Last night, the Murray Studio Theater at Ruth Eckerd Hall hosted Karla Bonoff, a Ming vase wrapped in 18th century parchment flown in on gossamer wings. And here I thought she was just a singer/songwriter who had some middling success in the 1970s.
Bonoff put on an embarrassing display of petulance in the first of two sets in the intimate black-box space. The sound setup was not to her liking, so the capacity crowd was subjected to her running complaints about the stage monitors and other glitches. Her on-stage partner, singer/multi-instrumentalist Kenny Edwards, got into the act as well — both performers spent the better part of their show looking perplexed and vexed about the technical problems. Bonoff even stopped one song a couple of verses in to chastise the sound man.
Memo to Bonoff and Edwards: It's a fucking ACOUSTIC SHOW, a couple of acoustic guitars, a
couple of mics, a piano and a bass. Stop whining and play!
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2009.