Wells Street Art Festival

Raviv – Around Town – June 8, 2024

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I wanted to see the trio Raviv, for my my first time seeing electric cello players (two brothers, one in college and the other in high school, which hasn’t stood in the way of them getting bar gigs), at the Old Town Art Fair, but wasn’t sure I could get there in time, so I decided I’d see them later in the day instead at the Wells Street Art Fair, which is less crowded and closer.

But there was the expectation of rain in the afternoon (appropriately Raviv translates as rain or raindrops), so, despite running late, I rushed to see some of their set at the OTAF.

Of course, the weather then started clearing up, so I decided to double up and see what I had missed of them at the WSAF, where my hand stamp from the OTAF would do me no good whatsoever in terms of entry. I went home first and changed shoes so they wouldn’t recognize me and think I was some kind of stalker.

There was no cowbell, but there was loud drumming, which, though good, I would have turned the volume down on to better highlight the cellos. I’ve heard drums before.

The brothers played the cellos like electric guitars, if those had only four strings, and were planted on the ground and played upright, with bows, in a way that put Jimmy Page’s bowing with The Yardbirds to shame.

Meghan “Big Red” Murphy – Wells Street Art Festival – June 10, 2023

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The Wells Street Art Festival should really be called the Wells Street Drinking and Eating Disgusting Fried Foods Festival, but there was art on display.

This was a different kind of Big Red performance than what I have seen in the past, and I’ve seen quite a few – a bawdy holiday show with her and The Boys at a couple different theaters, a tour de force performance as The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, a solo cabaret show, a third of a We Three trio of ladies at Steppenwolf of all places, a musical guest at the Green Mill’s Paper Machete, a private birthday party performance in the courtyard of my building during the pandemic and, originally, a turn as the star of a production of Woman of the Year.

This time there were no risqué songs, no double entendres, no scatting, and no live music, as if she were David Byrne trying to break the Broadway rules requiring pit musicians. (He finally agreed a couple days ago to use 12, instead of the normal minimum of 19 the union wanted).

There was only great singing and engaging banter in an outdoor street fair setting that is less than perfect for performers, though Red managed to get members of the milling crowd to dance and sing along, all while drinking along (Red stuck to water, I think).

My only disappointment with Murphy was when she sang a disco version of “If You Could Read My Mind” and said how surprised she was to learn that it was originally a Gordon Lightfoot song. I was surprised that there was a disco version.

Totally unrelated, I feel required to mention that I saw former Bears and Illinois head coach Lovie Smith walking around at the festival, one of the few people there who was old enough to know Lightfoot had written the song.