A bit more on Perth.
* Thought the show at Burswood was excellent, I was third
row from the front, to her right. Which is the best side as she's right
handed so was turned in my direction when playing guitar. Plenty close
enough to watch her fingers on the guitar when I wanted to. She did a
mixture of old and new songs and there were also new arrangements of some old
songs. Left of Centre and Blood Makes Noise were done accompanied only by
Mike V, and she did a full band (keys, bass, drums, electric guitar) version of
Tom's Diner, as well as the a cappella version. All sounded great! And I thought In Liverpool
sounded awesome. Set list very similar
to others posted, though she didn't do Small Blue Thing.
* The opening was fun.
Suzanne started the show with the a-cappella Tom's Diner. A moment after she started we saw Mike
V walking across the stage carrying an "I love NY" mug, which he made
sure we all saw, filling it (only half way?) with water before placing it
beside Suzanne. I meant to tell Mike V afterwards that I really enjoyed the songs with only him accompanying Suzanne, but didn't get to it.
* All of the Beauty and Crime songs were wonderful even
better I think live than on CD – my friends were persuaded to buy the new CD
after this (I already have it, of course!).
Suzanne was wearing the dress and hat on the cover of the album during
the gig, but she explained that it wasn't hers and that she will be returning
it after this show, as it is the end of the tour - this was the last time we
would see her wearing it. I was hoping
she would still have it on at the meet-and-greet, but she had changed before
coming to see us.
* During the full-band Tom's Diner, Suzanne walked around
the stage, and looked out at the audience – at one point I thought I was being
looked at directly and felt a need to avert my eyes – but it would have been
too dark to see us clearly!
* Suzanne did two encores – for the second I heard people
calling out for The Queen and the Solider, and also for Calypso. Suzanne explained that Mike doesn't like
Calypso so they (Suzanne and Mike V) ended with The Queen and the Soldier
*During the meet-and-greet, there were at least four
other fans there who I hadn't met (are they here?), and I recall one person
asking Suzanne about the meaning of Solitude Standing, and the significance of
the flower and the flame, which she explained.
Sara Storer (support) was sitting in the green room
too, and I think she might have been feeling a bit left-out as I don't think any
of us went to speak to her – am feeling a bit bad about that now, but didn't
think to do anything about it at the time.
I hadn't heard of her before but I enjoyed her performance, and thought
she was very compatible with Suzanne, as a support act. She is considered to be a country singer, but
I only knew that when I googled her after the show – she didn't sound the way I
thought country sounds (no "twang" – am showing my ignorance of
country music here!).
Phil gave me his camera to take a group photo of Suzanne
the band and crew (and Sara Storer and her guitarist). I might have been a more demanding
photographer than they expected, as I asked them to move some chairs out of the
way that I thought would spoil the picture, and also to squeeze in more closely
than they were standing originally. I
could have stepped back, but then more of a table would have been in the
picture. I might have been trying their
patience a bit. I hope I didn't miss
seeing something growing out of Suzanne's head!
He also made a point of telling me to be careful with my left fingers as
it's easy to cover the flash. I hope, in
my excitement, I didn't forget to keep my fingers out of the way.
* I hope the show was worth her while, as I heard that
the ticket sales for Perth
were a bit slow, but the theatre looked mostly filled when I looked back – is
hard to tell in the dark though.
* As everybody knows, Suzanne is very gracious -
backstage, and also during the show when she often bowed between songs!
Neil