Suzanne Vega with Ari Hest at the Cedar, Minneapolis (17 May 2014)
- Marlene on the Wall
- Caramel
- Fool’s Complaint
- Crack in the Wall
- Jacob and the Angel
- Small Blue Thing
- Gypsy
- The Queen and the Soldier
- Don’t Uncork What You Can’t Contain
- Song of the Stoic
- Left of Center
- I Never Wear White
- Some Journey
- Luka
- Tom’s Diner
— Encore —
- Calypso
- Rosemary
- The Weight
- Concrete Sky
- Business of America
- Something To Look Forward To
- Until Next Time
- The Fire Plays
- All Because
- Less
- Bona Fide
Tour Dates
05/22/14 Grass Valley, CA Center for the Arts
05/23/14 SF, CA Great American Music Hall
05/24/14 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
05/25/14 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
06/28/14 Truro Hall for Cornwall
06/29/14 Somerset Glastonbury Festival
06/30/14 Cheltenham Town Hall
07/02/14 Cambridge Corn Exchange
07/03/14 Poole, Dorset Lighthouse
07/04/14 Oxfordshire Cornbury Music Festival
07/06/14 Oeiras Cool Jazz Festival Portugal
07/08/14 Paris Theatre de Paris (Lalala Festival)
07/10/14 Lyon Palais du Facteur Cheval
07/11/14 St Etienne Festival des 7 Collines
07/12/14 Huesca Auditorio Natural de Lanuza
07/16/14 Pistoia Pistoia Blues Italy
07/17/14 Pori Pori Jazz Finland
07/18/14 Villa Venier di Sommacampagna Italy
07/19/14 Barolo Collisioni Festival Italy
07/20/14 Rome Auditorium Parco della Music Italy
07/23/14 Warsaw Stodola Poland
07/27/14 Tøihusplassen Månefestivalen
07/29/14 Würzburg Hafensommer Wuerzburg
07/30/14 Karlsruhe Zeltival Germany
The folk singer is currently on tour in support of her latest album Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pantacles, which came out earlier this year, via Amanuensis Productions, stopping by the Cedar as part of their 25th Anniversary Season.
Hest began his quiet set with ‘The Weight’ from 2009’s Twelve Mondays; after which he introduced himself to the crowd and apologized for not having played the area for some time. ‘Concrete Sky’ (not the Beth Orton song) followed, from previous album The Fire Plays, and the link between Hest and headliner Suzanne Vega, is Dublin guitarist/producer Gerry Leonard, who has collaborated with the likes of Duncan Sheik, Rufus Wainwright, and David Bowie, and who produced The Fire Plays.
Hest mentioned his music professor father who had a former career as a jingle writer, with himself as a young boy being recruited to sing on Teenage Music Ninja Turtle toy commercials, before playing The Fire Plays closer, ‘Something to Look Forward To’, which was more jazz-influenced and inspired by his father’s own playing.
Moving to The Cedar’s “old… but interesting sounding” house piano, Hest played the title track of The Fire Plays, mentioning Judy Collins had flown him to Ireland to perform it on her recent TV special. ‘All Because’ and ‘Less’ found Hest back on guitar and were borne out of collaboration and songwriting experimentation. Ending the set with the new, ‘Bona Fide’, a song inspired by his three year-old niece, Hest delivered a solid set whose only drawbacks were no appearance from Leonard (who was probably prepping backstage with Vega) and the absence of his biggest radio hit, ‘They’re On to Me’, which we’ll hopefully hear on his next time through.
Vega explained the title of her new album right before playing ‘Fool’s Complaint.’ The story goes is that her favorite tarot card is the Fool, a character that she identifies with: that merry rootless man, with not a care in the world… and walking right off a cliff. In the song, the Fool is complaining to the Queen of Pentacles, who ruled over the world of the material.
I got the impression that Vega had adopted and adapted to the internet, particularly social media, having mentioned Facebook and Twitter a few times on her show. Usually when I hear artists talking about their social media account, it means that they are very excited about talking and engaging with their fans. It’s a great tool to get in touch with public; it’s definitely more interactive than a traditional mailing list.
She also used the internet to do research, thinking the phrase “don’t uncork what you can’t contain” was an old Irish proverb. When nothing came up, Vega decided to make that phrase her own, as a song, ‘Don’t Uncork What You Can’t Contain.’ Shortly after the song was recorded, she had more ideas for additional lyrics, which she sang for us. Then she suggested if anyone else in the audience was inspired by the song, that she would love to hear (or read) the lyrics.
Of course, Suzanne Vega ended her set with her two biggest hit songs, ‘Luka’ and ‘Tom’s Diner.’ You can easily put those songs as the highlight of her show, but for me, I personally love hearing ‘Left Of Center’ from the Pretty in Pink Soundtrack, and ‘Gypsy,’ one of my favorite songs from Solitude Standing. Vega gave us the origin of the latter song, which is about her 18 year old self working as a folk and disco dancing counsellor and her chance meeting a Dadaist painter from Liverpool. His pickup line was “Do you like Leonard Cohen?,” which the correct answer would be, “I love Leonard Cohen … but only in certain moods.”
As for the encore, the intended three-song encore was cut short when Vega took a request from a fan for ‘Calypso,’ which was a good call, as it’s one of the great songs from Solitude Standing.
Suzanne Vega is currently on tour in support of Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pantacles. All U.S. tour dates will feature Ari Hest as opener, so be sure to show up early to hear both sets.
