The picture you see before you is rare because rarely have I seen so little people attend a show at the Drake. Tuesday night saw Nashville singer Tristen open up for Jeremy Messersmith in a show that I think very very people knew about. This is a shame because Tristen’s new record Caves is a fantastic slice of pop that prominently features Tristen’s great vocal work and her playful, sassy personality. Have a listen to her track “No One’s Gonna Know“. If you aren’t air drumming by the end, well, life isn’t just as fun for you.
Despite the small crowd, Tristen didn’t let it dampen her spirits. “We’re all in this together for the next 30 minutes…well, you could leave, but don’t” was her rallying cry. Her witty self deprecating banter reminded me of Sharon Van Etten, who could basically just talk through a show and not play music and people wouldn’t care. Accompanied by one other band member, Tristen played tracks off her album while switching between guitar and synthesizer. The show only confirmed what I knew already, this girl’s got a knack for hooks and a voice that could easily win her fans. Now if we can only solve that problem of getting people to the shows..
On a side note, at the Drake, a pint of beer is 7.50, which is pretty high. I guess this is to be expected for a hotel that looks at itself as a destination for yuppies with disposable incomes and perhaps an expense account, but it is still high for me regardless. I did buy drinks here on Tuesday night and the bartender gave me back a toonie and two quarters for change (from my ten). Now I sure as hell was not going to tip 2 dollars and make my pint of beer 9.50$ total, so I tipped 50 cents instead. That felt cheap. But I felt like I had no choice. This happened twice with me and once with Paul, which led me to think about the bartenders strategy. Do people normally tip 2 dollars a beer at the Drake? That seems absurd. Maybe she only had a certain amount of loonies at the cash register and wanted to save those for people she knew would tip a dollar? or was she dishing out toonies for change with the hope that someone will give her a 2 dollar tip?
Doing some simple math, she just needs 40% of the people to give her a 2 dollar tip instead of a 50 cent tip to make a 10% increase in tip over everyone tipping a dollar. I guess that could actually happen, which makes her a bit of a genius. Either way, yea.