Terri Nunn leads Berlin in concert at Guild Theatre
Terri Nunn took a second to survey the place, seeking out at the 500 lovers who stuffed the freshly opened Guild Theatre in Menlo Park to capability for her band Berlin’s live performance.
“It’s an honor to be one of the to start with in your new theater,” explained the SoCal singer. “It’s gorgeous.
“They spared no price.”
Nunn, of course, is an qualified on music halls and theaters — acquiring played a just about unfathomable variety of them because Berlin shaped in Orange County in the late ’70s. And she’s correct on with her assessment about this just one, which ranks as the greatest new concert venue in the Bay Location.
All of the reasons for that ended up nicely on display screen throughout Berlin’s fun clearly show on Saturday, Might 7. It was the initial time that I had been to the venue considering the fact that it opened on Feb. 24 with a efficiency by Robert Glasper. While I did do a hardhat tour of the making back in January, as the former film palace — which closed its doors in 2019 following a 93-yr run — was in the midst of its $35 million transformation.
The completed product or service — or, maybe far more properly around-finished, considering the fact that there are continue to some chores still left on the to-do listing — is fairly remarkable. It’s an intimate concert house, with a vibe far more like that of a supper club than a standard theater, and you are in no way significantly from the significant stage no make a difference in which you are in the location.
It’s difficult to decide whether or not the very best spot in the household is the key ground, right in entrance of the stage, or the balcony with its good view of the performers. In phrases of the Berlin display, however, it was certainly the previous due to the fact Nunn created her way out into the group twice through the evening.
The initial lengthy stint came when she boogied and sang with followers for the duration of a fantastic cover of the Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary.” The 2nd arrived when as Nunn crooned the “Top Gun” hit “Take My Breath Away” when driving on the shoulders of the venue’s generation supervisor — Drew “D.B.” Berger — all-around the primary flooring place.
The phase lights was wonderful, showcasing an remarkable range of relocating overhead lights.
“No (other) room this dimensions has 70 going lights,” Guild common supervisor Tom Bailey pointed out for the duration of a rapid tour of the location prior to Berlin taking the stage on Saturday.
The venue’s most significant providing stage is the fantastic sound — which will come from a combination of savvy acoustic solutions (these as the ceiling panels every single becoming drilled with 8,000 holes) and the speaker method from Berkeley’s Meyer Sound Laboratories. There is also a big subwoofer that seems to be like one thing you’d see in an arena.
“Basically, there is so much bass in in this article that I could knock the partitions down if I preferred to,” Bailey remarks.
The superb sound process was set to superb use as Berlin ran by means of this kind of ’80s new wave classics as “No A lot more Words” and, finest of all, “The Metro.” The team, which performs Could 14-15 at the Cruel Globe festival in Pasadena, finished up the evening with yet another go over — AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” — served up a rowdy encore.
(Read through our job interview with Nunn from 2020 listed here.)
For all those hunting to expertise the freshly opened Guild, approaching shows contain Delta Spirit on May 15, Son Volt on June 7, Ozomatli on June 17, Bombino on July 15, Bebel Gilberto on July 19, and Kamasi Washington on July 27. For additional information and facts, check out guildtheatre.com.
