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.