Anniversary Party show

Last week we went to see Anniversary Party at an intimate venue in Whitefish called The Church, an old, very small A-frame style church that is used now for art and music and as a meeting place. Anniversary Party is comprised of a husband-wife duo, Kirk Cornelius and Annette Cornelius Strean; their style is alternative/accoustic/electronica. I hear hints of Latin rhythms too. I graduated from high school with Annette. She had then and still has what I consider to be one of the world's most beautiful voices. She's got amazing control, a big range, and an endless supply of vocal expressions. She is not boring to listen to or watch.

I also saw for the first time in 14 years a bunch of people I went to school with. In fact, I was sitting next to two of them and didn't recognize them - people I'd spent quite a bit of time with back then! Freaky deaky. The low lights didn't help, but still.


I loved the small town-ness of the show. Of course, this is a small town, but Annette has lived in Nashville and New York City, been in groups like Venus Hum and Blue Man Group, playing before huge audiences, appearing on national t.v., and touring internationally. And here, it was her sister and niece taking money at the door and stamping hands with whatever stamp they dug up at home. During the last song, the kids dropped coffee filter snowflakes from the balcony, and they floated down one by one, landing on heads and laps and hands. It was a beautiful show, a cocoon of warmth and subdued colored lights, while outside the snow kept falling and stacking up.