The Front Desk, August 3

I’ve been a fan of “rock opera” ever since The Who’s Tommy came out in 1969. I still have the 2 LP set that my friends & I played over & over again. I’m not sure it’s ever been surpassed. This night at The Low Beat I had the pleasure of experiencing another fine piece in this genre, although a much more modest production, The Front Desk by poet & bass player Pat Irish. When Pat was living in Albany a few years back I had heard him read selections at open mics & even saw a performance at Pauly’s Hotel.

Tonight Pat performed on bass & read the text, Nick Bisanz was on guitar & vocals & Michael Worsa on drums. The evening opened with solo performances on guitar & vocals by John Devries & John Glenn.

As stated in the program, “The Front Desk is a story about events taking place at & around the front desk of a hotel. There are 24 songs in all with each song representing an hour of the day.” Some of the titles of the vignettes are “Front Desk Agent,” “Check Outs & Check Ins,” “Room Service,” “Famous Guests,” & “Leave the Keys.” It was over & done in less than an hour. While I didn’t attentively follow the schedule of vignettes I did notice a couple of bar patrons checking their programs to see where they were.

The text predominates with the music adding a background or a musical commentary, & while the text could easily stand alone as a poetry chapbook, the music without the words would not survive as just a music CD. It may not be Tommy, but I would certainly buy a CD of the entire music & poetry piece.