Busking Down the House concert March 16 2020 by Krystal Kay
Editor’s note: We put out a call for folks to feel free to write reviews of old shows, historic shows, or just something that they have seen recently to continue reporting and reviewing live music. Returning contributor Krystal Kay took that opportunity to show us that live music has not stopped in the pandemic, but rather just shifted venues.
DONATE TO KARA BENNETT for her performance here.
As I sit here on Day Three of my pseudo-quarantine, I seek hope. This can’t be life. No more live music, no more festivals, no more dancing in a ballroom with a lot of tie-dye. There is, after all, so much more to pray for and to feel rage over. Seek hope by being the hope. I sought hope this week in a place found on Facebook Groups: Busking Down the House. It is a community forum for musicians to post their music, so they can still do what they do best which is to bring a relief in the form of music <3 And like busking, there are donation links for viewers to tip the performers.
We live music fans are preparing by stocking our cabinets and pantry, our milk crates with vinyl, and are preemptively hungry for live music as we see the venues shut down and festivals dates being postponed. But we adapt, we flow, we will continue to jam!
And there I see in my notifications that Kara Bennett is going LIVE, from her tub, on Busking Down the House. She’s decorated appropriately. There are lights, a disco ball and rubber duckies, and she’s donned a captain’s hat and is indulging in a glass of wine. Mama looks effortlessly gorgeous, her warm smile welcoming you to her bathtub and receive the hope in her songs.
Kara Bennett’s soothing voice sings and raps to the sound of her guitar and kazoo. I did say rap. And I did say kazoo. I’m no expert in anything, but my body moved to the groove she put together. I danced on the carpet of my living room. I danced in the kitchen. I danced in my slippers. I tried to compare Kara to any other artist I can think of and ended up thinking of the kind of candy that is merged with another, like Nerd Ropes – it’s Nerds and gummy. Or chocolate-covered marshmallows.
Live from the Tub with Kara Bennett lasted for as long as an open mic set. And I was free to scroll and look for another. I don’t have a TV, but I remember channel surfing and right now as I sit at home scrolling through Facebook Groups of friends’ videos and tutorials, I feel like I am being pulled into a black hole that used to be my TV.
However, at the other end of that black hole is a cooing voice, a tone that makes me wish I could swing on a swing at the playground. That is what Kara Bennett’s voice does to me. Hope for the future where we all will be able to play on a playground with the kids, dance in a field to music from hippies. I hope Kara will continue to put a tub out on stage and play from it. My only critique is I wish she had a bubble machine.
To find Kara Bennett, Live from her tub: Search for her name under the Facebook group “Busking Down the House’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1494442920731779/ .
Thank you Kara for being so near when we are all feeling so far away.
I urge whoever reads this, to take a short time of their day to listen to some music with your household or livestream with friends (as you all safely seclude.) Write reviews, tag your friends, share, and comment. Let them know you hear them, you see them, and we are all in this together. Music, Art, and Nature are vehicles of hope, they are universal, and they need you in order to keep their power to give us hope.
DONATE TO KARA BENNETT for her performance here.
Kara Bennett, Live From the Tub Set List:
I Choose Love
Girl Like you (cover)
I Tell the Truth
Bear Necessities (cover)
Interdimensional Correctional Facilities
Irie Dreadlock Girl
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