Harpos show, Victoria, B.C. June 27th, 1991

[Islandflyer]

Ellen kindly sent me this recording of Sarah doing a show at Harpos early in the Solace tour, shortly before the album appeared. There's a lot of crowd noise, but she was in great form, with wonderful performances of then-new songs like "Home", and "The Path of Thorns", "I Will Not Forget You", "Out of the Shadows", and "Backdoor Man", those favorites of mine from Solace, in addition to her rocking rendition of "Steaming" where, as she said in a newspaper interview with this recording, her band let her "go sort of crazy because they're so kick-ass". See interview clip.

The mic was left open between songs and she had some funny comments about this being the first gig in a year, with a new band, new guitar and trying to figure out "which hole to put the thing in". She described 'I Will Not Forget You" as being about a man or woman with "an odd personal thing of (unnamed) people who have strange sexual fantasies that don't really exist".

For the first time out with a new band and many new songs, it sounds really good, crowd noise notwithstanding, although there is some waver on the recording in some of the songs. I was particularly intrigued by the description in the interview, and comments she made about "lack of social acceptance" of "Home" as being about her own feelings of not being accepted among her school mates leading her to write it, although in the third person. I had thought it was related to her experiences in Cambodia where she had been shocked by the poverty and terror the people there had endured under Pol Pot.

The amazing part of the interview was the part about how in junior high she had "bad teeth and greasy hair" and the boys called her "Medusa". She felt really alienated and it obviously affected her deeply. Now I understand why she sings "Home" so passionately in those live shows. It's so much better than on the album.

For any of you jazz fans out there, Susannah McCorkle appeared at Harpos the night before Sarah's 2-night gig, which I though was kind of cool. See picture. These 2 fine singers of different genres in the same place on 2 new nights. This club seems to have had quite a diverse lineup then. Susannah is perhaps best known for her lovely version of Juan Carlos Jobin's iconic "The Waters of March", sung in both English and Portuguese. I'd like to hear Sarah sing this, too.

This show is in the Bootlegs section, and is available from Ellen.