Listen to
Suzanne Vega performing in the studio and being interviewed
by Rob Reinhart on Acoustic Cafe
Highly Recommended
g' rendition of
Suzanne Vega's Keyboardist
Lives on the Second Floor
Recap of Suzanne Vega Live at City Hall
Park, NYC
by Lou V
August 27, 2007, Lower Manhattan, NYC --
On Friday I left work at 5pm
and went down to J & R to check out some
free-in-City-Hall-Park music and see if I could get my sister a
birthday present. Suzanne Vega and two R&B/soul guys were playing –
Javier, Suzanne Vega, and J. Holiday was the lineup. As is typical
tradition with
J & R City
Hall Park concerts, each plays for a half hour or so, and then goes
inside to autograph their record if you buy it -- an 'in-store'
performance in the park.
The concert started
at 5pm, so I figured I'd see Vega around 6pm and still be able to get home at a reasonable hour. There
were wall-to-wall people – a couple of hundred people – in the
space in front of the stage, and maybe eight hundred or so overall
in the side of the park by the stage. As the three were announced,
Javier got a lot of applause, Vega got minimal applause, and the
crowd ERUPTED for
Holiday. Lots of Latino and black girls, age 16 to 25. Javier went
first and he was good; good voice, acoustic guitar, band behind him
but not my cup of tea on the music. Too much hint of Lionel Richie-esqueness R&B to the overall sound. Suzanne Vega was
Not
next; Holiday was. So I went inside J & R to take a quick
look around for a gift for my sister; I didn't find anything but
bought the movie "The Beatniks" instead, for $4.95. I'd been looking
for this movie for some time. I watched it Friday night -- it mostly
sucked, mainly because it's false advertising. THERE ARE
NO BEATNIKS IN THIS MOVIE. It should've been called "The Hooligans".
I really want to get the movie "The Young Hellions" now, which from
scenes watched on youtube, promises to be a movie with Beatniks in
it. At least High School beatniks, and John Barrymore (Drew's uncle
or father?), and Uncle Fester as a drug dealer.
Anyway as I'm leaving
J & R, the manager shuts and locks the doors in
front of me because
Holiday has just finished his set and there are hundreds of
Screaming Women running toward the store for his autograph session.
It was Beatle-esque.
Manager said he'd have to close the store for five minutes
until they could get everyone in line, otherwise they'd bust into
the store. And so a small crowd of people trying to leave the store
starts to gather behind me, including Javier who finished his
autograph session and comes up and stands beside me. A lady comes up
on my left and asks what the heck is going on, so I tell her there's
a concert in the park, and he (pointing both to the poster in front
of me and Javier on my right) sang first, and J. Holiday sang next
and all these gals are coming for his autograph.
I wasn't late for Vega. I easily walked right up to the
front of the stage and then waited while her band did sound check.
There was a problem with the keyboard, and the keyboardist was testing and testing and testing it.
Ten, twenty, thirty minutes went by and you could see J & R management
getting all antsy because their store closes at 7:30pm,
and this was obviously going to cause them to go at least until
8pm. At one point three pretty, young Latino girls came up and stood
besides me near the stage. An artsy Peter-O'Toole-looking fellow in
his late forties with a video camera, obviously a Suzanne Vega
denizen fan, turned directly around and started videotaping them up
close, telling them how colorful they were. It was a good
line and they seemed amused by it; they were wearing colorful
clothing. I was surprised that Vega was still enlisting a young
audience until one turned and asked me if Holiday was up next and I
said no, he went on already and is across the street signing
autographs and they said something like 'oh no' and took off pronto
for J & R. The videoguy turned to me and said with a sad refrain "like a butterfly..", holding up and
fluttering his right hand slowly.
The keyboardist kept testing and testing and
finally said it was a no go at 7pm, after 35 minutes of waiting. They
brought a new keyboard out, which had a huge dent in its side, and
she began her meticulous testing again. At that point I had to go
home I couldn't wait all night. As I was leaving I took some video
of Suzanne Vega behind the stage waiting anxiously to go on, and
then finally just as I was heading away, her introductions came and
she went on. I'd seen her
two years ago at the
opening of 7 WTC
-- a windy, sunny afternoon that wasn't conducive to a good live
show, especially the quieter sound of a Vega. It must be said that at that same windy outdoor environ, The
Brazilian Girls blew me away; even as the wind literally blew their
instruments away from them from time to time (microphones and drumkits
were sent flying).
I am sure Vega blew away the crowd at her City Hall Park
show in NYC on August 27th; I couldn't stick around but there was no
wind and it was getting dark out by the time she was coming on. And
darkness and still air mean a lot for an artist like Vega who sets a
mood.
This video is of Javier entering
J&R to sign autographs, and then the long wait for Suzanne
Vega as her keyboardist tried to reconcile issues with her
keyboard. Even Vega's introduction took like 10
minutes.
My suspicion is that the schedule, which had Vega listed
second and Holiday third, was originally correct, but Vega's management (Aimee
Mann's management, Michael Hausman, just took over Vega's management
and they're doing a great job; Vega is all over the place -- cover
of magazines and what not) probably insisted she go last. But Holiday
ruled the night anyway. J. Holiday by the way went on in minutes
after Javier. It didn't take his keyboard player 45 minutes of sound
check. Although, he could have probably blown his nose up there and
gotten applause (like the Beatles at Shea Stadium).
