Performance Review Report on Chris Cresswell, Essay Example

The performance took place at a bar called The Horseshoe Tavern, which is located at 370 Queen Street, west Toronto. It is a bar downtown which has a live music room in the back which for concerts and live performances. I went there on Saturday, 11^th of April at night to watch Chris Cresswell perform live. Chris Cresswell is a singer who is a member of a rock band called The Flatliners. The band has been active since 2002 and is currently signed to the record label Fat wreck chords (Wikipedia). On that night, he performed alone without any of his band members and he just played his guitar and sang. Just before the performance, concert goers can be seen smoking on the patio and relaxing. The live music room in the bar is small and dark and people can be seen talking and drinking beer. The only lights in the concert room are the stage lights and dim red lights.

The overall experience was soulful as Cresswell is one to sing songs for the broken-hearted. This type of singing is just right for a bar as most people that come there to drink come to forget their worries and drown them in music and beer. The genre Cresswell and his band members sing is called Punk Rock. Punk Rock started its inception in 1975 and it still captures the minds of young people today. Though it was predicted by critics that most of these bands would operate on a modest scale but they would still be in it for a long haul (Mcdonald 1987). This can be perceived to be true while taking The Flatliners as a case study because even though they are not as popular as Beyoncé or Jay Z, they have been together as a band since 2002 and they have been appreciated for their music by those who are aware of punk rock and see the value in them.

Furthermore, there were about five songs performed that night and one of the songs that people really liked was Daggers. I think this song was captivating because people could relate to it and the emotion put into it by the performer made the audience feel the music. The song was also more alluring because of the lyrics of the song. It is a great song for people who wants to unwind after a stressful day or who have been heartbroken by lovers, friends or family. There was a text in the verse that said “Spent our years lighting up the black corners of our love, only to fall victim to your dagger”. This is relatable because as humans, we tend to disappoint and be disappointed. Also there is a whistling section in the song where the singer whistles and this makes the song even more attractive because whistling can be used to evoke healing (Katz and Dobkin de Rios 1971). The performance that night was strong and solid because I could feel the audience being carried along with the music, just as I was too.

Cresswell performed solo with an electric guitar and there were infrequent jumps in pitch and dynamics. Sometimes he gets really soft and other times he is loud. There are sometimes that the songs are shouted instead of sung and I think this is due to word painting that is put into play in the performance. Most of the songs that were song were homophonic with just accompaniment from the guitar he was playing. The guitar is a plucked string instrument and the name comes from the ancient Sanskrit word for string which is Tar (Guy 2007). Taking the song Daggers as an example, the tempo is moderate and it has a steady beat. It is also syllabic because it has one pitch per syllable. Cresswell sang with a nasal constant sound which was also full.

In conclusion, the overall performance was great. This is not coming from a personal point of view because since I am not a big fan of the genre, there was no bias in the analysis of the performance. Based on my observation of the people and the performer, he did a good job in making everyone present in the room feel the song that were performed, which is what performance is about.

References

Guy, Paul. 2007. “A Brief History of the Guitar” (Accessed- April 14, 2015)

Katz, Fred and Marlene Dobkin de Rios. 1971. “Hallucinogenic Music: An Analysis of the Role of Whistling in Peruvian Ayahuasca Healing Sessions.” The Journal of American Folklore. 84(33): 320-327

Mcdonald, James. 1987. “Suicidal Rage: An analysis of Hardcore Punk Lyrics.” Popular Music and Society. 11(3): 91-102

The Flatliners. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flatliners (Accessed- April 13, 2015)