Kings of Convenience at Teatro Verde, San Giorgio Maggiore

A nearly full moon rises above Kings of Convenience at Teatro Verde on Tuesday, 23 July

Based upon our concert-going experience of this past Tuesday, I'd like to offer the following two recommendations:

1. If you have the opportunity to attend a performance of any kind at Teatro Verde on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, you should certainly do so. Tuesday was the first time Jen, Sandro and I attended an event there and it's such a beautiful and peaceful venue that we were immediately talking about going to something else as soon as possible. Built in 1952 along an edge of the island out of sight from la piazzetta of San Marco, it is--depending upon whether you'd like to believe veniceconnected.com or the website of the concert series we attended L.i.VE (Live in Venice)--a classically-inspired ampitheater of either 1,618 or 1,334 seats, respectively.

The performance Tuesday night was part of the second season of the L.i.VE series, running from just 18 July until 27 July, when it concludes with a concert by the American "godmother of punk" Patti Smith.

Erlend Øye, left, and Eirik Glambek Bøe of Kings of Convenience

2. If you have an opportunity to attend a performance anywhere by the Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience, you should certainly do so. Inspired most notably by Simon and Garfunkel, Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe put on a marvelous show. The first half of Tuesday night's gig consisted of just those two on acoustic guitars; for the second, they were joined by three other musicians (two of them Italians whom they'd hired in Norway).

If you don't know the music of Kings of Convenience, who have to date released three albums (my favorite being Riot on an Empty Street), here are three video links (all their songs are in English):

1. "Know How" (live, featuring Feist): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_i5bFuJB6I

2. "I'd Rather Dance with You": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OczRpuGKTfY

3. "Homesick" live (with its explicit allusion to Simon and Garfunkel): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG8CMeIp1OY

A pair of rapt concertgoers