Vancouver music fans flock to unique pairings of music with film, games, tea time and more
Article content
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Vancouver Jazz Festival co-artistic director Cole Schmidt is super excited about The Hargrove. The recently opened off-Main Street venue that includes the jazz festival administrative offices is the perfect kind of space for the intimate, unique events local audiences are increasingly attending.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
While stadium spectaculars and pop star pageants regularly sell out, getting customers out to a smaller show isn’t a slam dunk.
Article content
Sun Spots
Article content
Post-COVID, people are looking for more than another evening at the nightclub. With its mish-mash of assorted seating, funky lighting, and back alley entrance off of East 3rd Avenue, The Hargrove has hosted album release parties and regular concerts. The space is also a hive for songwriting intensives and lecture/shows about specific musical genres.
Article content
“There are a lot of models I’m referencing for the space like The China Cloud, as well as the ’80s loft scene and the Big Ears Festival,” says Schmidt. “Hosting things like Feven Kidane and Nebyu Yohannes talking about Ethiopian music is a really neat way to package things. Getting a little more intimate look into the mind of the artist is meaningful.”
Article content
Article content
Multi-instrumentalist bandleader Kidane is a rising star on the Canadian jazz scene.
Article content
No stranger to performances paired with an additional lecture or film screening, she regularly appears in unique performances. That Hargrove presentation spun-off the similarly themed Halleluya Hailu Plays Ethiopia, directed by Feven Kidane show that takes place July 4 at Performance Works at this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Tickets: coastaljazz.ca.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
“People want an immersive experience, and we are in an age where they want to more than just hearing the show or watching the movie, but getting to pick the artists’ brains as well,” said Kidane. “When we did the Ethiopian show, it was more like a lecture where my partner and I shared our experiences of a recent trip and played. When I’m on before a film screening, it’s more about saying something about the artist in the film rather than talking, which is also cool.”
Article content
The film screenings Kidane is referring to is the very successful VIFF Live Year-Round series. Co-presented by VIFF Centre and Infidels Jazz, the format of a pre-show musical performance prefacing a documentary screening has proven to be a big hit.
Article content
VIFF programmer Tom Charity says the demand for this type of multi-media showcase has been growing for the past decade.
Article content
“What we call event cinema like this has been growing for the past decade as a response to the streaming age, with things such as the Live At The Met performances and such,” he said. “Post-pandemic, we began doing a lot more of the hybrid music and film shows as a way to convince people to come back to the cinema, and it works. We regularly sell out these shows and, therefore, are doing more of them.”
