The City of Asheville is going to move some money around to pay for an acoustical analysis of the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. Although it is an interesting use of tax dollars, it is a worthwhile cause. I attended a performance there a couple years ago, and I rank it at the very bottom of venues for acoustics. The word muddy comes to mind. Only the Peace Center in Greenville was worse. In Greenville, I kept moving from seat to seat to see if I could get a good sound, and it failed. Following the show, it was all I could do to restrain myself from offering the band’s bus driver some help as he got caught on this and this traffic calming device.
I did see another show at the Thomas Wolfe about thirty years ago. I went with some friends to see the Asheville Symphony. Athough it didn’t bother me, the friend who invited me talked for days afterward about how, during pianissimos and pauses one could hear the lions roaring from the circus next-door.
