Recording: Karen Ng

Artist: Karen Ng

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at a house party, November 2, 2019.

Karen Ng - [excerpt]

Are house shows the Next Big Thing? Wooed by the glitz of app-enabled venture capital companies, there've been some thinkpieces on this topic lately, as if people gathering together with their friends and making music was an unconsidered possibility before there was a profiteering digital middleman on the scene. Still, as affordable spaces for intimate performances dwindle in our city, more folks do seem to be open to sharing their spaces for small-scale shows — which, on the one hand, creates wonderful opportunities to see great artists up close (and pay them money directly for their art!) but could also reinforce our music scenes as siloed, gated communities, where you have to "know someone" to even know that a cool show is happening.

Eschewing even the basement's vaguely-defined "stage" zone, Karen Ng sat down among the crowd and started the night with a short set of solo sax sounds.