Dance and Democracy

Mik and I caught Andra Day on the Granville Strip last night. Remarkable show; super glad I went, despite the fact that I hadn’t heard her name before, learned it off the sign above the Commodore Ballroom’s box office roughly 9.87 minutes before she took the stage. Was fully under the impression that Mik had said “Andrew” on the phone.

Andra Day bantered a lot. One of the things that caught our attention was “This is a conversation: we’re not just up here singing for you.” With that sort of thinking she encourages audience engagement, reminding us about our role in making meaning of the music.

This kind of attitude to art is democratic. She introduced her cover of Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn” by calling for a reopening of nonpartisan dialogue in the wake of Trump’s election.

The Commodore was nice enough to offer Hannah Robertson (Torben’s sister) a free ticket to the show. Was it because of our good looks or wry charm? Probably both; but Hannah was “too tired” to attend.

Day certainly brought it for the last stop of her tour. See our pics as evidence. Maybe the vocals were mixed a tad too loud, and the keyboard too quietly, but nonetheless her performance was emotionally impactful.