LUDOVICO EINAUDI!

All the while, I've been wondering: where on Market St in San Francisco there could be a concert Hall? The area is, largely, depressed and houses a lot of street people. When we found it, I thought: "I would've never noticed it before!" It looked just as gray and dirty as the buildings around it. The only things that were different, was a huge sign that said: "THE EVENING WITH LUDOVICO EINAUDI",   and a long line of people in front of the open doors. The panhandlers were in force, in fact, one of then caught me just as I was taking out my ID from the wallet. She could see through the leather and cloth, because she knew exactly, how much money I had. 

I won the tickets from a raffle by the local classical music radio station. After claiming our tickets from Will Call, we stepped into the "Holy of Holies", to hear the great Ludovico Einaudi. Our seats were just the 'add ons' in a row, but the signs on them were: "VIP". For the first time in my life I was a VIP! As we sat down in an orchestra part of the auditorium, I experienced, what my son calls, a dissociation of expectations and reality. The orchestra was already playing. The hall was dark, except for the theater lights trained on Ludovico by the concert piano and a couple of musicians who were leading at a time. As my eyes adjusted to darkness, I noticed a mysterious man, standing at the back of the stage. I couldn't see the big drum behind him, so I struggled for a few moments with why he was there. Then I saw smoke rising in the projectors'  lights, from the same place where a man stood. At first, I thought that he was smoking. Then an idea occurred that the theater was on fire! In my imagination, I saw the musicians running from the stage, screaming and tripping over their instruments. When that didn't happen, I tried to switch my attention to the music and the general atmosphere.  

I must confess, the maestro Ludovico's music sounded better in  its digital form. Perhaps, its just that the Warfield theater is too old and the sound system is not up to par. It could be, of course, that I don't understand anything in sound or the music.  

Most of the audience was in trance. Personally, I never saw beer being drunk in the concert halls. My head reeled from the smells coming from the closely packed humanity in the room. Someone near by poured, what seemed to be, a bottle of perfume on herself (himself?), the tall man in front of me sipped his beer and swayed to the music, effectively cutting my view of the stage. It smelled like a bar In there! What's that quote? "..the smell of wine and cheap perfume?".  Yep, that about it!