The
Elders aren't averse to playing in small places. In July 2006, they
entertained customers at a Johnson County book store. File photo.
If you think one of 150,000 Garth Brooks tickets is hard to come by, here’s a show with great demand and a scant supply of tickets.
The Elders, the Celtic-rock band that has drawn tens of thousands of fans to the Kansas City Irish Festival, will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday inside the very intimate Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gillham Road, a venue that seats 75 people.
“It’s the perfect setting for a band like the Elders,” said Roger Coleman, the chapel’s director. “It’s very gothic-looking chapel with stone walls. It was once a church for the deaf so it was built to carry and amplify sound. So it’s a beautiful setting”
The show will benefit the Garden of Silence, an “urban meditation garden,” Coleman called it, to be constructed behind the chapel. The tickets cost $100 but are tax-deductible.
The
chapel is a popular site for wedding ceremonies. Sunday afternoon, it will
be filled with music. And Elders fans.
"The thought is we will tie it in with the Kauffman Gardens … and begin to create a midtown area that is garden-centered and will attract people from around the region,” Coleman said. “The chapel is beautiful but it doesn’t attract people from outside Kansas City
The Elders, who also play at 10 p.m. Friday at the RecordBar, 1020 Westport Road, will modify their performance for the chapel, said Steve Phillips, who plays guitar and mandolin and sings in the band.
“We’re going to try to play as unplugged as we can,” he said. “We might plug a few things in, but it’ll be very acoustic: acoustic guitars, a small trap (drum) kit. We’re going to practice (Tuesday) so we’ll see then what works.
“We do things like this once in a while, for a radio show or an in-store at Borders. It’s acoustic guitar, maybe one or two mics. When you strip down our songs, they can all be played on acoustic guitar.”
The chapel regularly presents music events, Coleman said. Local singer/songwriter Kasey Rausch and family will perform another benefit for the chapel at 2 p.m. Nov. 4.
Earlier this year filmmaker Ben Meade, one of the chapel’s 10 trustees, helped organize two shows: the Hartley Family concert, featuring a family of bluegrass musicians from Arkadelphia, Ark.; and the Kansas City Icons Gospel Show, featuring more than a dozen well-known local performers, including Rausch, Danny Cox, the Nace Brothers and Bob Walkenhorst.
CDs of both shows are available through the chapel’s Web site (www.pilgrimchapel.org); and a DVD of the Hartley Family concert is also available. The Elders will record and video Sunday’s show, too, Phillips said.
No matter how many times you’ve seen the Elders, Coleman said, expect this show to feel different from others.
“The chapel is a beautiful place for music,” Coleman said. “Music is spiritual by nature; it draws people together and opens them up. And it sounds so different in a chapel than it does in a bar or nightclub. The chapel is nondenominational; music is a common denominator.”
For more information, call 816-753-6719.
| Timothy Finn, The Star
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The Elders will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday inside the Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gilliam Road, a venue that seats 75 people. Because the chapel is so “intimate,” the band is billing this as an unplugged show with acoustic instruments. Tickets are $100 each. The show benefits the chapel’s Garden of Silence, an urban meditiation garden that will be built behind the chapel. The entire cost of the ticket is tax deductible. Call (816) 753-6719. You can also catch the Elders at 10 p.m. Friday at Record Bar, 1020 Westport Road.