Katastrophe.

     The first thing I noticed about going to the Katastrophe was the audience. The environment that had been created by the performer and the audience could be felt as soon as walking through the door. Admittedly, I did arrive to the performance about ten minutes late, but what I learned from my own tardiness was that the atmosphere when I did get there was unique to only that room. The stage was small and set close to the audience, and the majority of the crowd was seated close in the first five or so rows. What I had noticed about the people in the crowd was that they all seemed to be seated in groups where they knew each other. A few people were seated by themselves, but for the most part everyone seemed to be close-knit, or at least acquaintances.

     Katastrophe as an artist did not perform the type of music that I normally listen to, but I did not let that hinder any judgments. I wanted to go into this with an open mind. He started each song either describing what the song was about, or what had influenced him to write the song. This not only provided an inside look to what he went through as a person, but it also ensured that what he was writing was transferred well to the people watching the show. He went on to describe his life when younger, the troubles he had in school, or conflicts that he would face with people around him over sexuality issues and gender issues.

     The interesting thing was that this performance was not only an insight into his life, it was also the background and an explanation as to what brought him to this point in life and where he is now. Katastrophe also decided to include the audience and make the performance an interactive one. When discussing gender and sexuality issues, or just talking about things that happen to everyone growing up, he would then ask the crowd something along the lines of, Have you ever felt this way? or Has something like this happened to you? or a simple, You know what I mean?. The audience had responses that paralleled what Katashrophe was talking about and supported the points that he was trying to make. Throughout the whole performance people were taking pictures and videos on their phones and cameras, so it was clear that they not only supported the message that he was relaying, but they also would most likely post these videos or photos and share them with the people that they knew.

     Katastrophe physically went out into the crowd during one of his songs and got up in the faces of the people. This resulted in a group of laughter, and I thought that this is not something that normally happens at concerts, that this was unique to this experience, he wanted to bring the audience to be more part of the performance (no matter how awkward it might be at first).

     Through story telling, memories, and music Katastrophe shares his experiences and his beliefs. The messages relayed sit well with the audience and the whole environment has a judgment free zone sort of feeling to it. Anyone in the audience would have been able to pick up on that too, even while they were just enjoying a fun little concert with messages that they believed.