While we’ve been dark at the Palladium since March 13, we haven’t been idle. One of our quarantine projects will debut in late September, when we begin streaming live Palladium Presents shows.
We’ve added great cameras, lens, and other equipment to bring you an at-home concert experience that will look and sound great. We’re also featuring (and paying) some of our best local musicians, many of whom have been without musical gigs since March.
Keep an eye on our website and this blog for the on-sale date for this series.
Music writer Bill DeYoung, of St. Petersburg Catalyst, did a preview of the Palladium Presents series last week. I’ll let him tell you more about this exciting new project:
Music in the stream: Introducing Palladium Presents
By BILL DEYOUNG/ST. PETERSBURG CATALYST
The Palladium Theater may be down, but it’s not out, and by the middle of September many of the 5th Avenue venue’s favorite performers will be back on that stage, in full entertainment mode.
Of course, there won’t be a live audience – you and I won’t be there – but Paul Wilborn’s got that all figured out.
Wilborn, the Palladium’s longtime executive director, is producing a series of virtual concerts, to be recorded (on the mainstage) and streamed.
Palladium Presents will use four cameras (three stationary, one mobile) and a state-of-the-art, stereo sound system, mixed for optimal audio enjoyment.
The second show in the series, featuring an all-star jazz band with James Suggs on trumpet, Jeremy Carter on sax and the triple-threat trio La Lucha, was taped in the otherwise-empty Palladium Friday afternoon.
James Suggs and Jeremy Carter
“Since we weren’t back with live shows, we were exploring the video thing anyway,” Wilborn says. “This just seemed like a good idea to keep our brand out there during the pandemic. For me, the most important part has been to get my artists back working, and getting paid. Everybody’s getting paid for doing these appearances. That’s been a real motivating factor.”
Tentatively set for future tapings are blues guitarist Damon Fowler, a Beacon Dance show with Helen Hanson French and other performers, and a chamber music ensemble.
In other words, explains Wilborn, “a lot of the things we do in the nightclub. But I haven’t figured out how to do standup comedy with no audience. I don’t want to do a laugh track.”
The first installment, already in the can, put the spotlight on the quartet called Seventh Avenue Picnic – including Wilborn himself on piano and vocals, guitarist Robin Sibucao on guitar and vocals, and their wives (Eugenie Bondurant and Sher Sibucao, respectively) on vocals.
Palladium Presents will be streamed via a small paywall. A full schedule will be announced shortly.
“I don’t know that we’ll make a ton of money on this thing, but it really helps us keep our name out there,” says Wilborn. “And I love what we’re getting, in terms of the video and audio quality.”
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