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Lexington songwriter Coralee performed at the first installment of Sunday Sessions, a new local music series at the Downtown Arts Center’s BlackBox Theatre. Photo by Derek Feldman for patchdrury.net
New downtown music series seeks to increase audience engagement
As they tour the East coast in support of their recently released album “The Wild Mercury,” the alt-folk band Vandaveer is slated to perform at a mixed bag of venues – from living rooms to taverns to outdoor festivals.
“We’re casting a wide net,” says frontman Mark Heidinger. “It’s a pendulum swinging from one side to the other.”
The former Lexingtonian, who recently moved to Louisville after an extended stint in Washington, D.C., is looking forward to March 13, when that pendulum will swing his band back to the Bluegrass for a hometown show taking place at the Downtown Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre. The show will be the second installment the venue’s new series Sunday Sessions, monthly curated concerts that seek to elevate the live music experience in an intimate environment where the audience can truly engage in the performance.
“We hope this offers an evening with Lexington’s amazing music performers in a comfortable setting, where the focus is on the music without the distractions of a bar or restaurant,” said Celeste Lewis, manager of the Downtown Arts Center, of the series. Lewis has been working to bring new audiences and programming to the DAC’s gallery and theater since the city’s division of Parks and Recreation took over management of the arts center in 2014.
A collaboration between the venue and local musicians, Sunday Sessions kicked off Feb. 21 with a dynamic, multi-media event attended by around 90 people. Local musician and classically trained cellist Seth Murphy (Bear Medicine, Ancient Warfare) opened the show with a set he called “Cello Landscapes,” and popular local songstress Coralee headlined the event with a set of new music, against a backdrop of dazzling projections created by Coralee and projected by DAC technical director Tom Willis. In the lobby, a pop-up art exhibit spotlighted a collection of ethereal photographs of Coralee, taken by local photographer Allison May and inspired by the lyrics of Coralee’s new songs.
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Performing before a backdrop of projections she designed, local songwriter Coralee kicked off the first installment of the new downtown music series Sunday Sessions with a set of brand new music last month. The intimate black box theatre setting allowed a platform for the musician to chat with the audience about each song before she played it. Photo by Derek Feldman for patchsdrury.net
Moving forward, Lewis said the series will continue to utilize a variety of media elements, from lighting and film projections to storytelling and art exhibits. Shows will take place monthly through May, and if all goes well, the venue may expand the series into the future.
For Vandaveer, the Lexington venue is the perfect venue to showcase the band’s new songs, which are intimate and subtle in their complexity. The band’s fifth album, “Wild Mercury” was recorded in Lexington by producer Duane Lundy and released via WhiteSpace Records, a new label spearheaded by Lundy and Robbie Morgan. Heidinger says the album was the most labor intensive record he has ever worked on, and is ultimately “the most cohesive collection of thoughts set to music” that band has created.
“We all feel it’s our most complete record,” he said. “It feels like a fully finished thought.”
Heidinger was to point out that the band, which did an entire “living room tour” last year, doesn’t begrudge club shows. But he said that the experience of playing in an intimate space, like a living room or black box theater, allows more leeway to engage with the audience more directly.
“We live in the age of distraction, so it’s nice when you can carve out some time and really focus in on one thing,” said Heidinger. “The act of performing without any amplification in a living room sort of literally and figuratively shrinks the room – everyone is sort of hyper-present in that experience. You can’t chatter your way through a show in the back of the room or be distracted by a television that’s on overhead at the bar.
“It just makes for a more interesting performance for us personally,” he added, “and hopefully that translates to the audience as well.” cc
