Posted on 28 February 2005 @ 23:28 in Janis Ian
Taking a cue from Dee, I won’t disclose the full song list, except to say that the two sets featured three songs from her latest album Billie’s Bones, including “Dead Man Walking” which started the show, six songs from her Between The Lines album which was nominated for a then-unprecedented five Grammy awards, and other Janis Ian classics. Including “Society’s Child” .
She ended the show with her monumental hit, “At Seventeen” , and then came back for an encore. She asked us if there was anything we wanted to hear, to which we called out various suggestions, from which she singled out “Jesse” , saying she hadn’t sung it for quite a while, so how about she sings that. Which she did.
For her final song, she decided to get us to sing along, a “nursery rhyme” she said she’d learned in school, with a very easy chorus comprising just three single-syllable words, which she was sure we’d learn quickly. Sure enough, it was a sing-along song, but not a nursery rhyme, lah. She injected some original just-for-Singapore lyrics into the song, including the one Singlish word she said she mastered during her stay, the word LAH!
As for her singing, I can only repeat here what I wrote in an earlier post - that you couldn’t have asked for a purer performance than what she gave Singapore that evening. Just the singer and her guitar. Singing her songs. With some stories in-between.
I remember thinking she sounded exactly as she does on all her recorded materials.
I stand corrected - while she sounds like her recent recorded materials (the ones I’ve heard are Billie’s Bones and Janis Ian Live: Working Without A Net), her voice has grown richer over the years and is better than the earlier recordings (having since heard the Souvenirs: Best of Janis Ian 1972 - 1981 album which features original recordings).
What I mean when I say she sounded exactly as she does on her recorded materials is this - she needs no audio enhancements to make her voice better. Some singers need that, and so the studio recordings are lush and very good, but when these singers perform “live”, their real voices come through. Not so with Janis Ian - what you hear is what you get, whether on her recorded materials or live in person in the same room with you.
More on the stories soon.
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Posted on 28 February 2005 @ 00:39 in Janis Ian, Personal
“Now to look for someone coming this way from the States soon.”
(from Wish List 2 entry dated 14 December 2004)
Someone sure came this way from the States. Janis Ian herself, no less!
So I had my wish granted of seeing her perform “live”. Well, not the original wish, which was to be able to afford a Living Room Concert with Janis Ian, but a smaller version.
I also had wish #1.5 granted, too - a copy of kdlang’s Hymns of the 49th Parallel CD, courtesy of Bendrix.
Unfortunately, wish #1 won’t be coming true at all. Not because I can’t afford it or because it’s not available here, but because it’s not practical at all. Yup, I’ve had a first-hand look at the mini fridge, saw it at a shop in Singapore, and found it rather unstable on its stand. It’s a nice-to-look-at but not very practical item.
So, there you have it - of the three items on my wish list (which started as a joke), I had two of them fulfilled.
*happy*
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Posted on 27 February 2005 @ 23:04 in Janis Ian
There had been the usual announcement about switching off handphones, etc. The background music which had been playing and switched off for the announcement resumed after that. A while later, the auditorium lights were lowered, the background music faded off. No movement on stage - well, not really a stage, as in it wasn’t a raised platform, but a performing area. Then, a guitar started, but there was no one on stage. Where was it coming from? The black curtains behind the performing area parted a little and a slight figure walked out. It had to be her. She walked up to the microphone and the lights came up but just enough to show it was her.
Janis Ian plucking the six-string guitar slung across her shoulders.
And that was all there was to the performance. All night. She played two sets of roughly 50 minutes each, with a 15-minute intermission.
You couldn’t have asked for a purer performance than that. Just the singer and her guitar. Singing her songs. With some stories in-between.
More on the songs and the stories later. For now, two pictures, one from each set. No flash, taken from where I sat, five rows back but higher than the performing area. This was my view of her that night.
Set 1
A formal outfit, and her signature icon as background during the first song |
Set 2
Something more casual, and a bare performing area this time |
Note - Apparently, the guitar was hooked up to synthesizer effects that gave it a full-bodied sound and an additional array of sonic palette. Read full story here:
MTVAsia.com Review: Janis Ian Live in Singapore
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Posted on 27 February 2005 @ 21:51 in Janis Ian
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Her latest album, Billie’s Bones, Billie as in the late Billie Holiday. |
She signed my entire Janis Ian collection, plus the concert ticket, plus my Zire 72’s NotePad, too. She looked rather surprised when I handed her the Z72 - probably the first PDA she ever signed? |
She’s tiny, and was so happy to find others her height.
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Posted on 25 February 2005 @ 12:22 in Janis Ian
Well, not exactly here as in KL, but here as in my part of the world. Singapore, to be exact.
Received an email from my brother this morning with an article from the Singapore Straits Times which said she arrived on Wednesday.
Sent Dinesh of Greenhorn Productions, the company behind her Singapore concert, an sms to congratulate him on the article. He replied back his thanks and said Janis is looking forward to meeting me.
Haha, yeah, right, along with the others who have bought tickets to see her sing tomorrow evening.
Oh, my God, it’s tomorrow evening!
*big grin*
You’re a good show promoter with excellent PR skills, Dinesh. See you and Sylvia tomorrow evening.
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