Sarah Slean, Dec. 20th show
Last night was the first of Sarah's annual Harbourfront shows. I have no love for the venue but I do adore seeing Sarah play live and last night was a fantastic show!
All of yesterday was good. I only had a 1/2 day at work. Then I made my way up to the CNIB to visit Mel and Todd and to get my camera and DVDs which I'd forgotten at their house.
Then Andrea made her way to my place and we did a Christmas gift exchange and OMG she got me such an awesome gift. A graphic novel of Haunted Mansion stories from Disney World. Two of the authors are Roman Dirge and Serena Valentino so you know it's good :) I read through it this morning and love it!
On our way to the concert we met up with Leanne (who we lost after the show but if you come by this review, hi Leanne) who we'd actually met at the first of these concerts 2 years ago and had given her a ticket to move up a few rows in the orchestra becase we had an extra. Usher who hated me didn't like that game as I remember it. Apparently good deeds weren't cool by her. But how fun is it that we met the same person again!?
Heads up, Warner is handing out fun little cards promoting the new album and that you can download Get Home on Sarah's webpage. I noticed that there were extras on the merch table so if you miss out getting one in the lobby then head for the table :) I was surprised at the degree that Warner is actually promoting Sarah this time around. I've never seen this much effort from them before. Which reminds me, for those of you on Facebook someone from Warner asked me to let people know that Sarah now has an official Facebook group. Type in "Sarah Slean" in the search bar and her official one is the first one that pops up. I'm a co-moderator on the second one that shows up, Passioneers (totally unoffical) join that too :)
The opening act was Tim Baker from the band Hey Rosetta, He was quite good, I'd be interested in seeing his whole band perform to see what the total sound is like. However solo he held up really well despite the fact that Hfront has possibly the worst mics ever. The main one kept shorting out unless the wire was in a certain position. Touch the mic and it died. Not the most fun game ever.
Then we had intermission and then the highlight of the night, the fabulous Sarah Slean!
I think that Sarah comprimised between the quartet idea and a band. A while back she'd asked on her site for people to write in with their choice of who she should perform with, quartet or band. Last I heard the vote was split really evenly and we weren't sure what we would see at the shows. It's a fantastic comprimise though. I'm going to post the performer's name with their instruments and I'm going to butcher spelling, a lot. If you know how these name should be spelled leave me a comment please :)
Mark Mariash - drums (and sometimes the triangle)
Joe Phillips - bass cello
Kevin Fox - cello and guitar and vocals (yes Kat we thought of you when we saw he was playing)
Jonathan Craig - viola
Violin - Drew Jericha
Violin - Leanna Beruby (and this one was totally a French name that I'm spelling phonetically... I think... but which I'm sure looks much nicer when it's spelled right)
On to the music:
California: A very pretty song to start off the show. It utilizes all of the instruments really well and it's been a long while since this one has been played live with drums which I quite liked hearing again. I don't think Sarah opened her eyes once during playing this one as I think is true of most first songs she plays at shows. I guess it's a finding your comfort zone thing. It works whatever it is :)
Eliot: Classic song :) I love this one more and more every time I hear it. There are some lines that I just agree so much with "you fill buildings with people and they rip at the seams" and so forth.
Parisol: We now have an official title for this song which I kept insisting was called Paris Swan, I so lose. However the song still rocks so all is well. Sarah kicked her shoes off before starting this one "the shoes are just for show." I like this song a lot, I want it to be on the album. I'm guessing it is since it's been one we're hearing a lot now. *yay* Again the usual preamble about how people in Paris aren't super friendly, not so much with the smiling randomly over there apparently. I would be so screwed. I clearly should have gone to Paris when I was still upset with everything in the world.
Out in the Park: This song is beautiful with all of the strings and everyone playing, like really beautiful. I have a feeling I've said that about this soing before when Sarah was playing with the Blue Spruce Quartet. It still holds true. I guess the sound just works really well with strings.
Modern Man: A totally brand new song! This one was led into by a story of Sarah going back to school and trying to settle after being abroad in Paris and then taking a Continental Philosphy class (I think that's what it was, I didn't write down the course title) and studying Nietzsche (amoung others) and finding that of course his work doesn't really ground a person in certainty. This is a song in two movements, or rather a piece in two movements to which Sarah says "I've arrived" and has a wordless chorus for all of the unanswerable questions that Philosophy raises. Honestly with that intro I had a moment of being like "yup, this one is going to go over my head" but the song is just, wow. In my notes I have jotted "OMG ALBUM PLEASE" beside this one. So yeah, it's good, I want to hear it again. The instrumental parts are just beautiful and don't need lyrics to carry through but by the same note the lyrics don't suppress the music during the verses. I noted one line that I liked, which hopefully is mostly correct: is this the truth we knew and then forgot?/ maybe the lives are all they've got. As I've written a full paragraph about this new one I think it's safe to say that I really liked it ;)
I didn't like that during this song a radio signal started to be picked up by the speakers and was generally distracting from the music...
The orchestra left after this song and we got some solo songs.
Mary: Sarah sung this for her grandmother whose birthday it was that night. However her grandma is coming to the show tonight (the 21st) so I'm guessing we'll hear it again. She's "eighty-something" because it doesn't matter once you hit your 80's how old you are. Except I want to go out on a limb and say that she just turned 89 since I think 2 years ago at the concert Sarah said she was 87... is it creepy that I remember this? Honestly if I could train my brain to really focus on you know, academic subjects perhaps, I would be a freaking genius.
No Place At All: Another brand new song and another good one... although I'm gong to admit to being predisposed to like this one because the title plays on the "no place like home" from The Wizard of Oz and ergo by now everyone knows I'm a happy camper. This was another song inspired by being away from home in Paris and realizing how much home really does rock even though travel is fabulous. Paris inspired some really great music in Sarah.
Last Year's War: The radio signal I mentioned earlier, has been ongoing through these last few songs and got louder during this one. And being that this is a beautiful and QUIET song the radio was really distracting. Not pleasant. However the song itself was really pretty this show. Just lovely. For those of you keeping track at home it's played in the key of D minor which is "the saddest of all keys" according to Sarah, and probably according to the musical world, I dunno, it's a sad key for sure so I'll believe her.
Weight: The strings came back on again and Sarah left her piano for this one. This is the version where the score was written by Todar Kobakov and which was played last year but this year there was no missing the first line :) It's a very fast start and if the strings and Sarah aren't totally synched then the first line of lyric is just gone, last night, all was perfect.
Lucky Me: Sarah started this with "lucky me, I get to play this for you tonight" so cheese but cute lol. This one was again played with her not on piano. I was reminded of the conversation I had with Dell when I first brought her to see a Sarah Slean show:
Me: Do you like her?
Dell: You do know she's totally nuts right?
Me: Yes but do you like her
Dell: She's awesome!
And there's about where this song was, crazy but awesome and lots of fun :)
The Rose: This one was introduced by talking about the Schubert project with the Art of Time Ensemble so I thought we were getting Lonely Side of the Moon as that's what she's been playing from that show a lot. But instead we got to hear The Rose again which I don't think I've heard since last Spring. This one is haunting and beautiful and I hope it continues to resurface on the stage :)
Book Smart Street Stupid: Sarah said she was going to play something she'd not played in forever and brought out this number. I LOVE this song so I was thrilled. All of the orchestra left except for the bass celloist, drummer and Kevin Fox on guitar. It was a great combination of sound for this song. So exciting when old gems get played anew.
Notes from the Underground: This song was good when we heard it in Hamilton last month, it's great now. Again the backing music of the guitar and bass cello just gave it more life. I cannot wait to hear how this one sounds on an album!
A new song which wasn't titled beyond being a song of "Mad Lust", my title guesses are: State of Grace or Onto You but generally I suck at guessing titles of Slean songs, she's more creative with them than most :)
Anyways this song was HOT. Sarah was again away from the piano, she's definitely found her confort zone doing that. Usually while I love Sarah and find her immensely talented and gorgeous she's just pretty in a "wow I would love to look like that" kind of way, with this song she was just hot, seriously, I'm sure there was some swooning from those who are so inclined to do so in the audience last night ;)
Get Home: This is the one which is available when you join Sarah's mailing list on www.sarahslean.com. So not so "new" anymore but just lovely. The strings all came back on stage for this one. Now that I've had a chance to listen to it more at home I have heard more of the lyrics and find it really a lyrically beautiful song.
Of course the random radio signal came back during this song on the speakers so grr argh, annoying! I thought it was just us in the front who were hearing it but Jim was in the balcony and he said he'd noticed it as well. Not so cool, I hope it's fixed for tonight.
Duncan: I still adore this song, it was the one that hooked me when she played it in Sudbury, it was so beautiful then and I just decided that I had to see Sarah play again no matter what. I think at the time I very much needed the lyrics. Some days I still do, I have the chorus written on the bottom of my stapler at work for when I need a moment to just recenter. Anyways the song itself again tonight was fantastic and it was a total treat to hear it with strings backing it.
Pilgrim: This one seems to be the new staple for finishing up the set for the evening. It's a great strong way to end and I find that while it's good on an album it's just so great live!
Encore number one
Sweet Ones: Sarah made a comment before playing this one about always thinking she won't be able to play this song anymore. Umm I concur. I love the song, and it stands the test of a great song as I've heard it how many times now and am not sick of it... like Mr. Jones by Counting Crows, it's one that can be repeated and repeated. BUT my standard comment is that I'd love to see Sarah do a concert and not play it, just to see. Yet it still gets by far the loudest reaction from the fans so I'm guessing it's sticking around. At any rate it's still catchy, the audience gets to sing along, all is well.
Looking For Someone: This song makes me almost cry, every time I hear it, last night was no exception. It's tragically beautiful.... or beautifully tragic if you prefer ;) It was immediately one of my favourites from the new material and I hope it's on the new album. Actually there's really nothing I've heard that I don't want on the new album ;) Sarah asked the guys to sing along to this one which I think really just meant Kevin Fox ended up singing with her ;)
Wake Up: Another one Sarah said she'd not done for quite some time. She got up and sung it and conducted the "woahwoah woah woahs" from the audience, encouraging us to be louder a few times ;) It's a beautiful way to finish the night...
...but the night wasn't over! :)
Encore number two
Universe: I've been in the mood for this song for a while now so *yay* Sarah played this solo on the piano, such a pretty song. Browncoats may know this one since there's a pretty widely circulated River Tam music vid made with this song.
Sunny Side of the Street: A cute and quirky finish to our night, a real finish this time.
Out in the lobby I asked one of the ushers about the no photo rule. First of all I have to say that while her facts were totally wrong she still was pretty nice, I've now met 1 nice person who works for Harbourfront. Maybe it's a Christmas miracle ;) However their rule is bullshit. She said it's because the performers don't give permission for pictures to be taken and ergo it's against the law to take their picture, which is a yes and no situation. It's very hard for someone to sue you if you take their picture and don't use it for commercial purposes. Also this woman told us 3 times about how she was a set designer and why people couldn't take photos in a theatre during intermission. Which I knew, and I told her I was a theatre person so I got that. I also didn't mention that the Hfront stage currently has no set design going on and it's not like the theatre is a great architectual work like even the Royal Alex or Princess of Whales (or for you NYC people think The Amsterdam theatre, that is pretty, this is not) but meh, I get it. I would however hazard the guess that Hfront never ask individual performers what their stance on photos is because Hfront doesn't want to actually change their rule performance to performance. It's easier to just teach staff one standard rule. However it's annoying as there were some shots which so would have worked out great last night and I had a professional photographer behind me and we all miss out on seeing the photos he could have taken.
Anyways we avoided the main lobby until most people were gone. They were moved out pretty fast and from the announcement made about the performers signing autographs and such it sounded like Hfront was moving people through like cattle. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt about that but by now that's not a safe thing to do with this venue. We'll see how it goes tonight with us having to give the card with a bunch of people there.
We wrapped up the night with a few Passioneers going for pizza and chatting about books. Happy place for me :)
That's all for now, much more to come tomorrow :)
All of yesterday was good. I only had a 1/2 day at work. Then I made my way up to the CNIB to visit Mel and Todd and to get my camera and DVDs which I'd forgotten at their house.
Then Andrea made her way to my place and we did a Christmas gift exchange and OMG she got me such an awesome gift. A graphic novel of Haunted Mansion stories from Disney World. Two of the authors are Roman Dirge and Serena Valentino so you know it's good :) I read through it this morning and love it!
On our way to the concert we met up with Leanne (who we lost after the show but if you come by this review, hi Leanne) who we'd actually met at the first of these concerts 2 years ago and had given her a ticket to move up a few rows in the orchestra becase we had an extra. Usher who hated me didn't like that game as I remember it. Apparently good deeds weren't cool by her. But how fun is it that we met the same person again!?
Heads up, Warner is handing out fun little cards promoting the new album and that you can download Get Home on Sarah's webpage. I noticed that there were extras on the merch table so if you miss out getting one in the lobby then head for the table :) I was surprised at the degree that Warner is actually promoting Sarah this time around. I've never seen this much effort from them before. Which reminds me, for those of you on Facebook someone from Warner asked me to let people know that Sarah now has an official Facebook group. Type in "Sarah Slean" in the search bar and her official one is the first one that pops up. I'm a co-moderator on the second one that shows up, Passioneers (totally unoffical) join that too :)
The opening act was Tim Baker from the band Hey Rosetta, He was quite good, I'd be interested in seeing his whole band perform to see what the total sound is like. However solo he held up really well despite the fact that Hfront has possibly the worst mics ever. The main one kept shorting out unless the wire was in a certain position. Touch the mic and it died. Not the most fun game ever.
Then we had intermission and then the highlight of the night, the fabulous Sarah Slean!
I think that Sarah comprimised between the quartet idea and a band. A while back she'd asked on her site for people to write in with their choice of who she should perform with, quartet or band. Last I heard the vote was split really evenly and we weren't sure what we would see at the shows. It's a fantastic comprimise though. I'm going to post the performer's name with their instruments and I'm going to butcher spelling, a lot. If you know how these name should be spelled leave me a comment please :)
Mark Mariash - drums (and sometimes the triangle)
Joe Phillips - bass cello
Kevin Fox - cello and guitar and vocals (yes Kat we thought of you when we saw he was playing)
Jonathan Craig - viola
Violin - Drew Jericha
Violin - Leanna Beruby (and this one was totally a French name that I'm spelling phonetically... I think... but which I'm sure looks much nicer when it's spelled right)
On to the music:
California: A very pretty song to start off the show. It utilizes all of the instruments really well and it's been a long while since this one has been played live with drums which I quite liked hearing again. I don't think Sarah opened her eyes once during playing this one as I think is true of most first songs she plays at shows. I guess it's a finding your comfort zone thing. It works whatever it is :)
Eliot: Classic song :) I love this one more and more every time I hear it. There are some lines that I just agree so much with "you fill buildings with people and they rip at the seams" and so forth.
Parisol: We now have an official title for this song which I kept insisting was called Paris Swan, I so lose. However the song still rocks so all is well. Sarah kicked her shoes off before starting this one "the shoes are just for show." I like this song a lot, I want it to be on the album. I'm guessing it is since it's been one we're hearing a lot now. *yay* Again the usual preamble about how people in Paris aren't super friendly, not so much with the smiling randomly over there apparently. I would be so screwed. I clearly should have gone to Paris when I was still upset with everything in the world.
Out in the Park: This song is beautiful with all of the strings and everyone playing, like really beautiful. I have a feeling I've said that about this soing before when Sarah was playing with the Blue Spruce Quartet. It still holds true. I guess the sound just works really well with strings.
Modern Man: A totally brand new song! This one was led into by a story of Sarah going back to school and trying to settle after being abroad in Paris and then taking a Continental Philosphy class (I think that's what it was, I didn't write down the course title) and studying Nietzsche (amoung others) and finding that of course his work doesn't really ground a person in certainty. This is a song in two movements, or rather a piece in two movements to which Sarah says "I've arrived" and has a wordless chorus for all of the unanswerable questions that Philosophy raises. Honestly with that intro I had a moment of being like "yup, this one is going to go over my head" but the song is just, wow. In my notes I have jotted "OMG ALBUM PLEASE" beside this one. So yeah, it's good, I want to hear it again. The instrumental parts are just beautiful and don't need lyrics to carry through but by the same note the lyrics don't suppress the music during the verses. I noted one line that I liked, which hopefully is mostly correct: is this the truth we knew and then forgot?/ maybe the lives are all they've got. As I've written a full paragraph about this new one I think it's safe to say that I really liked it ;)
I didn't like that during this song a radio signal started to be picked up by the speakers and was generally distracting from the music...
The orchestra left after this song and we got some solo songs.
Mary: Sarah sung this for her grandmother whose birthday it was that night. However her grandma is coming to the show tonight (the 21st) so I'm guessing we'll hear it again. She's "eighty-something" because it doesn't matter once you hit your 80's how old you are. Except I want to go out on a limb and say that she just turned 89 since I think 2 years ago at the concert Sarah said she was 87... is it creepy that I remember this? Honestly if I could train my brain to really focus on you know, academic subjects perhaps, I would be a freaking genius.
No Place At All: Another brand new song and another good one... although I'm gong to admit to being predisposed to like this one because the title plays on the "no place like home" from The Wizard of Oz and ergo by now everyone knows I'm a happy camper. This was another song inspired by being away from home in Paris and realizing how much home really does rock even though travel is fabulous. Paris inspired some really great music in Sarah.
Last Year's War: The radio signal I mentioned earlier, has been ongoing through these last few songs and got louder during this one. And being that this is a beautiful and QUIET song the radio was really distracting. Not pleasant. However the song itself was really pretty this show. Just lovely. For those of you keeping track at home it's played in the key of D minor which is "the saddest of all keys" according to Sarah, and probably according to the musical world, I dunno, it's a sad key for sure so I'll believe her.
Weight: The strings came back on again and Sarah left her piano for this one. This is the version where the score was written by Todar Kobakov and which was played last year but this year there was no missing the first line :) It's a very fast start and if the strings and Sarah aren't totally synched then the first line of lyric is just gone, last night, all was perfect.
Lucky Me: Sarah started this with "lucky me, I get to play this for you tonight" so cheese but cute lol. This one was again played with her not on piano. I was reminded of the conversation I had with Dell when I first brought her to see a Sarah Slean show:
Me: Do you like her?
Dell: You do know she's totally nuts right?
Me: Yes but do you like her
Dell: She's awesome!
And there's about where this song was, crazy but awesome and lots of fun :)
The Rose: This one was introduced by talking about the Schubert project with the Art of Time Ensemble so I thought we were getting Lonely Side of the Moon as that's what she's been playing from that show a lot. But instead we got to hear The Rose again which I don't think I've heard since last Spring. This one is haunting and beautiful and I hope it continues to resurface on the stage :)
Book Smart Street Stupid: Sarah said she was going to play something she'd not played in forever and brought out this number. I LOVE this song so I was thrilled. All of the orchestra left except for the bass celloist, drummer and Kevin Fox on guitar. It was a great combination of sound for this song. So exciting when old gems get played anew.
Notes from the Underground: This song was good when we heard it in Hamilton last month, it's great now. Again the backing music of the guitar and bass cello just gave it more life. I cannot wait to hear how this one sounds on an album!
A new song which wasn't titled beyond being a song of "Mad Lust", my title guesses are: State of Grace or Onto You but generally I suck at guessing titles of Slean songs, she's more creative with them than most :)
Anyways this song was HOT. Sarah was again away from the piano, she's definitely found her confort zone doing that. Usually while I love Sarah and find her immensely talented and gorgeous she's just pretty in a "wow I would love to look like that" kind of way, with this song she was just hot, seriously, I'm sure there was some swooning from those who are so inclined to do so in the audience last night ;)
Get Home: This is the one which is available when you join Sarah's mailing list on www.sarahslean.com. So not so "new" anymore but just lovely. The strings all came back on stage for this one. Now that I've had a chance to listen to it more at home I have heard more of the lyrics and find it really a lyrically beautiful song.
Of course the random radio signal came back during this song on the speakers so grr argh, annoying! I thought it was just us in the front who were hearing it but Jim was in the balcony and he said he'd noticed it as well. Not so cool, I hope it's fixed for tonight.
Duncan: I still adore this song, it was the one that hooked me when she played it in Sudbury, it was so beautiful then and I just decided that I had to see Sarah play again no matter what. I think at the time I very much needed the lyrics. Some days I still do, I have the chorus written on the bottom of my stapler at work for when I need a moment to just recenter. Anyways the song itself again tonight was fantastic and it was a total treat to hear it with strings backing it.
Pilgrim: This one seems to be the new staple for finishing up the set for the evening. It's a great strong way to end and I find that while it's good on an album it's just so great live!
Encore number one
Sweet Ones: Sarah made a comment before playing this one about always thinking she won't be able to play this song anymore. Umm I concur. I love the song, and it stands the test of a great song as I've heard it how many times now and am not sick of it... like Mr. Jones by Counting Crows, it's one that can be repeated and repeated. BUT my standard comment is that I'd love to see Sarah do a concert and not play it, just to see. Yet it still gets by far the loudest reaction from the fans so I'm guessing it's sticking around. At any rate it's still catchy, the audience gets to sing along, all is well.
Looking For Someone: This song makes me almost cry, every time I hear it, last night was no exception. It's tragically beautiful.... or beautifully tragic if you prefer ;) It was immediately one of my favourites from the new material and I hope it's on the new album. Actually there's really nothing I've heard that I don't want on the new album ;) Sarah asked the guys to sing along to this one which I think really just meant Kevin Fox ended up singing with her ;)
Wake Up: Another one Sarah said she'd not done for quite some time. She got up and sung it and conducted the "woahwoah woah woahs" from the audience, encouraging us to be louder a few times ;) It's a beautiful way to finish the night...
...but the night wasn't over! :)
Encore number two
Universe: I've been in the mood for this song for a while now so *yay* Sarah played this solo on the piano, such a pretty song. Browncoats may know this one since there's a pretty widely circulated River Tam music vid made with this song.
Sunny Side of the Street: A cute and quirky finish to our night, a real finish this time.
Out in the lobby I asked one of the ushers about the no photo rule. First of all I have to say that while her facts were totally wrong she still was pretty nice, I've now met 1 nice person who works for Harbourfront. Maybe it's a Christmas miracle ;) However their rule is bullshit. She said it's because the performers don't give permission for pictures to be taken and ergo it's against the law to take their picture, which is a yes and no situation. It's very hard for someone to sue you if you take their picture and don't use it for commercial purposes. Also this woman told us 3 times about how she was a set designer and why people couldn't take photos in a theatre during intermission. Which I knew, and I told her I was a theatre person so I got that. I also didn't mention that the Hfront stage currently has no set design going on and it's not like the theatre is a great architectual work like even the Royal Alex or Princess of Whales (or for you NYC people think The Amsterdam theatre, that is pretty, this is not) but meh, I get it. I would however hazard the guess that Hfront never ask individual performers what their stance on photos is because Hfront doesn't want to actually change their rule performance to performance. It's easier to just teach staff one standard rule. However it's annoying as there were some shots which so would have worked out great last night and I had a professional photographer behind me and we all miss out on seeing the photos he could have taken.
Anyways we avoided the main lobby until most people were gone. They were moved out pretty fast and from the announcement made about the performers signing autographs and such it sounded like Hfront was moving people through like cattle. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt about that but by now that's not a safe thing to do with this venue. We'll see how it goes tonight with us having to give the card with a bunch of people there.
We wrapped up the night with a few Passioneers going for pizza and chatting about books. Happy place for me :)
That's all for now, much more to come tomorrow :)