October 23, 2024
Facebook targeted ads really work on me, that’s for sure.
While in Albuquerque on our massive Summer Tour of 2024, I caught an ad on Facebook for a Candlelight Concert that was to be in town (in Albuquerque.) The ad was for a particular show they were putting on where they play Halloween music so you know it caught my eye… er, ear, I should say.
The ad featured the warm glow of a candle-filled room with a string quartet playing spooky classical music. I thought it looked interesting so I clicked through to the page and discovered they were going to be in Des Moines in late October. I immediately bought myself a ticket (but not one for Brandy; she was to be in Florida at the time. And frankly, even if she was in town, it was not something she would have appreciated to the level I would have.)
There was a very, VERY basic seating map showing three colored blocks in front of the stage: Zone A, zone B, and zone C. There were no seat selections to be made, so I just bought one ticket in zone A hoping I could be reasonably close to the stage.
World Food Prize Hall of Laureates
The venue at which the concert was to be held was the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates. Quite a mouthful, huh? I was perplexed by the name of this venue until I did a dive into the history just now.
Apparently, there is an organization call the World Food Prize Foundation. Per Wikipedia, the Prize “is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.”
Without falling too deeply down the rabbit hole, we will just leave it at the Hall of Laureates is a hall to honor those that have won the prize since its inception in 1987.
After a very busy Thursday at work, I signed off a bit early, got ready and made my way up to Des Moines.
There had been a threat of rain all day. Indeed, as I left, droplets made their way to the windshield of the truck and as I headed up the highway, streaks of lightning could be seen in the darkening skies.
As pulled off of Interstate 235 in downtown Des Moines, the droplets began falling with increased urgency. I wove through the one-way streets of the capitol city eventually finding my way to the venue. In a downtown district, of course, there was no dedicated parking on site but I was able to find a spot on the street half a block away. Parking enforcement was still in effect so I fed the meter then started making my way toward the old Des Moines library. During the walk to the Beaux arts-style building is when the skies decided to open up.
I climbed the steps to the doors and entered. The attendant right inside the door struggled with his barcode scanner but eventually got my ticket scanned. He gave me directions to see the ushers for guidance to Zone A, and informed me of a small bar across the lobby.
The lobby was lined with battery-powered pillar candles, along the floors, on tables, and up the stairs to the second level. I went to the ushers at the door to the room where the concert was to be held and told them I was in zone A. They led me into the darkened room that was aglow in the warm light of hundreds of similar electric candles.
The Venue
It was at this point that I was shocked at how few attendees would be at this event. I was under the impression that each zone would consist of 10 or 12 rows and each row would be 20 or 30 seats wide.
There were maybe 6 rows in the entire venue. Each zone only consisted of 2 rows and each row was maybe 20 seats, at the most. If there were 150 people there, I would be shocked.
I was led to the front row and place three seats from the aisle. As is my standard protocol, I apologized in advance to the people that I would be sitting next to, explaining that I am very wide and I would be encroaching on their space all evening. The people to my left graciously sensed my discomfort and allowed me to trade my seat for the aisle seat. I accepted and was comfortable.
The first row of seats was inches from the stage. I could have used the stage as a footrest if I were so inclined.
Soon, the occupants of the above pictured chairs entered the room with their instruments: a very young woman with a viola, a slightly older woman with a cello, a young man, and a woman maybe in her early 30’s, each with a violin.
The woman violinist did the preamble, introducing themselves, and described the program we were about to see. From my vantage point, I could see her music stand and the iPad her sheet music was on. I could see the music and, with my very old experience of reading sheet music when I was in high school, I was able to keep up with what she was playing. I also could see the titles of the pieces so I knew what was going to be played before it was started.
The program started with a string arrangement of the seminal Michael Jackson hit, “Thriller” then moved into some classical pieces such as “Funeral March of a Marionette” and “String Quartet No. 8 – Allegro Molto”.
We were then treated to some familiar movie themes such as the themes to Beetlejuice and Stranger Things, along with “Tubular Bells”, the theme from The Exorcist and John Carpenter’s theme to Halloween.
A few more classical pieces were played for us then the evening was capped off with a medley of songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas and finally the theme from Ghostbusters, including audience participation- we were asked to provide the answer to the orchestrated question of who we were going to call.
After a standing ovation as the players left the hall, we exited the building into a small garden with a lovely fountain. I circumnavigated the building and soon found myself at the truck. I got in and made the familiar drive home.
Conclusion
Although the set was shorter than I was expecting, I thought it was absolutely wonderful and I will definitely look into attending another show when they are in nearby cities, like Des Moines or Iowa City.
The company performs other concerts, their next show coming up here in Iowa is “A Tribute to Queen and More” where they will play orchestrated versions of hits by Queen. That’s something I’d totally be willing to do.
Until then, though, enjoy the rest of the photos from this outing over on the Photo Diary, and stay tuned for a quick write up about my date night with my OTHER wife at a haunted house!
See you then!
-Phil