"I've Got Blisters on My Fingers!"

Bloggers Night was a lot of fun Saturday. Some of the participants hadn't been to an SLSO concert before, and, from post-concert conversations over beer at the new William Shakespeare's Gastropub down the street from Powell, I gathered folks were mightily impressed by their hometown orchestra. Discussion turned from how Leila Josefowicz threw her whole body into her performance; what kind of electric bass guitar John Patitucci was playing; and who buys hip-hop in Webster Groves.

The posts are coming in. Because this is America and we believe in free expression, these posts are coming to you unedited and uncensored. You'll probably find all sorts of stuff hanging around these blogs that you won't find on this blog: political views, a wider use of the American vernacular, references to bands I haven't heard of, etc., but I know slso blog readers are as open to new experiences as the good people who participated in Bloggers Night are.

Let's start with a rehearsal experience, from Chris King, who besides working as editor of the St. Louis American, writes his own blog, Confluence City. Chris took in the orchestra rehearsal at the Pageant last week--the SLSO performed works by Glenn Branca, Frank Zappa and Edgard Varese prior to the 100 electric guitarists taking the stage for Branca's "Hallucination City,"--and caught a card game in action. Click here.

We have also discovered a YouTube video of the finale to the Thursday night performance of "Hallucination City." At the end you'll see David Robertson--in the red SLSO polo--giving composer/guitarist Steven Mackey a high five.

 

And we'll lead off the Bloggers Night contributors with The Daily Jerome, in which Stubby (SLSO percussionist Tom Stubbs) and the Doctor (DR: David Robertson) make plans. Click here.