| As the
band (Brian McFie on guitar, Andy May on keyboards, Garry John Kane on
bass and John Boyle on drums) played the opening bars of
Something Good, Marianne Faithfull sprang onto the stage with a
brisk step and a bright smile and, to thunderous applause and cheers (and
without losing a beat) broke into a rousing version of the old familiar
Herman's Hermits' tune, written by Goffin and King. So definitive
was her attack on the lyric that it cast a whole new flash of daylight
onto the already cheery version from her new album, Kissin' Time.
For song after song, the singer offered up her heart and soul - dishing
out classics like Falling From Grace alongside newer
material like The Wilder Shores of Love (the lone entry from
Kissin' Time's predecessor, Vagabond Ways, and likely one of
the finest songwriting efforts of her long career).
With Billy Corgan's Wherever I Go - the first US single
from the new album, Faithfull bubbled over with delight as she introduced
Corgan and brought him on stage. For Corgan's I'm on Fire,
they were joined by two of Sonia Dada's lead vocalists for a soulful gospel
backdrop. Here,
Faithfull put her own vocal center stage rather than subdued as on the
album. The effect was breathtaking - and the wall of sound, even
this early in the set, seemed to cause the roof of the Park West to
dissolve as if the room had opened up to the heavens! It was really
that exceptional, especially considering the album version of the song
is, well, just very good.
She was in complete control of the room and
everyone in it - she had come onstage with tons of energy and her
trademark charm and her typical "I'll save the REALLY good stuff for the
live performance" vocals!
Corgan then departed, and next, in her homage to her parents,
Like Being Born, she offered a sweet and plaintive reading of the
lyric. She lit only one smoke as a prop, during Song
For Nico, took a drag or two, then held it and sang while it
burned down. Then, she just put it out. Yes, it's hardly a Faithfull
show without her picking up a smoke, but newly fit and trim from regular
swimming, it hardly seemed like she had her heart into it. So she just kept on drinking
the bottled water (after all, the famous parched pipes can't stay too
dry!). and after burning down the house with
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an extra-alarm version of
Broken English, she literally howled through a
blistering, stomping rendition of Working Class Hero
(with plenty of thanks to
the over-the-top musicianship of all in the band) that
was part of a long stretch of some of the hardest, loudest rock I've heard
in ages! It was like she was saying "Fuck all the youngsters, I'll show
you how it’s REALLY done!"
Without flinching, she broke into an incendiary reading of
Why'd Ya Do It?
and gained so much momentum, she tripped over the
signature line, "Why'd you let her suck your cock?" But the audience
was on it and sang through the blank spot, and she threw her head back and
seemed to chuckle an acknowledgement for their help with the flub.
It was a great moment.
She closed the show with a riveting version of
Sliding Through Life On Charm from the new album, and, if I
could offer up one fault, she sings it about three keys down from where
she really should, at the lowest notes her sometimes thin contralto has to
offer her (as her chorus went so low and subsonic the mike just couldn't capture it - it was
only her lips moving as the guitars, keys and drums pounded on by). It's
this way on the disc, too (as are parts of Vagabond Ways),
and it would be an act of sheer kindness to The Lady for the band
to transpose the number up a few notches.
But this is a minor housekeeping issue in light
of the great, raw emotion Faithfull can bring to a song, and the stage.
That was proven wholeheartedly by her encore, a devastating, rich and
darkly-cloaked version of her classic, Strange Weather. "All
over the world, strangers talk only about the weather." she sang with a
wry smile, with the audience laughing along with her, "all over the world,
it's the same, it's the same, it's...the... same."
Truly, an evening to remember!
The
Marianne Faithfull Official Web Site
Posted 9/16/2002
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