I’ve had a busy weekend so I’m a little slow getting this post done about Friday evening’s SCAD-produced New Alumni Concert in Forsyth Park with Cold War Kids and The Dirty Guv’nahs.
It was a typically great night for music in Forsyth.
And I love it almost anytime Savannah has large public gatherings in grand spaces like Forsyth.
But, unlike some of the past shows SCAD has produced in Forsyth, I found Friday’s sort of hard to love.
Easy to like, but hard to love.
The clips I had heard of The Dirty Guv’nahs had me excited about hearing them, but I can only guess that there wasn’t a sound check. I easily worked my way down front and I could barely hear the lead vocals.
Why couldn’t someone hear that problem and just turn them up? I’d go out to hear the Knoxville-based band in a heartbeat, but I was really disappointed by the sound.
The Dirty Guv'nahs
Cold War Kids, by contrast, sounded great. And the SCAD students on hand seemed to be having a blast. But that long set particularly revealed the limitations of the city’s performance space in Forsyth (not really a bandshell), something I’ve been complaining about off and on for over a year. Just look at the photos here of the crowd at CWK. Keep in mind that I’m just five or six people from the very front. Look at how far away the band is! The CWK lead singer even remarked about the distance.
And not only is there a big distance between the crowd and the performers, but the turned-off fountain looks like an industrial wasteland and the two-foot stage means that only tall people like me even have decent sightlines.
As good as CWK sounded, I think the best spot to hear their brand of indie rock would have been a smaller club when they were still up and coming.
I stuck it out for a good bit of their excellent set, but then retired to the more comfortable confines of the American Legion Post #135.
Cold War Kids