From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V7 #79 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Monday, April 21 2003 Volume 07 : Number 079 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- 4/19 Joe's Pub, NYC [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 15:28:22 -0400 From: meredith Subject: 4/19 Joe's Pub, NYC Hi, I guess it falls upon me to chronicle last night's pair of shows at Joe's Pub in New York City. :) Many of the usual suspects were in attendance: Therese, George & Susan Pauliny, SharonG, and of course myself and woj. I also saw a recent convert at the late show, a fellow Nields fan who saw the light thanks to the Falcon Ridge "Summer in December" tour last year. He was motivated enough to drive down from Albany just for the occasion, and bring a few friends with him. Bravo! As advertised, the evening was given over to the piano stuff. The club's grand piano was at center (and left, and right) stage, and Susan was accompanied on several songs by Mark Peterson on bass and John Bollinger on drums. The stage was so small that after every song Susan would look back to make sure the piano bench hadn't inched back any closer to the edge ... and indeed at one point at the end of the first show, she stood up to pick up her guitar and the bench went thudding off, thankfully without her on it. :} Both shows had the same set list, so let's see if I can remember (I might be slightly off in the order of things, if anyone can correct me please do): I'd Be Good For You Tall Drink Of Water You Come Through Philanthropy I'm Not Sure (on guitar) Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter Late For The Dance No One Needs To Know Let's Regret This In Advance (on guitar) Much At All Stay On Your Side Of Town See You Again Light Sleeper I Can't Be New encore (with band): Wouldn't It Be Lovely Imagine (on guitar) Both shows were excellent. Susan was in fine voice throughout, and the band was really loose and sounded great. They especially shone on "Philanthropy", which was arranged to give solos to each of them. Susan also took the opportunity to show off a bit at the end of "Light Sleeper", when she held the final "looooooooooooooooooooong long night" for what seemed like a full minute, adjusting her necklace and stretching a bit as she did so. "Imagine" was stunning -- I'd heard her do it last weekend in Lowell, but with the band it reached new heights of intensity, as the other instruments came in slowly, building to a crescendo at the end. Brilliant. Some tidbits from the introductions given to some songs over the course of the night: - -- "Philanthropy" was written in Cleveland. - -- Susan said in the early show that "Late For The Dance" was written in a dream, then in the late show she said it was inspired by her parents, who met at the Prairie Moon Dance Hall in rural Iowa ("Doesn't that sound like a place you'd like to see? It burned down"). I guess the dream was inspired by her parents' story, or something. :) - -- She said "Much At All", more than any other song, could have happened in Nyack. No clue why. - -- "Stay On Your Side Of Town": could take place in New York, even though it was written with another city in mind (obviously Chicago, but we knew that :). - -- In the early show, after "No One Needs To Know" Susan said that it was inspired by Cole Porter's songs, which go along all happy happy happy, then the 10-inch dagger comes out (miming stabbing the piano, "Psycho" style ). Probably one of those you-had-to-be-there things, but it was hilarious. - -- "I Can't Be New" is a "list song", inspired by Cole Porter's "list songs" (she sang a bit of an example, but I can't remember now what it was). A "list song" goes thing-thing-thing-THAT. Thing-thing-thing-THAT. She also mentioned in the early show that last week at Passim someone gave her a solid chocolate Easter bunny, and as she is wont to do the first thing she did was look at the nutritional information. Calories: 600. Fat: 35g. And guess what the serving size was? One Rabbit. "Not one ear, or one tail." (That is pretty funny. Usually the serving sizes are miniscule, so you think it's better for you than it really is.) Later, as she was singing the line about "chocolate to eat" in "Wouldn't It Be Lovely", she made a little bunny-hopping gesture with her fingers, to many chuckles. Both shows were basically sold out, which was great to see, particularly on a holiday weekend. She got a great response from both crowds. Each time she's been at Joe's Pub the crowds have been larger and the response more enthusiastic, and I keep seeing new faces, which can only be a good thing. Maybe soon she'll outgrow the place and move into a less annoying venue. Sure, Joe's Pub has great sound, but the food and drinks are *way* overpriced for what you get, and the lighting is downright distracting. You'd think that a venue located in a professional theater would have people who know how to light a musical performance. For the most part, the lighting last night was way too dim, and the choice of colors was just wrong (particularly appalling was the extended portion where Susan was bathed in pure dark blue). At one point Susan had to ask them to turn the lights up, because it was too dark for John and Mark to find their way off the stage safely. At least for the second show it was apparent the lighting guy had been paying a bit of attention, because he made an attempt to put a spotlight on Mark or John when they were doing a solo or getting introduced, though he was mostly too late on all cues. (The lighting at Joe's Pub is usually horrendous -- it's long been something we've complained about amongst ourselves when attending other shows there.) But that is really a minor quibble, all things considered. Everything that was under Susan's control came off brilliantly last night. Here's hoping she and the boys play NYC again soon. Next stop: the Turning Point on May 4th. Hope to see a bunch of believers there. =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://muzak.smoe.org NEXT UP: Ruthie Foster, 4/27 =============================================== HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V7 #79 ****************************** --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message