A Night Of Music And Art In The City That Never Sleeps

New York has always been a place for artist to showcase their talents, photographers, musicians and filmmakers; all who want to introduce themselves and their work to their community. On Thursday, October 16, an Armenian as well as local New York Artist, photographer, musicians and filmmaker, Haik Kocharian, showed the world what he is all about.

The Venue of Kocharian’s showcase was Drum Lounge, which is located on Avenue A between 5th and 6th streets. Upon arrival at Drum, Kocharian took a look at the video screen, waited for his event to pop up and once the event popped up as “happening tonight Haik Kocharian” he pointed to the screen and said with an enormous smile, “look, it is me.”

In case he or anyone else missed the video screen, a picture of Kocharian was hanging on the front door’s window, couldn’t be missed. The process of getting his showcase at Drum was a short one.

“I came here for another show and met with the promoter, described him the concept that I wanted to do a multimedia show and he was generous enough to invite me to play here,” said Kocharian.

The showcase, which was comprised of three parts, first a short time to view Kocharian’s photographs, which were places all throughout Drum, followed by a showing of Kocharian’s film Charlie, which was showed on P.B.S. July 18th that heading directly into a musical concert featuring him, his guitar, along with a band to accompany.

The showcase was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but this being an Armenian event, people didn’t start showing up until about 8 p.m. (Armenian Time taking effect). However, once people started coming and walked around seeing the photographs, the chatter began.

“I am fond of the photo with the little girl sitting on the stoop in front of the menswear shop as well as the one with all the pigeons flying around in front of the lady,” said Joyce Artinian, who was seeing Kocharian’s work for the first time.

Kocharian photos come from all walks of life.

“I shoot what I like, if I feel it, I shoot it. If it looks good I put it up,” said Kocharian.

As the audience began taking their seats it was 8:30 p.m., and time for the showing of Charlie. It was in black and white and started one man, Charlie, with narration.

“It is the psychological world of one person, Charlie, who worried about his financial well being, and due to that he misses out on opportunities in his life that he should enjoy. In a psychological, philological way he kills himself doing that. He is a murder of his own identity because he is consistently worried about the concept of life rather than just living through it,” said Kocharian.

Charlie, was also taking an effect on the audience that had grown substantially from the 8:30 p.m. beginning.

“I thought the narration in the first half was amusing and honest, that many people can relate to,” said Artinian.

After a short 15-minute break after the movie showing, Kocharian made his way to the stage picked up his acoustic guitar and went up to the microphone.

“I have realized that as I get older, I experience more and more back pain, so I am going to start my set with a song about back pain, called Back Pain,” said Kocharian.

One aspect of Kocharian’s musical style that was noticeable from the first song was his sarcastic lyrics.

“If you ever have back pain, get a better mattress,” was the chorus of the song.

Back Pain was short, going about a 1:30, but was well received by the crowd.

His next song—his love song, which he wrote when he was a teenage called Naked Man and Naked Woman, was different than Back Pain. The song was up beat, both in music and crowd reaction.

Following Naked Man and Naked Woman was his song about being dumped. The title comes with an expletive deleted, but it has to do with feeling bad, and/or having a really bad day. The way a person must feel was the title of the song. The crowd, at least the people who haven’t seen Kocharian before were a little confused about his songs.

“He sings like he is writing poetry. He is not really singing, he is more of a conversationalist,” said one woman in the crowd.

The biggest pop of the night was when Kocharian sang, which he stated “is about sex.” The song title, In and Out.

“This is my favorite song,” said Artinian to the group of people she was sitting with.

The crowd was laughing and sitting in silence, all at the same time. Some people enjoyed the music, others didn’t. Most of the song titles were of the adult variety, but the show was 18 and over, so it was age appropriate.

“Contemporary music is full of foul language and are very accessible to the youth. I am open to all audience. I particularly want Armenian youth to come to my show…my music is universal and can connect with every group age because my music subjects are universal. I feel alive when I am on the stage. Any reaction I can evoke, through the laughter, the seriousness, the amazement and even disgust in many cases, whichever emotion I can evoke is a gift,” said Kocharian.

Kocharian is the type of artist that shows himself through his art and that was on display for all in the audience to observe.

“He is very sincere in his music, and his art in general. There is a piece of him in his photography, films and music. It is something that the audience picked up on. Everyone was entertained by the humor of the music, but he is also getting across a serious message that is common to a lot of us, feelings of loneliness, heartbreak and feelings of being stuck in one’s life. He is a very open person and he stays true to himself and the crowd with his music. His set was like a reel of his life,” said Laurie Harrisen.

Kocharian is an artist in all sense of the way.

“Art is all I do. I am a professional artist. I may not be making a lot of money, but I am sure it will come. I do what I do for the love, for the money, for everything. My art is my life,” said Kocharian.