The free outdoor summer concert season is winding down. Ted and I made a return visit to Beale Street (our least favorite concert venue) in St. Charles tonight for our second-last concert. The street is a boulevard, with tall plantings in the center. Marquis Knox was playing and singing the blues at one end of the block, centered on the street. With all the plantings and the light poles, it’s hard to see the band. Even worse, the venue is like an outdoor bar scene where people come to meet each other, have some food and drink, and talk, talk, talk. Because the band’s volume didn’t burst our eardrums, it was difficult to enjoy the music over the noise of the chattering crowd. What we could hear was our #2 favorite concert of the season. (#1 was Dogs of Society.)
Marquis Knox is the soloist (center) and the others in the band are his back-up. He learned the blues from his grandma, and she taught him well. We would like to hear him play again, so we checked his website. He has a lot of dates scheduled in the St. Louis area, so we’re not the only ones who think he’s good with the blues.
It was a perfect evening to sit outside, listening to music. The outdoor seating at the Beale Street restaurants was filled.
Here’s Ted, ready for some blues.
Unfortunately, most people seemed to have come to visit with each other, rather than to hear the band. Look at all of them standing in our line of sight to the stage. This is during the concert.
The people ahead of us came prepared to amuse themselves. The wooden slats on the ground were rolled up in the orange case under the man’s chair.
Attach four legs and two support pieces to the unrolled slats.
Presto! A table!
With a beer for each of them and their Ultra Pro Dice Tray, they were ready for the concert. They rolled dice for the entire two hours.
The concert was scheduled for 6:00-8:00 p.m., and sunset was at 7:14 p.m. tonight. Surprisingly there were no floodlights for the band. They performed with only the streetlights to showcase them in the dark.
Here’s Beale Street after dark. It’s a great entertainment complex (stores, restaurants, bars, residences, movie theater, hotels, etc.), but not a great concert venue. After the concert, Ted and I had dinner in a restaurant in the complex.