Saturday, November 15, 2008

Musical Review - STOMP (and, a food review of La Familia)

This was our second trip to Bass Hall in the last two weekends. We met our friends Bill & Tara at La Familia for dinner before the show. I don't have any food pictures but I will talk a little about La Familia. This restaurant is just off of 7th Street west of downtown. It actually used to be on 7th Street in a closed down McDonald's. I worked at the UNT Health Science Center when this placed first opened up. When they opened I immediately thought to myself....ok, here's a place opening up in the same location that a McDonald's failed...not gonna make it there. That was back in 1996 and, they are still in business today. They moved to their current location several years ago because of all the 7th Street growth. Dianna and I both feel the same about this place.....we really love the atmosphere and the service, we just think the food could be so much better. They tout their food is very fresh, that they don't hold food over from one day to the next. And, I believe them...but, that doesn't necessarily guarantee great food. Everything we have ever tried is just average. We have yet to order a single memorable food item. In fact, Saturday night we ordered something worth mentioning, just so you won't make the mistake of ordering it. I am talking about the queso w/ chile con carne. Everyone at our table expected some good queso with taco meat. Instead we got not-so-great, super bland queso with some Tex-mex enchilada gravy. A definite waste of 8 bucks. Again, if it wasn't for the cool atmosphere and the fantastic service we would probably never re-visit....as it is we only eat here maybe twice a year. Oh, almost forgot to mention the alcohol. No draft beer which is a big negative but, the frozen drinks are pretty good, including the Jack Daniels slush drink...this is one of Dianna's favorites.

Back to STOMP. Didn't have super high expectations but, was expecting a good show. STOMP gets a lot of publicity...so much so it was on my must see list. It's really hard to describe the show other than saying its all about percussion...percussion on anything and everything, except your typical percussion instruments. There was some comic relief throughout the show but, it still couldn't save it for me. The show lasted about one hour and 45 minutes, without an intermission. And, I think there is a reason for that, in my opinion anyways. If they had an intermission I think they would lose about 20% of the audience. I was actually "done" at the 45 minute mark. I am not saying the performers are not talented because they certainly have more rhythm than I do. And, I'm not saying its a poorly produced show....because I think it is very well choreographed. I was just done with it about half-way through...and, Dianna was too. I really needed that intermission just to get my drink on (and to use the bathroom).
Bottom line....glad I a saw it....but, would I buy tickets again if it came back, hmmm, that is a definite no.

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