{"id":27194,"date":"2021-03-30T15:24:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T19:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=27194"},"modified":"2021-03-30T15:24:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T19:24:29","slug":"review-madison-cunningham-livestream-of-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2021\/03\/30\/review-madison-cunningham-livestream-of-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Madison Cunningham Livestream of Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Trottenberg<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always gonna have to face loss at some point, so we shouldn\u2019t let it surprise us now,\u201d Madison says.\u00a0 She looks away from the camera to tune her guitar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt still does though,\u201d she says, \u201cit surprises me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The lighting turns dark and blue, and Madison plays \u201cBroken Harvest.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 She had written the song with a prompt from NPR: “dreams deferred.”\u00a0 She plays a Silvertone acoustic guitar with a single pickup over the sound hole.\u00a0 Capo at the 4th fret, no pick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll things fade away,\u201d She repeats in the song\u2019s coda.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Streaming on Mandolin.com, the evening was billed as \u201cLivestream of Consciousness.\u201d\u00a0 Throughout the show, Madison sat in front of one of three backdrops.\u00a0 The first was an archway filled with simply-colored stained glass, the second was a pale but psychedelic tapestry, and the third was a white fireplace with candles surrounding Madison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madison began with \u201cWhen Love Loves Alone,\u201d then played her classic \u201cPin It Down,\u201d<\/a> and then the new \u201cAll I\u2019ve Ever Known\u201d before she reached \u201cBroken Harvest.\u201d\u00a0 Her guitar had a rubber bridge which muted the notes and gave a harsh flavor to her strumming.\u00a0 Additionally, she played through a Whammy pedal which doubled every note that she played.\u00a0 It was an odd sound, but it worked well for an artist who once said a note and a note a half step below sounded like a resolve.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell we\u2019re all having a good cry together,\u201d someone named Mermama typed in the chat during \u201cLife According To Rachel.\u201d\u00a0 Madison said she wrote the song after her grandmother passed away last August.<\/span><\/p>\n

For \u201cNo One Else To Blame,” Madison switched to a beautiful Taylor acoustic guitar (I counted four guitars throughout the evening), this time with no rubber bridge so her finger-picked notes could ring out.\u00a0 \u201cCheck out the time signature on this one,\u201d a viewer named Don Sheldon typed in the chat.\u00a0 Sure enough, there was a repeating section of the song that operated on seven beat measures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madison played 13 songs during her set, all without any backing musicians unlike her recorded material.\u00a0 She played and sang well, and at times her Joni Mitchell-esque high notes outran my computer\u2019s speakers.\u00a0 When I compare Madison to Joni Mitchell, I mean it like how I compare Emily Remler to Wes Montgomery.\u00a0 It is a complement derived from their mastery.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is monumentally difficult to make a virtual show feel like the real thing.\u00a0 The audience cannot connect with the artist, and the artist cannot connect with the audience.\u00a0 That\u2019s why so many of these COVID shows from theatres and concert halls have agonizing moments of silence after each song.\u00a0 A space like that demands energy, so I was happy to see that Madison\u2019s show was in such an enclosed, intimate space.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she played well, at times Madison fell into the acoustic singer\/songwriter trap where every song starts to blend together from the limited sonic possibilities.\u00a0 To her credit, Madison played enough strange chords and tunings to keep me interested, and they were only for the purpose of sounding more like herself.\u00a0 I once heard that she likes to sit in a park and watch planes go by; surely some strange chords came from that.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stuck around for the VIP Q&A, \u201cSong in my Headphones,\u201d which was advertised before and during the show.\u00a0 Unfortunately, since I signed up during the show, I (and seemingly several dozen other audience members) never got a chance to submit any questions in advance and had to rely on the chat, which moved much faster than anyone could reasonably handle.\u00a0 Madison always came one or two questions away from mine, but I guess asking why she didn\u2019t use a pick was too niche for non-guitar players.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virtual shows are hard to do well, but Madison\u2019s was a good example of how they can do more than just emulate a club gig.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out a snippet of the performance:<\/p>\n