By Chris DeMento
"There's nothing glamorous about having shows in your kitchen," says Brianna Toth, 24. Crediting the likes of George Chen (and Club Sandwich) for the inspiration to program all-ages concerts at somewhat unconventional spots, Toth extols the simplicity of the monthly event she puts on at her 22nd Street apartment. Her abode sits atop an overpriced tapas joint, across from a lame happy hour, down there in the somewhat unconventional Mission.
The series is called Music in My Kitchen. No red tape, no velvet rope, no plus-one waistoids mugging about, mostly. Mostly it's about new sounds, good food, and sharing. Local caterer-chef Leif Hedendal cooks the spread. The musicians play for free, and donations are placed in a plastic jug, and the suggested price is never more than $10 per head. It's usually $7 - enough to cover the cost of the food. She programs all kinds of performers, anything from soupy folk to harsh-noise acid-gravy. The audience brings its own Sunny D or whatever.
What could be better than discovering some kid's sound while dispatching strangely flavored bean curd, profiling in a metal folding chair, making eyes at the pretty bangs across the room, sharing two-tone-tile floorspace with the other cool kids while polishing one's climbless karabiner ego? A win-win-win, really: cheap eats and music treats for the audience, nodding heads for the band, street cred for the homemaker-promoter.
But Toth set me straight on all that. The Mission, though an overly sensitive district, is not without an entirely self-assured, hopefully anti-disingenuous concern for art as art. "Bands change when they play in the house," she says. "It's about providing intimacy."
She hesitated to use the word "opportunity," conceding instead that Music in My Kitchen is a platform for exposure, band-to-audience and audience-to-band. The premise: accessibility and the tone of the shows. Personal experience is the pay-off. Says Toth: "I want to stand in my sink. It's the best view."
The next Music in My Kitchen, coming in January, brings together the Ohsees and the Traditional Fools. For more info, contact Brianna at bravoalphatango@hotmail.com.
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