Funky Maceo

Joe has definitely taken on a task of being my social director last week as he very kindly took me under his protective wing to see Maceo Parker performing in The Picture House this Saturday. This venue is just down the road from us and last year it was Adam who intorduced us to an excellent music spectacle there and this time it was also a great fun! I had a great time listening to an amazing performance (that woman singer, what a voice - she nearly brought the walls crumbling down!) but also observing people bouncing around me to the rythm of a funk jazz music while absorbing a great energy coming from the stage.

However I could not help but notice that in these circumstances (of live music) one has some trouble with finding a right way of behaving while standing in the audience crowd - should I be dancing? Should I better just move my head to the rythm while smiling approvingly? Should I just move my feet shuffling or should I work out a more elaborate performance? Perhaps Ishould just be standing clutching my drink and not move at all getting more and more embarassed by people getting crazier and crazier around me?

In the end Joe and I we got fed up by avoiding being hit by several dancing vigorously (and whistling furiously at the same time!) Latin teenagers and we moved back towards the bar area which turned out to be a master stroke as the sound was so much better there. This was also the place where a more sophisticated kind of jazz fans gathered perched on several bar stools at high tables and I must say I liked it there much more than being tuck between a couple making out in the darkness and a dreadlocked and unwashed foreign students jumping up and down.

Maceo granted us with almost two hours of extremely vigorous performance (as one might expect from somebody who used to be a saxophone player for James Brown). It definitely put me in a good mood for the rest of my working Saturday evening (as yes, I have skipped a round of drinks with Joe to start working on my latest illustrative commission due on Monday). Thank you, Joe! Next drinks are on me.

Images courtesy of Joe's iPhone as my little camera (mea culpa  as I brought my old little Olympus with me because of the size of my handbag) could not cope with the speed of Maceo's movement on stage (and I have resized Joe's image):