 "Photo: photo: Alicia Schuster / UCD Advocate")
Some performers prefer to play in small, intimate venues. When this happens, usually one of two things occurs: One, the room is so over-crowded with people that the experience loses its appeal, or two, the audience and performer are able to connect. The latter happened at the Toad Tavern in Littleton, when Sara Bettens (of moderately famous 90’s band K’s Choice) poured her heart out onstage.
The crowd was mostly female, with a few lone husbands and male staff members near the bar. The second Bettens started to play her acoustic guitar, the bar instantly went silent and the fans became transfixed on the stage.
In the odd silence that hung in the bar’s atmosphere, delicate and melodic notes flew through the air. Playing gentle, bluesy, and inspirational light rock songs, Bettens took the audience from despair to happiness and back again.
For some songs, Bettens set the guitar in her lap and just projected her voice and emotion while her keyboardist played. Bettens played tragic originals like “Daddy’s Gun,” a song about a child accidentally shooting her friend. She mostly played covers, though, like Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, Ella Fitzgerald’s “Cry Me A River,” and Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out Of My Life.”
At one point Bettens joked with the male keyboardist about removing his shirt and getting naked, and the crowd cheered louder than ever before. Then Bettens exclaimed with a laugh, “Converting lesbians everywhere we go.” From that point the personal set had a lighter note that brought life back to the mesmerized fans. At one point an audience member remarked, “She sings like an angel.”
The Toad Tavern was the perfect setting for an artist such as Bettens to expose her soul and pain through music and words to a crowd of dedicated fans. If she had played a venue that wasn’t this up-close, the magic and rawness of the whole night would have been lost.
The audience and singer were completely connected without ever physically touching one another, until the end when Bettens signed autographs. Her words, music, and outstanding performance captivated the entire audience, and by the end she had the shy crowd begging and cheering for more.
Be the first to comment on this article!