Tanya at Bush Hall in London, UK July 27, 2004
Pauly gushes:
It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lovley!
The Bush Hall can be a nightmare because although it's suited to intimate gigs the audience have to stand and they get antsy and start chatting - not last night. Tanya had everyones attention from start (Divine Sweet divide) to final encore (a real treat - see later)
T sat (occasionally uncomfortably) on a high stool throughout, centre stage, switching between acoustic & electric guitar.
Rich Gilbert stage right on pedal steel and occasional acoustic and fabulous hair.
2 chaps stage left who T did introduce (sorry forgot your names fellas) 1 on acoustic/electric, occasional percussion, and 1 on piano & occasional backing vocals.
Really Brilliant players all and did a fine fine job of turning out versions of some old favourites that fitted in with the WTG sound.
started with lots of the new album that REALLY sounded great & T in fine voice with 'Whiskey Tango' in particular sounding ace - also 'My life as a ghost' which I liked well enough before I now LOVE.
First blasts from the past where a very meaty & great 'Untitled and unsung' & a slightly shakey but very welcome 'Red'.
Running order gets a bit shakey form here but we defintely also got 'The Storm' -beautiful - although it did prompt T to say she had 'F-ed it up' (she literally said 'F-ed' as Gracie was watching - & occasionally scene stealing - stage right) & 'I'm keeping you', 'Landspeed song' & 'Manna'.
'Story high'(my favourite on WTG) got one of T's best vocals and we 'finished' with 'Swoon' -obviously fantastic - although the false ending fooled some of the audience.
Encore! Encore! Oh alright then - We got 'Fallout' (again, hearing live made me like it more) We got Acrobat ( absolutely BRILLIANT) and we got Robyn Hitchcock! The Fegmaniac appeared lankily from the audience and duetted with T on his own song 'Sweet ghost of light' (From Hitchcock album 'Eye' fact fans) which was very great.
and THEN they closed the show duetting on... 'Untogether'! & It was a bit actually (Untogether that is) but mattered it not - the whole place went wild, lots of 'American' style whooping, hats in the air, 3 cheers for Gracie B etc etc - bloody marvelous.
Didn't see much of the man who certainly wasn't Rachel Goswell who opened the show - sorry - DID catch lots of comments from Leah (positioned herself smack in front of T and kept making her laugh- very good) DID think (again) Blimey! she really is petite isn't she? and did go home grinning form ear to ear and whistling 'Moonbeam Monkey' as it is my other halfs favourite song which he was most upset didn't get an airing - my version seemed to placate him slightly.
I can't go tonight but I REALLY would if I could IT WAS SO GREAT! enjoy people, and T PLEASE COME BACK SOON!
xxx
PS: I am at work and I AM busy honest but had to share the love
deek adds:
Well - I've following Tanya's stuff since Not Too Soon, yet - can you believe it - last night was the first chance I'd had to see her live. And, my God, was it worth it!
What a fantastic atmosphere. Tanya really seemed to feed off the audience (who got friendlier and friendler as the night went on) and she also really seemed to be enjoying Grace's presence.
Highlights for me:
- hearing Witch live - woah!
- Grace interupting Tanya at the start of Manna with "what's this one called?"
- just realising how Tanya switched between the intimacy of the newer stuff with the joyful abandon of some of the older stuff. Seeing her just letting go at the mic was wonderful stuff.
- and just the overall good feeling of the event.
I can't remember the order (I was kinda caught up in the moment), but from my recollection we enjoyed:
From Star:
- Witch
- Untogether
From King:
- Red
- Untitled and Unsung
From Lovesongs for Underdogs:
- Landspeed Song (boy, did Tanya give it some!)
- Acrobat
- Manna
From Beautysleep:
- Keeping You
From WTG:
- Divine Sweet Divide
- Whiskey Tango
- Just in Case You Quit Me
- Butterfly Thing
- The Centre
- Fallout
- Story High
Definately worth the trip down to London.
Thank you Tanya.
Deek