Friday, April 01, 2005

Suzanne Vega in Tokyo 2005

Travelling through Japan there are a few free publication for Gaijin with a few articles and gig listings. Scanning through one of these last week I noticed that Suzanne Vega was playing in Tokyo on the 31st of March and the 1st of April. When I was travelling through the US 2 years ago, I ran out of money at the end of my trip and could stay the extra week to catch her playing in New York. I was in something of a similar boat this time around having planned to hav already left Japan at this point - but I just couldn't miss this second oppourtunity.

So I did my research, trekked throught the chaotic neon maze of Shibuya to find out where the Duo Music Exchange was. I found but found out too that I had to call up to reserve a ticket. This was a truly comical undertaking as I got hand balled three times, and by the third time when I asked the person on the other end of the line if they spoken english, you could hear the entire office erupt in laughter in the background.



Flyers, Pod and Map

The decor inside the duo Music Exchange can only be discribed as something akin to a neo-jazz/funk club, with sections of padded orange vinyl on the walls and raw concrete pillars on the main floor. Seating is set out at dinner tables across two levels. The stage is actually quite big for such an intimate space which with its particular layout never feels too crowded. All in all you are very much in the prescence of the artist in this space, as the tables at the foot of the stage often mean that these audience members and the performer are only 2 meters apart. Then, while scanning through the flyer of upcoming events at the duo Music Exchange, I spy one of the only bits of english on it, it says next to his picture "Total Produced by Jay Kay (Jamiroquai)." An "ah" moment follows as the Jamiroquai horned silloheutte used as the venums logo suddenly makes sense.



Crowd outside duo Music Exchange

So last night waiting for the show to begin, the crowd sit there mezmerised by the digital projections of music video from Suzanne Vega's Retrospective DVD and CD which is about to be released here. Paul Kelly is playing over the PA, singing about how "...every fucking city feels the same." There is something about those lyrics that speaks to the traveller, in the same way that songs about leaving do.



I sit there and notice there are a handful of Gaijin here, maybe seven in all including me. I think, how I never expected to be here, both in the immediate sense of my current surroundings as well in the larger sense of the surprising places that life can sometimes take us if we let it -- but then again I don't know if I really expected myself to be anywhere in particular. I find myself wondering why it is that when you find yourself doing the most unexpected things that often get the strongest sense of de ja vu. I decide to order another Canadian Club on the rocks and think about good times shared with friends over CC and Asahi.

I can feel my excitement build; like most people I first heard Suzanne Vega in the mid 80's with the song Luka and Tom's Dinner, which most people recognise from the dance remix version from the late 80's or early 90's as the "Doo do, do do doo do" song. It has been 20 years since I first discovered the LP "Solitude Standing" back in the time before CDs, and Suzanne's catalogue has grown steadily since.

Eight-o-clock rolls around and Suzanne Vega is introduced to a very warm reception. No opener in this setting, we are all here for the one thing. Well almost, quite a few members of the audience are here too for the dinner available on the:


Suzeanne Vega Live at duo Music Exchange
Special Menu

Dinner Plate

sauteed chicken served with pancetta & truffe flavou sauce & caesar salad

2,500


Special Wine

Redwood Creek Chardonnay 2003

Bottle 3,900
Glass 900


Set

Special Wine & Dinner Plate
3,000

Special Wine & Dinner Plate

8,000



But then again, who can blame them, as coming straight from a busy day at work to a 6:30pm door call, there probably wouldn't be much time to grab a bite. Also I think this is the way that more gigs are done here, a sort of a jazz club feel. I had a very similar experience at the Kaki King show last week at the Blue Note Jazz club in Omotesando.

Suzanne walks on stage followed by her bassist Mike Visceglia. She is respectful but warm towards the crowd as she starts to gauge where the audience is at. She practices a bit of her japanese on the crowd which is met with great appreciation. She picks up her guitar and the duo rock straight into the raw openess of Marlene on the Wall and instantly draws the crowd away in the individual collective experience of travelling the emotional pathways into the many gathered personal histroies and relationships we have with that song. Next we stay with songs from her debut as she and Mike fall into Small Blue Thing.

The show contiunes with Suzanne engaging with the crowd in a bit of English and Japanese banter, at one point almost sending Mike hurrying from the stage by threatening to put him and his Japanese skills to the test. Suzeanne then performs a few tracks solo and it is amazing to notice how her vice just drifts out into space as little as air with lyrics that resonate so deep.

Suzeanne puts her guitar down and it just voice and bass for the pulse quickening vocal gallop of Blood Makes Noise followed by Left of Center.

The set list for the evening also includes a couple of new tracks; Anniversary written about the one year anniversary of 9/11, and Edith Warton's Figurines which she explains will have an appropriate translation for the Japanese release, while joking that one is needed for the American release too so that people can get what she is singing about.

For the encore Suzanne came out and asked for what the audience wanted to hear and was bombarded by a wide range of titles from her entire collection - yells came, *Solitude Standing* - *Language* - *Cracking* - *Rosemary*. Suzanne apologized for not being able to do some of the titles as they either required the entire band or they were tracks that she and Mike had not played in a real long time. So with that Rosemary was decided upon. After finishing the song Suzeanne was already to go but Mike was keen to stick around and grant one of the requests - "Cracking". They joked about whether they would remember the how it went but it went flawlessly as far as we were concerned which was shown in the insistant appluading that went on well after the house lights brightened in an attempt to coax a second encore from the duo.

A fanatastic and intimate show which lived up to expectation much more than imagined -- and we all know the problems with expectations, that they are so much more often dashed than upheld, much less exceeded.

Through some chance timing, I went over to the edge of the stage near the exit after the show. I noticed another Gaijin waiting there after having spoken to Mike. I started speaking to the guy waiting there about what an amazing show it was and while trying to catch Mike to say what an awesome show it was. It turned out that the Gaijin, a guy from Spain who had also missed his previous chance of seeing Suzeanne perform, had asked Mike if he could just say a few words to Suzanne. Two minutes later Mike appears and ushers us in - well what could I do but go with the flow. Standing just off stage where the performs enter and exit from i wait my turn, I have not rehearse anything to say, again I was not expecting to be here so I kept what I had to say as short possible. I settle for just saying "Thank you"; saying too much and you can sometimes get lost in the maze of language trying to convey too many thoughts at once.

An amazing performance in a strange land and place, but like the line in Scarlett Begonias "Once in a while you get shown or expereince (the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right." Hmmm, but then again, I guess it is always there, we need just be open to it.

---

Set list for Suzeanne Vega Live at the duo Music Exchange 31.3.2005


  1. Marlene on the Wall
  2. Small Blue Thing
  3. Caramel
  4. When Heros Go Down
  5. Gypsy
  6. I'll Never Be Your Maggie May
  7. Penitent
  8. Solitaire
  9. Blood Makes Noise
  10. Left of Centre
  11. Queen and the Solider
  12. Anniversary
  13. Edith Warton's Figurines
  14. In Liverpool
  15. Luka

    Encore

  16. Rosemary
  17. Cracking

5 Comments:

At 5:29 PM , Blogger meta_zen said...

hey sal b,

i was thinkng of you and how much you would have loved the gig when she played In Liverpool and Cracking.

I wish I could have taped it ...

 
At 5:51 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bastard! Need I say more?! Bastard! Indeed your timing is impeccable considering there is 'no' actual schedule for your where abouts! All I can say, green with envy of course, is that this short and sweet description you have posted is not even 1/100th of what transpired that night! Sigh! Ce la vie! I at least can live out this moment from the scriptures you kindly have left us!

 
At 7:02 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good design!
[url=http://fdbkcebf.com/csut/zlro.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://werepxwh.com/krwa/hkqm.html]Cool site[/url]

 
At 7:03 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done!
My homepage | Please visit

 
At 7:06 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you!
http://fdbkcebf.com/csut/zlro.html | http://ugufigkt.com/wvqw/gtku.html

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home