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Sons of Bill presided over a grand reopening of the Jefferson Theater near the end of 2009, and sold out the room—all while dodging a volley of undergarments. |
At the year’s end, does it matter how many times Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band play the John Paul Jones Arena? Maybe; I felt pretty strongly about it at the time. But the certain thrills of the local arts scene circa 2009 were more about the folks that call this city home, and their collective ability to make a local venue seem like an otherworldly destination.
Examples? Happy to oblige.
1. Three-and-a-half years after the Jefferson Theater closed for extensive renovations, Coran Capshaw’s 750-capacity Downtown Mall music venue reopened with a sold-out gig headlined by Sons of Bill. We all saw that one coming; no one, however, noticed the bra lofted through the air mid-concert until it landed, breast-free, onstage. “Come on, y’all,” said singer James Wilson, moving from laugh to blush. “My mom’s here.”
2. In a year when several university art museums sold portions of their collections to combat funding cuts, UVA successfully traded a larger, more expensive project—the estimated $118 million Arts Grounds campaign—for a renovated UVA Art Museum, adjacent to the studio-gallery combo Ruffin Hall. The museum also nabbed a new director, Bruce Boucher, and Vice Provost for the Arts Elizabeth Hutton Turner scored a gorgeous Alexander Calder mobile for the museum’s grand opening. Balancing fiscal and artistic sensibility is rough these days; all the more reason to applaud UVA’s efforts.
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AN EXCERPT FROM BRIAN WIMER’S CLAW DOCUMENTARY |
3. Speaking of UVA, the Virginia Film Festival also found some new blood. Former Sarasota Film Festival Director Jody Kielbasa accepted the position of director for the 22nd year of the festival, and brought American Beauty writer/“True Blood” creator Alan Ball in for chats with yours truly. But this fest also brought in stellar flicks by locals. Best double-bill? A Saturday night pairing of Brian Wimer’s Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLAW) documentary and Eric Hurt’s local horror flick, Lullaby.
4. During a blues set by Jamie Dyer and Jamal Millner at Mono Loco, Dyer told me I should catch Millner’s Powerhouse Trio with bassist Houston Ross and drummer Johnny Gilmore. The following week, Gilmore died in a fire at his Fifth Street apartment. A few days after his death, trumpeters John D’earth and Aly Buchanan led scores of local musicians and friends from one end of the Downtown Mall to the other, playing “St. James Infirmary” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The glorious processional that honored Gilmore was an uplifting reminder that many musicians make Charlottesville’s melody.
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A personal Feedback highlight? Interviewing Decemberists leader Colin Meloy before the band’s gig at the Charlottesville Pavilion. But a few local events trumped your columnist’s inner fanboy and shone a tad brighter last year. |
5. UVA artist Dean Dass searches far and wide for hidden natural events that resonate with physical and existential anxieties and truths. This year, people that searched just as hard found moving exhibits by Dass in two small spaces: Lyn Warren’s new Les Yeux du Monde gallery, near her rustic home on Wolf Trap Road, and in the brick cube of The Garage, the space curated by Sam Bush and Kate Daughdrill, located next to The Hill & Wood Funeral Home.
6. Kay Ferguson was killer as Phyllis Diller in Our American Ann Sisters. But it was a great year to be a dude in the local theaters, and a better year if you were in the audience. Ray Nedzel was a superb Lord of the Underworld in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Live Arts’ Glengarry Glen Ross gets my vote for Best Ensemble. And Chris Patrick was thrilling and engaging in nearly everything he did, from his Cornelius Hakl in The Matchmaker to his particularly shining turn as the lecherous lead in Tartuffe.
7. In Hamner Theater’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, music made the Shakespeare come together. And while Lady Madonna didn’t make the 17th century soundtrack, an opening battle of the sexes managed to pit Beyoncé against Flight of the Conchords and Thin Lizzy against Van Morrison. Director John Holdren has a good thing going with his pop perspectives on the Bard’s work, and once told Feedback he won’t be satisfied until he can pair Hamlet with Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to be Kind.” Don’t be cruel, John—make it happen in 2010!
8. In April, The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative entered its fifth year of hyper-local interconnectedness with a fundraiser fiesta dubbed the Revel. The event auctioned off works from an impressive pool of local artists and netted roughly $18,000. More impressive? The crowd, which featured nearly every active member of the city’s artistic community—wearing fake mustaches, making animal noises and getting down ’til the wee hours.
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BEST LOCAL RECORDS OF 2009 Birdlips, Tracks on Repeat single Borrowed Beams of Light, self-titled EP The Cinnamon Band, Buena Vista EP Reliable Narrators, The Best of Robot Musick mixtape Mister Baby, Lucky You! Sons of Bill, One Town Away St. Gods, Young Money EP Uncle Jemima, So Heavy for Something So Empty |
9. A man you don’t know with a band you haven’t heard in a space you didn’t know existed? Not uncommon in our neck of the woods. But DBB Plays Cups—the oft-changing band of songwriter David Baker Benson—played one of my favorite shows of the year in November, to a crowd at newcomer Ryan DeRamus’ Random Row Books on West Main Street. Benson’s project is fiercely appreciative of what it means to know your neighborhood; all year long, there was nothing quite so refreshing as seeing a neighborhood return the appreciation.
10. In May, a private concert dubbed “Esmont Rocks” seemed destined for a happy ending for all parties invited. The night featured more than a dozen local performers, from Mister Baby and Pantherburn to Jim Waive & the Young Divorcees and Horsefang, with pools, food and ample campgrounds to boot. But when Hackensaw Boy Jesse Fiske grabbed the microphone and announced, “I’d like to take this opportunity to marry Miss Jen Fleischer,” a member of the Young Divorcees, it made my year. Plenty of people celebrate the arts in isolation; what made Charlottesville a truly astounding arts community in 2009 was its commitment to celebrating them together.
