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Noise is ubiquitous in a city; every day we are exposed to a wide range of sounds, from blaring jackhammers, obnoxious beeping horns or the screeching of trains entering a subway station. It is a wonder that more of us are not hard of hearing! Within this complex urban world of loud sounds and ever-present action, it would perhaps not be too far of a stretch to say that silence would be easily passed over. However, oftentimes silence is what attracts people, as is the case with Pearl, a statuesque mime whose delicate movements force the audience to slow their busy pace and contemplate the woefully underrepresented virtue of silence.
New York, a city known for its many eccentrics and strange occurrences, is no stranger to musicians with eclectic tastes who favor unusual combinations of instruments, styles and genres. This is what makes the rich cultural texture of the city so memorable, and cellist/songwriter Leah Coloff ensures that her music, a complex web of punk rock, soul, classical and folk music and songs, is unforgettable.
When I first stumbled upon the Opera Collective, I was coming down the escalator from Grand Central into the subway station below, and I thought that the shuttle passage was emitting a performance from Lincoln Center; as I swiped my fare to get in, I was astonished to find that instead of a taped performance, there was a professional-caliber singing troupe.
The Meetles are billed on their website and on their flyers as New York City’s most fun Beatles tribute band, a distinction that they carry proudly, and deservedly. Only a band with a true personality can so assertively fill up the hollows of an entire station; in Times Square, when they play by the Seventh Avenue trains, the wails of the guitars can be heard in the caverns deep below, and the voices of musicians playing the music that represented their entire generations draw attention in an otherwise normal setting.
