Joanna Newsom @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Sydney
Oh man. Joanna Newsom absolutely blew me away tonight. Easily the best show I’ve been to in months and months. The venue – The Famous Spiegeltent – was perfect: unique, tiny, and everyone seated silently…the crowd literally hung on every word that came tumbling perfectly from Joanna’s mouth. While she has been playing with a band and/or an orchestra for a while now, tonight was her first gig on her own and I was a bit concerned going in. Would we lose some of the impact of the Y’s tracks without any instrumentation beyond a harp and a voice?
No. No we did not.
I thought the Y’s tracks were perhaps even better performed solo and she performed most of them (except Only Skin as she wasn’t feeling up to it apparently). Emily was stunning and Sawdust & Diamonds was perfect. She bookended the Y’s material with older songs including set opener Bridges and Balloons and a one song encore of Peach, Plum, Pear. No Sprout and the Bean though…hopefully you weren’t there to here “that song from the Visit Melbourne ad.” She also dropped in an “old Scottish song” Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes…I’ve got no idea if she’s going to release that or not. Maybe it’s on the upcoming live EP?
The entire set I was stunned at how complete Joanna Newsom’s performance was. Every note plucked on the harp was essential to the song while her voice is even better live than on record. And with the exception of Jonsi from Sigur Ros, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a singer whose voice is best described as an instrument. And what makes that fact even more staggering in this case is that Joanna’s lyrics are, obviously, brilliant and able to stand on their own (unlike Jonsi’s Hopelandic). And we were sitting pretty close so I was also constantly amazed at her harp playing…who knew you could pluck strings like that? So yeah, this could very well be gig of the year for me. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Check out some photos of the gig here.
Setlist:
Bridges and Balloons
The Book of Right On
Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes
Emily
Monkey & Bear
Sawdust & Diamonds
Cosmia
Sadie
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
———
Peach, Plum, Pear
Download
Joanna Newsom – Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes (live 2006-11-30)
For some more live mp3s check out this site (from which I stole the above song).
Thanks to Girl Next To Me for giving me some paper and letting me copy down the setlist! You rock.
January 26th, 2007 08:35
lol. You’ve beaten me to it and posted ur review asap. Nice to see you got a good seat. I turned up late and ended up in one of booths. And would definately agree that the spiegeltent and joanna is a perfect combination.
January 26th, 2007 09:09
Oh man, I wanted to go so badly to that show, but couldn’t get tickets. I going to try to buy some tickets for Saturday. Luckily I am going to see her tonight so your review makes me even more excited to see her.
January 26th, 2007 09:56
Yeah it was fabulous. We had a great night.
RO, I was the girl who said hello to you at the end. I then wondered if you knew who the hell I was haha
January 26th, 2007 11:47
Yeah Amanda I kinda figured it was you once I exited the tent.
I’ll see u there on Saturday Wayne.
January 28th, 2007 12:18
[...] Following Joanna Newsom was no easy task but Andrew Bird managed to impress the hell out of me too. I’m not all that familiar with his work beyond his last record but I was enthralled with his live performance from the moment he stepped onto the stage at The Basement last night. Playing without his percussionist, Andrew Bird built up his songs using a violin, a guitar, a xylophone, whistling and a small army of effects pedals. So while there was only one man on stage, it sounded like a small orchestra. And his voice…wow. On record it’s not nearly as powerful as it is live. [...]
January 29th, 2007 15:49
[...] OK, this is a few days late. Last Thursday after Amanda and I had our minds blown by Joanna Newsom we walked down William Street past the hookers and made our way to Candy’s for Sandwich Club’s first party of the year. Now I forgot my iPod at home so I wasn’t able to drop the Bon Jovi on the partygoers, but I did get the chance to finally check out one of Sydney’s hottest young bands, Walrus. [...]
February 2nd, 2007 17:49
haha i was looking to see if anyone had any live recordings from the night so i could relive the magic… when i saw your photos that looked remarkably identical, i figured you must have sat near me… it turns out i am “Girl Next to You”
i’m still getting over how amazing she was (especially considering the fact i went through hell to get my ticket)
February 2nd, 2007 21:09
haha! thanks again elsa!
and i still can’t believe how amazing she was either.