Last night we had a new experience. The Mrs. found out about this thing called “Candlelight Concerts” and got tickets for us and the kids to attend “A Tribute to Queen” in San Francisco.
I kept asking her questions about it and she didn’t know really anything about the event other than music in a candlelit setting. I asked, “where did you find out about this?” and her reply was “I dunno, on the interwebz somewhere?!?” So we went in totally blind, but it turned out to be a really cool experience!
The event wasn’t in a musical venue, in fact it was in some weird art gallery on Market Street, the “International Art Museum of America”.
Long story short, it was just what they said it was, a concert by candlelight. Maybe 100 or so people in the audience. A string quartet played essentially Queen’s greatest hits along with a few classical pieces thrown in for good measure. It was pretty mesmerizing. The arrangements of Queen’s songs for the quartet (2 violins, a viola and cello) were outstanding and the musicians were top notch.
I don’t think I’ve ever ventured outside “rock concerts” on this blog, but I am actually more musically diverse than you might think… I’ve seen a number of symphony performances, some opera (which honestly was for the Mrs., it’s not really my thing), a bunch of jazz shows… my tastes run wild and free! But I do absolutely LOVE a string quartet. We even had one play at our wedding nearly 35 years ago. I understand that is a popular thing now, but back then people thought we were weird for doing it! Bottom line, I love music like I love air and water. A talented musician on pretty much any instrument (aside from the accordian and bagpipes) makes my soul sing!
They didn’t allow pictures or video during the performance so I don’t have any to post, but since it was so dark they wouldn’t have come out on my crummy phone camera anyhow…
Overall, I would say it was a GREAT experience and I would certainly do it again. If this sounds interesting to you, go check out https://candlelightexperience.com/ and see if the have an event near you. They claim to have performances in over 100 cities, so you might just find something up your alley in your neck of the woods. I can think of a thousand worse ways to spend an evening!
One last thing I must add… I know I’ve talked a lot of smack about San Francisco in these pages, but I have to say IT HAS BECOME EXPONENTIALLY WORSE over the last few years. Last night was the most disgusting, vile, trip down SF streets yet. We were parked only about 4 blocks from the venue and in those four blocks were were dodging crap on the sidewalks – literally every 50 feet or so – and running a gauntlet of feral “humans”, the likes of which I’ve never seen. I’ve been disgusted many a time in San Francisco, but this was the first time I felt both disgusted AND unsafe. It is really a tragedy of “progressive policies” and those policies have turned a once great city into an urban wasteland. But that’s a story for another day…
Anyhow, disgusting human element aside, we really had a great time and I can wholeheartedly recommend #CandlelightConcerts!
Thanks for stopping by!
The Boring Old Man 