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| WE ARE LIGHTNING! Photo by Bryony Jackson |
Welcome to the final night of the Town Hall, a live-music
venue that’s about to be replaced by an apartment building or a hotel or some
kind of progress that feels more like the loss of art and soul.
WE ARE LIGHTNING! was
standing-room only at Arts House last night; the opening night of this new work
by Joseph O’Farrell and Sam Halmarack. It’s a communal experience for the
audience, as well as the many, many performers who help to celebrate the end of
an era through a night of singing and dancing.
It’s a sad phenomenon that has infected many cities across
the world; live music venues closed to accommodate burgeoning populations and
to appease noise complaints. The show itself is a celebration of how live experience
builds a community and the loss they feel when a pub, a club or a space closes
down.
JOF and Sam welcome us to the final night, the bouncers scan
us and stamp us as we’re ushered in and we stake out a place to watch a series
of performers play and sing and rock out and protest the loss of this space we’re
in. There’s a three-piece band, a choir, a brass band and a teenage emo band
who are getting to play their first gig in one of the few places that will let
them step up.
This show takes a scatter-gun approach to embracing and
scorning nostalgia. And the cacophony of sounds here is both exhilarating and
enervating. I have watched spaces close and disappear, robbed of their artistic
merit and intent. This show is both a celebration and a commemoration; it made
me happy and it made me sad.
But at its heart, WE
ARE LIGHTNING wants you to rock out one last time. And that’s reason enough
to get along.
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| WE ARE LIGHTNING! community choirs Photo: Bryony Jackson |
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