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Jeff

4/2/01

Portland Show

Portland Show

Sarah played Monday, March 26th at the St. Johns Pub in Portland,
Oregon. I'd never been to the hall, despite its favorable reputation;
my wife and I knew we were in the right place when we spotted the
enormous road-weary white van with Ontario plates parked out front and
Kevin, off to the side, ear to cell phone. What a way to make a living,
driving all over. Yikes!

After a creditable set by the Cash Brothers, (with Gord Tough on
guitar,) and a break to reconfigure the stage gear, the lights went down
and Sarah, Kevin and John made their way down the center aisle and onto
the low, tiny stage. Past reviewers have reported on Sarah's attire, so
I won't disappoint. She wore a navy sleeveless knee-length cotton
dress, with some sort of widely-spaced pattern on it, dark socks pulled
all the way up almost to her knees and black sneaker-style shoes. Her
hair was pulled back into pigtails high up on her head, which
accentuated her fine features and large eyes.

She kicked things off with "Around This Corner"-one of my favorites--
followed by "Oleander" and "The Hideout". "Oleander" sounded great-even
better than I'd remembered, as Sarah's voice soared effortlessly. Gord,
an original WT member and guitarist on "You Were Here", joined Sarah,
Foxy and John a couple of times to add electric guitar flourishes, most
notably on "Don't Get Your Back Up", which Sarah hadn't performed before
in Portland. (This also marked the first time in Portland Sarah had
more than two musicians behind her.)

My self-appointed status as Sarah's biggest fan in Oregon was confirmed
when, in introducing a song, she asked if anyone had a copy of
"Valentino." I shot my hand up and said "Yeah!" She scanned the
audience for a moment and said "OK, one guy…" She went on to say that
she didn't perform the song much, but, several days earlier, she'd
received word that her aunt Lois had died. She then sang a very moving
rendition of "Goin' Out," in memory of her aunt. I could feel my eyes
moisten-for me, anyway, it was very moving. Apparently still in thought
about her aunt and "Goin' Out", a chord into the next song she announced
"And our friend Jack just had a son, Jackson! … and Denise, she had a
bit to do with it too! " Ah, the circle of life!

No set list, but I can report that she played everything on "You Were
Here", minus "Everytime", "In the Road", which, unlike her previous
Portland appearance, she did with Kevin "Foxy" Fox's cello
accompanyment, a cover of "Mercy Bin", her new song the title of which I
don't know but it's "As Much Trouble as A Girl…" (Sarah said "It's not
about what you can get AWAY with, but what people are OK with,") and
"Good Fortune." As she was strapping on her harmonica frame for "Good
Fortune", she asked if anyone had seen Bob Dylan on the Oscars the night
before. She said she thought he looked like Vincent Price, while John,
the drummer, had thought he looked like Salavdor Dali. She admitted the
Dylan was a better "harp" player, though. "Good Fortune" was and is
unbelievably great-a highlight for me.

To start off her encore, Sarah said that since she'd had a cold for the
past couple of days, so she'd play her "sick" song, which I guessed
(correctly) meant "Old Perfume". She followed with "Capsized", this
time with Foxy on the cello rather than the keyboard arrangement on the
CD. He really shone here and elevated the song above it's CD version.
"Capsized" wouldn't leave the audience in a happy buzz-as Sarah knew-so
she got us all clapping along on "I Am a Mountain"-a funny, feel-good
song. She'd never performed any of these songs in Portland before, so I
was a pretty happy fellow.

This was definitely Sarah's best Portland show. A warm, friendly space
and a polite and attentive audience (it IS Portland) of about 150 all
came together to let Sarah show her stuff in a comfortable, confident
manner. I forgot to check for fluttering eyelids/eyeballs referenced in
someone's earlier show review but the expression that caught my eye time
after time is when she's rung out the final chord in a song, sometimes
she gives a big smile, as if to say
"OkyoucanclapnowthanksIthoughtyou'dlikethatIreallynailedthatone!" all in
a single instant. It's a smile of pure pleasure at having created
shining gems out of vibrating air. I got a chance to say thanks to
Kevin after the show-Sarah's fourth in Portland in the space of 11
months. He confirmed that they like Portland. I feel so lucky…