[Dixielandjazz] Hoi Polloi Gig Report

[Stephen Barbone]

Just got back from a concert in the County Park on the edge of Media,
Pennsylvania and I'm still coming down. Temperature was 94 degrees at
start time with plenty of  humidity so the crowd was limited to about
500 or so. Even with that heat, 6 of our swing dancer band followers
showed up and danced on the band shell stage with us.  It was a natural
amphitheater setting, grass, lawn chairs etc.

It was a "drenched in sweat" gig. Hottest night of the year. Barbone
Street members, and the dancers were soaked at the end of the 2 hour
concert / show?  The "regular folks" audience loved it. We threw beads
to the little kids who danced for us and the swing dancers did a few
numbers with audience members. I used that sexy line recently posted
when introducing Lindsay, a beautiful young lady dancer. "She is 26,
<long pause> I am 28". Brought the house down when someone hollered out:
"In your dreams." She came over and kissed me on the cheek.

Best of all, the audience clapped after every solo, at the personnel
introductions and for the dancer introductions all night. And we got a
standing O at the end will some yelling and screaming. Much like the
best knowledgeable Dixieland festival audiences, maybe better.

If I sound upbeat, it is because we are realizing that non-jazz heads
really love what we do which is Chicago Style OKOM with a little small
band swing for the dancers. According to the dancers, we are the only
band in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area that plays the up tempo
swinging Dixieland that they find so neat for dancing. Our conclusion is
that there is a huge untapped audience out there. Danceable Jazz?  Now
who thought that up? :-)

The concert was video taped, and we made a few fluffs (heat exhaustion
?) ;-) but the energy was just great. No doubt it will appear on local
cable as I gave permission. BTW Last year we got 6 gigs from the cable
showing of our concert. Also BTW, this year's gig price was 20% higher
than last years proving that you can raise prices in spite of all the
advice we got telling us we couldn't do it.

We seem to get this reaction in all of our concert venues now. We can
hardly wait for tomorrow in Northeast Philadelphia and later this month
at the First Union Band Shell in Reading PA. They tell us we'll get an
audience of 3 or 4 thousand there Friday night, July 26. Big FREE pre
concert promo for that one in "The Reading Eagle" and on local radio.
Interviews have already given to the paper and taped for radio station
at their request. Is this our 15 minutes of fame? With an OKOM band?
Who would have thought that was possible, even on our small scale.

Trite as it sounds, when you get this reaction from regular audiences,
and 26 year old swing dancers go out of their way to follow your band,
it just doesn't get any better. Regular folks don't really listen to
Dixieland?  Don't you believe that nonsense. Best of all, it is doable
for a lot of the Dixieland bands out there looking for places to play
these days.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone