Classical music, BYOB

Well, I have been to some strange performances, but this one must top them all. A small hatch in the side of a garage door, in a seedy back-street of Dublin 1, with a tiny spray-stencil painted "17/21" which was apparently the address. Around the performance time, there was a sign up, "The Shed," with a phone number to call if you wanted to be let in. That's right, you had to ASK to attend this performance. Needless to say, the venue was packed.

When I entered, it was a bit early so there was still sitting room. The sign out front had said "BYOB (no bar)," so people were cracking open cans of Carlsberg and discussing the future performance, last minute rehearsals, whatever needed to get done. I can't recall the Oregon Symphony putting "BYOB" on their programs, but I might be wrong about that one.

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, the composer (Brian Flynn) was quite good. He was a recent Trinity graduate in composition and electronic music, and this current group was called Engine Room Orchestra. His other music is at www.myspace.com/briangflynn and it is more fully composed than the pieces they played last night. He said afterwards that this was only their third gig, so they were focusing on more signal-based pieces, in case people got lost. Oh, that contemporary music. I bet Mahler never played in a construction site.