Being there..

Joan as Police Woman, Oran Mor, Glasgow 14,4,2007

When I saw that Joan is coming to Glasgow to play in Oran Mor, I went that very moment to buy a ticket. I bought it.. despite I don't like Glasgow. Maybe because the last time I was there I drove in different direction on the motorway for a while. It's a European kind of thing.

So saturday night in the kingdom of doom, I became lazy cat and was tempted to stay in warm sofa/garden and cuppa > tea/cofee/dvd (de fau de) profile but.. I had to go. Traffic suprisingly good, problems with parking and yes.. it's official > I am Eediot. Oran Mor is beautiful church which became a pub-art venue-restaurant after the Glaswegians lost their faith. So I was waiting at the wrong gate. It took me a while to notice that all the people who were waiting there were gone. Should give up daydreaming. Nevermind. I missed a few songs of the support singer. Don't know his name anyway.

She came on stage in pink dress, pink boots because "she loves vibrant colors". She started to sing alone with the fender piano and everybody was astonished by her strange "nasal" voice. Her skinny figure was balancing on the piano stool because she was pretty much working with the dynamics of her voice, it kept her on and off the microphone. After first song she was joined by her bandmates, bass player Rainy Orteca and drummer Ben Perowsky. Rainy is damn good bass player. I don't know anything about her orientation but she played the bass in very "man" style. Seemed to me. She looks like a Robert Smith's sister minus weird hair. I was tempted to fuck off back to the bar to buy her a choclit, because she looked so unhappy. Smile appeared on her face twice that night, while they played song which demanded an involvement of the audience (clapping) and then when they were playing the last "punky" song. Probably her intention. Ben's precise drumming just confirmed my opinion that good drummer makes 70% of the band.

Joan played all the songs from both her records and some new songs. She was responding to the audience after every song, having a small chat with the "brave" ones. I think that everybody was really pleased by her presence. She was very natural. One might say.. sweet. Especially when she said that she is going to play more love songs, becauase she fell in love recently /for the first time in her life, she says/. The girl in the crowd shouted on her, something like "I noticed the ring!" and Joan, with big smile on her face, showed engagement ring and went: "Oh.. what the fuck?" And she laughed, very amused.

It's very strange that Joan started to sing in her 30's. She says she was singing a lot as a child, but she stopped in her puberty, I appreciate that she released her own record more than 10 years after Jeff Buckley's death. Some people would be "milking" it, being in her position.

The only thing which was little bit annoying was her anti-Bush-iraqwar-Condoleeza Rice rant. Even it wasn't proper rant. It seems that every American artist is using that kind of politics to get the sympathy of the audience. I don't agree with that war - Bush, but why she is starting with that shit on the concert where 99% of the audience was pissed? I don't know.

Anyway her concert was GREAT. Unforgettable experience to see her/hear her sing Real Life. If you have a chance to see her, just go. She was better than Motorhead, and Motorhead are damn good.