Music Reviews
A variety of stuff reviewedArchive for November 16, 2007
Siouxsie at Astoria2
Siouxsie at Astoria2
Oct 19, 2007 by Owen
Siouxsie’s return to the London stage after the release of her new solo album, “Mantaray” was a triumph.
Siouxsie came on stage to rapturous applause and launched into “Israel” followed by “Arabian Knights”, and that was the gauntlet thrown down right there and then. She is Siouxsie and has a back catalogue to die for. That established the tone for the rest of the set, mixing Banshee classics with songs from the new album and that approach worked exceptionally well, new and old songs seemlessly meshing. There were no songs from The Creatures but that might be down to the absence of Budgie.
Siouxsie strutted across the stage, arms weaving in dramatic gestures, legs kicking high in trademark stilettos, hands slapping her thighs in time to the drums, throwing back her head one moment and leaning in to tease the front of the audience the next. She was in great voice and the band was tight. She looked good in a harlequin body suit, slender and lithe, scarlet lips and black on black wild hair. Siouxsie is back and, judging from how she was last night, enjoying herself.
She was on stage for around 1 hour followed by two encores of two songs each. The sound was excellent and that made up for the poor lighting. Highlights were the wonderful ‘Dear Prudence’ (preceded by Siouxsie saying, ‘do we have to do this one?’), ‘Nightshift’ (atmospheric in the dark surroundings), ‘Here Comes That Day’ (the new single), ‘One Mile Below’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ (from the new album). The set closed with a great version of ‘Into A Swan’, obviously set to be her new anthem after launching the album.
While waiting for the encore I joked that she’d come back with ‘Hong Kong Garden’ and that’s what happened. The marvellous ‘Hong Kong Garden’ opened the encore followed by the spectacular ‘Spellbound’. A second encore treated us to the moody ‘Swansway’ and ‘Hello, I love you’ (the Doors song).
The audience was an interesting mix of old punks and former goths, a surprising number of smartly dressed women, a smattering of wierd and wonderful haircuts and piercings (I liked the woman with a huge mass of lime green hair in the middle of the crowd) and the usual mob of fat, middle aged, drunk men getting too boisterous in the name of their own enjoyment at the expense of everyone else (especially unpleasant when they smell of stale sweat and beer). At such a gathering of the clans I suppose that’s to be expected.
The queen has returned and we must worship.
Suzanne Vega at Cadogan Hall
Suzanne Vega at Cadogan Hall
Oct 25, 2007 by Owen
Suzanne is promoting her latest album, ‘Beauty & Crime,’ and turned up at the reserved surroundings of Cadogan Hall off Sloane Square for a gig with her band. Firstly we had to sit through the support act, Gary Daly (formerly of China Crisis). Unfortunately, if this is the launch of his new solo career then he needs to do some more work and there was little there to keep my attention. I preferred his last three songs to the first lot. Ho hum. Anyway, on to Suzanne…
I last saw Miss Vega in July at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in July so was familiar with the current show. Dressed in a black ‘raincoat-dress’ (part raincoat and part off-the-shoulder frock) with a black fedora she looked the part, reflecting the cover of her latest album. She came on stage alone, singing a capella ‘Tom’s Diner’ as one by one her four-piece band walked on stage with a mug or a newspaper as they would in the diner itself, so they all were on stage by the time she finished the song. It’s a nice, quietly dramatic way to open the show. The show closed with the dance DNA version of the same song, a New York diner bracketing the show which is a nice idea, all life happening in a diner.
The songs were a mix of favourites and tracks from the new album and, this time, I got to see and hear ‘Unbound’ from the new album, one of my favourites, a nice bouncy bass-line to that song so I was a happy bunny jigging along in my seat. She played an excellent version of ‘Bound’, also from the new album, as the final encore. It’s easy to think of Suzanne in the ’singer-songwriter’ accoustic category but she writes some powerful music that comes to life with her tight band behind her blasting out the aural imagery, and ‘Bound’ is a good example of that. Both songs were new to me live and I hope to see her perform them again.
Favourites of the evening were ‘Blood Makes Noise’ (just voice and bass), ‘Luka’ (still powerful after all these years), ‘Gypsy’, ‘Frank & Ava’, ‘Angel’s Doorway’ and ‘Zephyr & I’ which opened the encore. ‘The Queen And The Soldier’ was also part of the encore (jokily introduced as a song ‘with a long narrative and a tragic end’), an old favourite that always pleases. The second encore was ‘Bound’.
I love Suzanne’s voice and could listen to her talk and sing all day. A couple of times during the concert I closed my eyes so I was just listening to that marvellously clear voice. She has a lovely dry wit that every now and then extends in mischievousness in some of her comments to the audience (like speculating about Rod Stewart dating older women while introducing ‘(I’ll Never Be Your) Maggie May’). Her songs are excellent, a perfect marriage of words and music, painting pictures and telling tales.
It’s always a pleasure to see Suzanne and I look forward to our next meeting.
