Événement

SING (World Premiere)

SING explores the history of the Hotel Café tours and venue through the lens of the 2008 Tour. Anchored from this perspective, this feature-length documentary recounts the history of the venue, the history of the tour and the relationships of the artists involved. The story unfolds from these multiple perspectives and shows how an intimate room, unlike any other, without even a liquor license, went on to stage international tours and create global recognition.

At the Hotel Café there is often no line between patron and performer. The venue is small and there are always familiar faces in the crowd. With no backstage area, it's not uncommon for an artist to step on and off the stage or join the audience for the next show. There's an unprecedented camaraderie among the artists at the Hotel Café. They do more than share a stage – they play together, they party together, they collaborate, they follow each other's careers and genuinely want to help each other find success. Synonymous with this experience is the singer/songwriter, Cary Brothers, who once described the Hotel Café as his living room. Brothers feels this support is an integral component to the success of the tour, and he works tirelessly to recreate this mood on the road.

The degrees of success each artist has experienced vary, from Grammy winning heights to never having been on the tour bus before. On the tour, each show is a great equalizer: there is no headliner and no hierarchy, and the experience forces musicians to share not only their living space, but also the stage and their support band as well. The result is a type of chaotic magic, entices artists to line up side-stage to watch their bunkmates perform, invites collaboration, and creates versions of songs that could never be captured again unfurling before an enraptured audience and recorded only in our film. Some of the musicians included in the film are Gary Jules, Cary Brothers, Greg Laswell, Imogen Heap, Jim Bianco, Butch Walker, Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, Joshua Radin, Dan Wilson, Meiko, Jessie Baylin, and William Fitzsimmons. (77 min.)