We went to Dallas for a week at Christmastime, and visited Northpark Center, the fancy shopping mall I wrote about last spring. This time, however, there were lots of sales.
Mrs. W wanted a pair of shoes, of course. So we got those, but what really the highlight of our visit was the musicians performing near a large sculpture on loan from the Nasher Sculpture Center. (The mall and sculpture center are owned by the same family, named Nasher.)
While walking around in the mall we heard beautiful music being performed. It wasn't coming from the PA system so we headed towards where it was coming from, and eventually found musicians sitting on a platform near a giant orange sculpture.
The group is named DSQelectric, and four of the members were playing electric instruments: violins, a viola and a cello. We didin't know there were such electric instruments made!
Of course, they were not playing for free. Nearby was a table with both of their CDs for sale, so at least those who wanted to take home their music could.
Story time: We, too, wanted to buy a CD, but when it came our turn the iPhone being used for credit card sales had run out of power! One of the musicians intervened.
Musician: "Do you have cash?"
Us: "No, no cash."
Musician: "Well, can you write us a check? We'll accept a check."
Us: "No. We didn't bring any with us."
We found it humorous that a quartet with all kinds of electrical gadgets didn't think to plug in the iPhone!
(End of story.)
Their music was amazing. Since all of the instruments were electric and plugged into a mixer board (just like ours!) which then went to amplifiers, the music was loud enough. The mixer knobs allowed the unique sounds of the instruments to be heard above the never-ending din of the mall, so from afar the music sounded great, and close up we could hear how the mix of the four instruments contributed to the songs they played.
Instead of sheet music, the musicians used iPads to read their music. They'd follow along, kind of like reading the pages of a downloaded book. It was interesting.
And their music! It wasn't symphonic music. Rather, they played selections from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Led Zepplin and other popular singers and groups. It was really something.
Some people were sitting in a large "U" on the floor around their platform, while others were standing outside the U. Many had their eyes closed and were softly singing along, or were swaying to the music. It was really something.
Between songs people would go to the table and buy one or both albums. We went to buy an album when the group took a break, and that's when the iPhone ran out of battery. (They were loading software on another iPhone at the time.)
Several places on the group's website has samples of music to listen to, and the music sounds so much better in a studio than in the mall. And if you want, you can download songs to your musical gadget (the name escapes me at the moment) from iTunes or just buy the CDs.
Enjoy!
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P.S.
If you ever need to do a project into how organizations are using social media, YouTube, and websites to promote themselves, this group would be an excellent place to start.