It’s a funny thing how you get to associate certain venues with certain types of events, sometimes unfairly, and I am definitely guilty of doing this with St Georges Hall in Bristol. I’ve actually seen one of my favourite bands in there twice and had a great time both times, but I still think of it as a place for, y’know, ‘serious’ music. That’s not completely unfair as it does host a fair amount of acts such as piano concertos, string quartets and choirs, and it does have amazing acoustics which makes it a perfect venue for these. It also hosts a wide range of other events which are more accessible to those of us who aren’t traditional classical music concertgoers. Given the warm welcome, the lovely surroundings and the comfortable vibe tonight I might even try something a bit more highbrow in the near future, and I’m already planning to visit some of the more folky acts they have coming up.
Tonight though was something different again, seeing the family show
The sound of Sci-ence. Matthew Tosh is one of those multi-talented people who can share their knowledge with demonstrations, information and wit and his background as a percussionist, teacher and physicist means that he is the ideal person to present a show about the science of sound. Two shows in fact – one for families and one for teens and adults. Although the 6 year old would have also loved to have seen this I left her at home and took the 12 year old to see the more mature version; he likes music, maths and science so I wanted him to get the maximum value from what was presumably a slightly more advanced presentation.
In case this is all sounding a bit worthy and educational, I should say that the show included a kid who ‘had one brewing’ farting into a microphone, a bullwhip and a good sized explosion among the many demonstrations of how sound works and explanations of resonance, frequency and the fact that when someone is talking to you they are actually making something inside your skull move.
It wasn’t a long show, just an hour of talking and demonstration but there was a lot of ground covered in a very enjoyable way and the time did fly. I’ll definitely be looking out for similar events at St Georges and I’ve also picked up a few leaflets for upcoming events that might just have to be investigated.
Review by Ginny Gould
