and the new!)...and he had heard of the Dresden Dolls, and had been recommended to go see them live. He had gotten JK's latest CD, Oh!, and also a Hot Club Quartette CD (some of the band members on their own) at intermission, and he opened them and we looked at the gorgeous retro design and fonts on the liner notes. It was lovely to have such an animated conversation with someone I had just met about things that were really interesting to me. We didn’t exchange contact info, and by the time I had gone and bought my CDs post-show, he was gone, but maybe we’ll run into each other at the next JK show, next month. We shall see!
A good time was had by all! It was the bee's knees, baby!
The audience was lively and so into the music—you could tell they were old-timers, having been to these shows before. People were singing, bopping in the seats, making comments from the front row. It was like sitting around someone’s parlor while music was made for the guests, and you could sing along if you knew the words. It did my heart good to see so many people enjoying the same kind of love for the old days as I do. Some people were wearing old-fashioned dresses, glasses, hairdo’s, clothing. One gentleman wore a newsie hat and a bow tie. Some of the musicians wore fedoras. Janet had this perfect 30’s-looking dress—all checker pattern and ruffles—and mary janes (my favorite kind of shoe!). I wore my cloche hat, my vintage burgundy velvet coat, my mary janes (naturally). You have to go in costume! It’s like Ren Faire—street clothes are not an option.
I met a nice guy—I was by myself, he was by himself, and he asked if the seat next to me was available. I said that it was. Conversation ensued. We talked about old films, old music, old-fashioned fonts, graphics, PhotoShop, ProTools (talk about juxtaposition—the old and the new!)...and he had heard of the Dresden Dolls, and had been recommended to go see them live. He had gotten JK's latest CD, Oh!, and also a Hot Club Quartette CD (some of the band members on their own) at intermission, and he opened them and we looked at the gorgeous retro design and fonts on the liner notes. It was lovely to have such an animated conversation with someone I had just met about things that were really interesting to me. We didn’t exchange contact info, and by the time I had gone and bought my CDs post-show, he was gone, but maybe we’ll run into each other at the next JK show, next month. We shall see!
A good time was had by all! It was the bee's knees, baby!
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