“You Played in a Hair Salon?”

By Adam Hendey

On Thursday, May 21, my brother and I performed in a place I never thought anyone, let alone two teenagers, would ever play live music in: a hair salon. Now, this may seem a strange and even eclectic place to play in, but in hindsight, playing at Strands (the salon in question) seemed to be a good choice.

I really should make it known that we were not originally planning on playing music in a hair salon. We were going to perform at a restaurant for ArtHop (a local art event), but a stylist from the Salon heard us warming up and enthusiastically offered us the opportunity to play in his building. Always up for playing a gig, we wandered into the crowded ‘hair hub’, and set up (we were selling CDs we made earlier). We immediately started playing.

I think I’m being completely honest when I say that I didn’t know what to expect when we walked into the salon; I knew that really nobody plays live music, especially not Irish music, inside a hair salon. But the more I think it over, it seems like playing in the salon may have been a better choice than playing in the restaurant. People in a salon are obviously bored; I mean, they’re sitting in the same chair for two hours with almost nothing to do but read a magazine or talk with their stylist. I could tell that people were excited to have some live entertainment in the middle of their appointments. What’s more, the building was completely packed. We sold good number of CDs, and, needless to say, it was an interesting experience.

My brother and I had an excellent time at this performance. In fact, the experience was positive enough that I would seriously consider playing inside of the salon again.  Who knows? Maybe we will start a new trend in live music…

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