Not to be a wise guy, but as a writer I always love the rationale, such as it is, to be able to extend a deadline.
At first I thought to invoke the old joke that hey, the three average men, not being so wise, met up with some of their buddies at happy hour (hence the connection with nightlife) and one thing led to another and they forgot about getting out the typewriter until well past Christmas.
Then I was told that in Orthodox churches, they celebrate this what-makes-December holiday until the 19th of January. I also heard that some people in that religious mode want to push it back until the 26th, and that there are even some people on the fringe who want to keep up the celebration until into February (OK I made that up).
Anyway, it can still be seen as a time to rock around the Christmas tree, if it is still up. And the musical subject of this article offers more variety than just the holiday carols that can wear on you.
The theme played out at the seventh annual Colleen Raye Holiday Concert, which really rocks out, and all these things give a reason to still write about it in mid-January. (This could be seen as being a late Christmas gift to the procrastinator).
This year the concert needed to be held at River Falls High School, as the auditorium in Hudson is undergoing a large renovation, which is now almost complete. (See more on this in the second half of this article).
As is often the case, there were many similarities between the Colleen Raye concert and its obvious connection to holiday fare, and the things that are standard at hard rock shows I have been to over the years.
The concert opened with a rockin’ Joy to the World, made so by a horn solo, and this tempo was much like what I’ve seen so often at rock concerts, where you open with a song that rocks out the most of what’s in your set list, and then progresses into a second number of similar volume, before easing up the pace a bit. Only then did the three singers made their entry from stage left, much like Ozzy Osbourne does to lead off many of his concerts, where after a guitar solo he slowly descends from the ceiling in the mouth of a mythological beast, similarly performing a grand entry. The forceful instrumental had made their ten-piece band sound like a full orchestra — or a Rush power trio. The show was solid in that way, but unspectacular, much like a Tim Sigler gig at the Smilin’ Moose. The vocal flair didn’t show up until a bit later.
The guys in the horn section played well to the crowd, swaying with their instruments like Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden using his microphone stand. And Debbie O’Keefe, one of the three singers who actually lives in Hudson, did costume changes at intermission into a smokin’ red dress that made her look younger and not frumpy, like you might expect of Courtney Cox. But overall, despite an obvious attempt to incorporate secular songs with the usual holiday fare, the choices were safe. There was no cover of Bruce Springsteen strolling up the boardwalk on Christmas Eve. But there were songs in the style of The Temptations and a blues number true to the genre.
But to keep things sacred, I found it noteworthy that the number of big ornaments hanging from the ceiling was seven, which Christians will tell you is symbolically God’s perfect number. That’s in the same vein as the number of lasers that were shot across the top of the crowd at the first Black Sabbath concert I ever went to.
The Halleluia Chorus was also sung, fittingly, as this was the tribute done by rocker Chester Bennington at the funeral of his dear friend Chris Cornell of Soundgarden earlier in the year.
Late in the concert, the orchestra went on a run with Run, Run Rudolph, although what made it rock was a trombone, not an underplayed guitar. Interestingly enough, there was little in the form of an encore despite enduring applause at the end of the concert.
But to the other show being highlighted in this article, and also moved from its usual venue, the Hudson Schools all-district holiday concert, with several hundred singers and musicians, was transferred from the new auditorium at the high school, which is undergoing part of a multi-million dollar renovation, to St. Patrick’s Church across the street, creating many logistical and artistic challenges, and also disrupting parish activities during this Christmas season. But that season also marks the end of an arrangement for use of the church facilities for music that may not rock out as much as that in downtown Hudson, but gets close, and for other things such as a massive need for more student parking, during which everyone made the best of it.
A total of 760 seats were made available for concert-goers, and parish leaders strived to make as much room as possible. “We got out the tape and measured,” said parish administrator Steve Richter. “Like Lambeau Field, you’ve each got your 22 inches.” And artistically there were challenges, such as giving audience members a good view of the choirs, since the church follows the modern design format of being in the round. Also, a new two-ton granite altar can’t be moved, like the past one, to create room for musicians, so they had to scrounge out whatever space they could find to stand. There was the situation where when multiple choirs and orchestras had been on the stage at the former venue at once, now there was only room for one, which effects the set changes of one group filing out and another making an entrance, that used to be typical. A way around that is to have some singers actually stroll through the audience, so that aren’t completely absent. There are not the usual two balconies for audience members, which aid acoustics and visual effectiveness, and some people observing had to turn their heads regularly to take it all in.
Across the street at the construction zone, the renovation also includes things such as new acoustic ceilings, and an orchestra pit now at the same level as the stage, not raised, one of a group of things that allow easier access for musicians to enter the stage, said high school music director Andy Haase.
As a result of the needs for rehearsal time, the Eucharistic adoration that has gone on continually at an adjoining chapel for years was postponed, since when this same type of transfer was done for hosting the fall concert, people often walked in during times of quiet meditation and tried to strike up conversations, Richter said. “We did get some complaints.” But the postponement was not sitting well with some the leaders of the adoration, who thought this might be an opportunity for those not familiar with the practice to learn more about it, and there was an initial miscommunication about the continuation question regarding the adoration, during the time of concert rehearsals that last most of the school day for over a week.
But the shift of the concert did create an evangelism opportunity. “It’s great that kids are doing it,” said Richter, referencing the fall concert where students asked one girl about religious icons and other items, “you’re Catholic, what’s this and that for?”
Other parish activities also had been rescheduled, but overall the parish was happy to be helpful to the overall community, such as by hosting funeral visitations for prominent non-Catholics that have attracted people by the hundreds, he said. Another example is a formal arrangement that has gone on for years, allowing permit parking by dozens of high school students at the church lot during school hours, then having them walk several hundred yards. The parking arrangement has expanded to virtually the whole church lot during the day as the renovation is going on, as part of the project is tearing up the old high school parking lot and providing a new one with greatly expanded capacity. A third part of the project, on the same grounds is a new football stadium with all the (Christmas?) bells and whistles.