Yay, concert!

[kyrielle]

I had a good time, of course. There are numerous reasons that I don't often go to concerts (like, one a decade seems to be about normal). But I had a very, very good time. (It helped immensely that this one was outdoors - it gave me a great deal of confidence that it would be a good time - as the volume is one of the reasons I seldom go to concerts. I knew I could move further away if I needed to, and not have walls blocking the sound too well.)

Suzanne was on first and she was just beautiful to listen to. I went to the concert to hear her, after all, and I wasn't disappointed. She sang (NOT in this order) the Queen and the Soldier, Marlene on the Wall, Left of Center, Rosemary, (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May, Tom's Diner, In Liverpool, Caramel, Luka, Blood Makes Noise, Penitent, When Heroes Go Down, Some Journey, and Gypsy. She also sang a new song (new as in penned recently and she still brings the lyrics on stage and claims to worry about remembering them) about a root-bound plant. I suspect it is, like some of the others, one that will have to grow on me (which I suppose is a bad pun in this case). I had not heard Rosemary before, which was her next-to-last piece and I loved it. (She ended with a cover of some song by someone else. I'd never heard of the person or the song, and both have exited my mind. It was...she sings beautifully, so it was beautiful, but the lyrics did not impress me. It was a weak song compared to the one she'd just done before, to my mind.)

Then Marc came on. Getting to hear Marc Cohn was kind of a random bonus that I wasn't sure was a bonus, because I don't know his work well enough to be a fan, really. Or very much of it at all. I know there are people reading this who like him and would have loved to be there for this, but I also know my taste in music is touchy, so I went in pretty much of the mindset that "hey, I'll see what I think."

Initially, my impression was not good. On the first three or four songs he did, either he was hard to understand (compared to Suzanne, he sounded like he was mumbling his lyrics) or the lyrics sounded terribly banal and boring to me. The instrumental work was gorgeous - and loud. I was halfway back the concert lawn and if they'd been just slightly louder, I'd have gotten up and removed myself further, in spite of the annoyance it would have caused for tons of people (I was also dead center and would have had to work my way out, which would have sucked).

Fortunately, they weren't just slightly louder. I was determined to stay, and I'm glad that I was, because he hit a song called "Old Soldier" then and that, I liked, and I understood the people who like his work. It was the song I liked best from his portion of the concert, in the end, as well as the first one I liked at all. I think this is as much because it was the only one where I truly was able to understand all the lyrics as anything else, although some that I could get the lyrics on I was not real impressed by. I know he sang Already Home, Ghost Train, Let Me Be Your Witness, Paper Walls, Perfect Love, The Calling, True Companion, and Walking In Memphis.

I'd like to point out that I had to browse his site to create that list, and that in many cases I could not understand the lyrics. He was good overall, but not nearly as good as Suzanne was. (And I don't really like True Companion and Walking In Memphis when they're performed and phrased as he did them tonight, I discovered, even though I do like those songs. And no, I did not associate them with his name before tonight.)

Tired, now. Off to bed. But it was a good time and a good concert. And I adore Suzanne Vega's music, but this is not news, I don't think.

Comments

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a very good evening all told! I didn't know that he was the one that did the "Memphis song" as we put it down here. I don't know how accurate the song really is for most people's experiences in Memphis... ;)

And Suzanne Vega -- I don't know much of her work, but what I do know of it makes me wish that I could have tagged along with you! :) Maybe she'll stop by here sometime.

[kyrielle]

I own all but one of Suzanne's CDs I could get my hands on. I do not own the retrospective, which has only a couple songs I did not have before. But I want them now...I hate to pay so much for a CD that is mostly music I already have, though. Three songs I don't have - but one of them is Rosemary. What I want is a couple I cannot so easily get, ironically.

Which of her songs are you familiar with?

She has lyrics and clips at http://www.suzannevega.net/ but this is a very good way to find yourself wanting a CD, I've found. *wry*

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

"Tired of Sleeping" is the main one that is going through my head at the moment (that I actually know the title to... :) ). But I think I'm also familiar with "Luka" and "Tom's Diner" both of which I enjoy listening to.

Like I said, not as familiar as I should be really. I should click the link and get more familiar with her. :)

[kyrielle]

*grins* She's good. I don't think you'd regret it. Of COURSE I wouldn't think that. I was willing to take my twitchy hearing to a concert to hear her. Doesn't mean you'll agree with me, but if you have liked those three then I think you might like her in general.

[mandydax.livejournal.com]

*emits jealousy*

Have you checked anywhere online to get the single tracks that you want? If it's available, that would be a good way to get them without paying for the whole album. I checked amazon and they don't have it. Walmart was down, and I don't have any subscription music services.

*still emitting jealousy*

[kyrielle]

Good call. I can definitely get them at iTunes. If they don't burn, I'm going to have a snit, but that's only if. Hopefully they will. (My best burner is in the Windows 98 machine, where I can't use iTunes. Sucks. I should swap it into the WinXP desktop, except I'd have to take out the existing drive in it, and that drive can play DVDs. It just can't record CDs. Not quite a good tradeoff. So I use the external drive. Which usually snit-fits and then I do too.)

I am annoyed to find they don't have Old Soldier, of Marc's stuff, though. Bah. I may have to hunt around and see if I can get that elsewhere. Last time I hunted around, however, nothing else that I tried worked on any of my boxes except iTunes. (Granted, nothing much of that sort will work on my poor overworked aging laptop, since it likes to overheat. But.)

I wish you could have been there. 'Twas good, and good things are better when shared with friends, after all.

Not sure what you can afford or how far you can go, but - she's hitting the Midwest during August. With Marc at all those performances also. (The international part of the tour did not include him, and it looks like the east-coast part won't either. The west coast and midwest do, for most performances.)

[mandydax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I checked it out when you first mentioned it, but the closest was Chicago or StL, and it's on a Thursday... I couldn't make it without taking off work, and it'd be a hell trip.

[ladywraith.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the concert turning out so well. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Even if you weren't so keen on Marc, at least Suzanne was good. :)

I know we don't share too much in common when it comes to music, but I'm sure that Suzanne put on a good show. What few songs of hers I have heard, I've enjoyed. :)

[kyrielle]

*grins* She did. She definitely did.

So did Marc, I just didn't get nearly as much out of the music. But it was a good performance, and I'm glad I stayed for his performance (or part of it - I skipped out while he was on, but after he'd been up there for quite a while - as I was getting tired and he was winding down, and I really didn't want to be there when the entire concert lawn hit the parking lot).