By Dan Deming
The most lasting and perhaps important part of Thursday night’s latest Hutchinson Community Concert may be the potential for firing up the C.C. crowd to oppose tearing down Memorial Hall, something a majority of the city council and city manager currently seem inclined to favor.
The city council is holding a listening session Thursday evening, May 8th, at the old historic but increasingly costly building to maintain, and is seeking public input.
C.C. enthusiasts helped kill past efforts to scrap the hall, and if they and other opponents get organized and make their opinions heard, it may be difficult for city hall to carry out what appears to be a mission of destruction in an election year. It could cost taxpayers well over two million dollars if one of the alternatives, opening up Cow Creek under the hall for an expanded Avenue A Park, turns out to be the council’s will.
The amazingly low price of buying into six community concerts for $60 makes every show a bargain, even if an event, like the “Sail On”/Beach Boys Tribute, had a lot of music, 15 to 20 percent lacking the real B.B. sounds, which admittedly aren’t the easiest to duplicate. Attendance was announced as “about 900,” and by far, it was the best turnout this season. Virtually every main floor seat was taken, and there’s little doubt that most of those turning out liked what they heard.
While the back-of-stage lighting was attractive, the pre-recorded narrative, including comments from the real Beach Boys, wasn’t the easiest to understand, audio-wise, and could have been greatly enhanced with a visual and sound display. Overall, the music was acceptable to good, but in my estimation, the after-intermission show opened with at least a “semi” slaughter on five of six familiar but not well-done songs. Memorial Hall music always sounds better on the main floor, especially for those with any type of audio impairment.
None of this seemed to bother most people in the audience, especially as they sang along and clapped to hits such as “Help Me Rhonda” and “The Sloop John B,” both of which were well done.
The concert season closes Monday evening, May 5th, with Alliance Brass and another opportunity to get ticket holders who cling to Memorial Hall like a 5-year-old with ice cream to get inspired for expressing their feelings about saving the building from that planned wrecking ball.
