Diana Krall arrived at the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts for a concert with Anthony Wilson on guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass, and Karriem Riggins on drums. Krall told the audience this was the second concert she’s done since November 2019.
While Diana Krall and her band performed well, the audience did not. Cell phones went off constantly, some people arrived a half hour late and crawled over other people in their row to get to their seats, and there was a random parade of audience members ceaselessly marching up and down the aisles during Diana Krall’s 100 minute performance. Dreadful!
We had to show Picture ID and Proof of Vaccination to get into the Center for the Arts. But once Diane and I were admitted, we found we were about the only ones wearing masks (although signs encouraged mask wearing).
Diana Krall thanked the audience for coming out on such a cold night to hear her play her piano and sing with her breathless voice. In return, 10% of the audience got up to leave between the end of the concert and the Encore. Rude and disrespectful!
DIANA KRALL CONCERT GRADE: B+
AUDIENCE: F
SET LIST:
- Love Being Here With You
- All or Nothing at All
- Let’s Fall in Love
- Let’s Face the Music and Dance
- I Was Doing All Right
- Abandoned Masquerade
- Moonglow
- ‘Deed I Do
- To Ramona
- Simple Twist of Fate
- I Don’t Know Enough About You
- Encore
- The Look of Love
- ‘S Wonderful
That’s too bad about the audience. Sometimes it’s better to have an opening act so everyone is settled in. I’m surprised she does a couple of Bob Dylan songs. I saw her about five years ago and she did a couple of her husband’s songs (Elvis Costello) which I didn’t expect. She did The Look of Love than too, a song I detest.
I’m fond of “The Look of Love”, even if the lyrics are Not For the Ages…Krall is clearly influenced by the likes of Dusty Springfield as well as Blossom Dearie and others of a certain approach to jazz vocals.
Todd, I know some people who don’t like Diana Krall’s breathless delivery, but everyone seems to like Krall’s piano playing.
Steve, I liked the Bob Dylan songs DIANA KRALL sang. Typically at these University concerts, there’s rarely a warm-up act.
That does sound like a Non-Receptive audience, just looking to Go Out and Forget about masking, the COVID strains, and manners. Reminds me of the first time I saw the Modern Jazz Quartet live, opening for the very late and dull Miles Davis fusion band, not long before his death, the audience in part and too often as a whole verging on rude while waiting to see Davis’s shades and jumpsuit. Krall will stick with me in some part because she was the last musician I can think of whom my mother was newly very fond of before Alzheimer’s really began to ravage her life, as we watched a televised concert together on a visit to my parents’ house..
Todd, that’s a touching memory of you, your mother, and Diana Krall.
I haven’t heard a lot of her music but have mostly liked what I’ve heard. Not sure how an audience like this should be handled. Perhaps ushers armed with Tasers. Have you been there before?
Michael, before the Pandemic, Diane and I attended over a dozen concerts at SUNY at Buffalo’s CENTER FOR THE ARTS. It’s an excellent venue, 2200 seats with great nightlines, and wonderful acoustics. None of those concerts were marred by the egregious behavior of the audience we witnessed during Diana Krall’s performance.
This is a good example of why I still have no intention of venturing out for the foreseeable future. Audiences at concerts and movies had already been increasingly boorish over the past decade and the pandemic just turned them into the biggest babies imaginable. Everyone just can’t get over having had to “endure” a few months of restrictions and now that most have been lifted they no longer know how to act when they go out en masse (and these same idiots wonder why so many people have quit their service sector jobs).
No musician should be treated like that. It’s bad enough downloading and now streaming killed any chance for the vast majority of them to make a living off their recordings but to have lost over two years of their one remaining source of income only to finally get back on the road and be treated like this is outrageous. My sympathy to you and your wife.
On a related note, I live in a more progressive, pro-mask community and I’ve also noticed pretty much everyone but those who have to work with the public and myself have ditched their masks. What a world.
Byron, 700 Americans are dying each day of Covid-19. That fact seems to be ignored by most people. Boorish behavior shows up at concerts and movies (even MARVEL movies!) with endless progressions of audience members traipsing up and down the aisles. Cell phones go off, some people talk during the performance, and others get up and leave the moment the concert is over…while the performers are still taking their bows. Disgusting!
You would think that an audience would be so glad to be back at a concert that their behavior would be impeccable. The one I went to at the DSO, everyone was masked. But that was more than a month ago now. Maybe things are loosening up. Although the audiences at the Detroit Film Theater were masked too.
Patti, Diane and I will be wearing our N95 masks for concerts forever now.
I never have any problems. For movies I usually go during the day and the audiences are small and well behaved. Went to see Sparks at the Royal Oak Music theater last night and the audience was well behaved although not a lot of masks being used.
Steve, too many people are being too casual about Covid-19. The BA.2 variant is raging in our area.
That’s TERRIBLE!
I really like Diana Kroll, bought her first 5 albums as they were released, listened to them a LOT. “Errand Girl For Rhythm” is a favorite.
There is NO EXCUSE for such rudeness. Cell phones shouldn’t even be allowed in concerts, if you can’t live without the damned device for a couple of hours, stay home! Maybe this behavior is acceptable at a hair metal gig, but not In something like this! If I were DK, I’d never return to Buffalo.
Rick, I would estimate the average age of the audience at the Diana Krall audience to be around 60. Not a lot of young people in this crowd so the boorish behavior can’t be blamed on youth. If I was Diana Krall, I’d be insulted by all the distractions during the concert. As a Diana Krall fan, I’m insulted that the crowd was so disrespectful. I wouldn’t blame Diana Krall if she scratched Buffalo off her list of future cities to tour.
Thanks for changing Krall to Kroll, autocorrect. Damn.
George, sad to say, I am not at all shocked by the description of the audience’s behavior. Go to any concert at the Beacon, a terrific 3300 seat venue on Broadway and 74th Street, and the audience seems to be in motion from start to finish (though few leave before the encores). Cell phones are always on as many record their favorite songs. Some annoying people stand up throughout the concert and feel free to block the people behind them. You need to know this going in and be prepared. We always get aisle seats. It’s still worth it if you like the performers. Steely Dan usually does a week or more of concerts there in the Fall (though this year we are seeing them at Jones Beach). This year we have tickets for Bonnie Raitt in June and Jackson Browne in July.
Jeff, I’ve been to some concerts with constant motion by the audience in the aisles, but the traffic during the Diana Krall concert was particularly egregious.
I wouldn’t go to a concert if they paid me. Those people should be kicked out.
So which is it, Krall or Kroll?
I think people are so used to watching things at home on big-screen televisions they forgot how to behave in an audience! The jerks! When I went to movies and a chatter sat near me I’d ask, “Do you plan to talk through this entire movie?” Usually they shut up! If they didn’t I’d find another seat!
Bob, I tend to agree with you on people with Big-Screen TVs who forgot how to act as part of an actual audience. Diane and I have spoken to noisy people in movie theaters. But, I don’t know how to stop the constant movement of people up and down the aisles throughout the entire concert!
If they don’t know the difference between home and a concert venue, they should STAY HOME.
Let’s be charitable and assume the audience was not an unruly pack of churlish boors, but essentially decent folk whose manners have been dulled by months and years of isolation.
Dan, that’s one way to spin it. But, I’ve seen this type of dysfunctional behavior in other venues…but not to this extent.