Insider staff
If you’re serious about hearing good, local, live music, you need to get familiar with NEC Concord’s Listening Room Music Series.
The series consists of three ongoing features: Granite State of Mind, Near/Far and Six Strings, Three Chords. We touched on Granite State of Mind when it began, and now it’s time to talk about Six Strings, Three Chords.
Local musician Tristan Omand hosts the monthly showcase of (relatively) local acoustic music. It’s generally Omand and one guest of his choosing sitting down to play some original music in a relaxed, intimate setting right at NEC Concord on North Main Street.
“I was approached by Jeff Weber at NEC to have a residency,” Omand said, referring to NEC Concord’s cultural arts director. “He said, ‘You should come up with a name and kind of brand it,’ so I said okay.”
The next thing you know, Six Strings, Three Chords was born.
Don’t let the name throw you off – this isn’t a guitar-only show, and songs are certainly not limited to three chords. It’s just a catchy name Omand had been sitting on for a while.
Omand doubles as booking agent and performer.
“I’m like the host, and I also play, but I put the feature on the other person,” he said. “So I introduce them, give a little intro, then bring the featured guest up for about six songs, 25 minutes or so. Then I do five or six songs, then I bring back the featured act and we do a song together, then I let the artist close it out.”
The end result is a show in which the audience can concentrate on the music without the hubub of a bar obscuring notes and lyrics.
The idea behind creating the whole Listening Room series was “to try to create a listening room environment which is kind of different in this area,” Weber said.
Check out Omand and guest Miketon Graton this Friday at 7 p.m. It’s free, with a suggested donation of $5.
