Keren Ann at the Skirball Cultural Center
LA is a great city for live music - there's the buzz (if not necessarily always the passion - the City of Angels can after all be a little bit superficial at times) of late 70s, early 80s London about the place - I've lost track of the number of great artists I've seen tread the boards at the city's numerous venues, but Thursday night promised to be something very special...
Apparently Keren Ann has been referred to as "Norah Jones for Velvet Underground fans." The again, some of us who were spending our first snowy winter in the Suisse Romand and listening to "La Biographie de Luka Philipsen" - the first of a handful of CDs given to them by a colleague who insisted that 'Les Rosbifs' start listening to some artists "qui chantent en français" - and who immediately fell in love with the soft, beguiling voice that magically floated through that album's opening track "Dimanche en hiver" actually just refer to her as Keren Ann...
A balmy April evening in LA seemed a million miles away from that cold winter's evening in Switzerland (and yes it was also a Sunday) and to be honest this was arguably the weirdest concert venue I'd been to. With small circular tables fanning out from the raised stage, for one minute I thought I'd accidentally stumbled in on some schmalzy awards dinner rather than a gig. Indeed to add to the evening's surreality my Alma Mater, The University of Kent, was bizarrely holding a TransAtlantic shindig there that evening...
Having said that, the venue was cosy (probably set-up for a couple of hundred souls tops) and I'd grabbed a spot, front and centre, where any self-respecting mosh-pit would be. Our award was to be rewarded with the most intimate of soirées from arguably one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her generation. And with this being only the third time to my knowledge since I moved to La-La-Land that (insert superlative of your choice here) Keren Ann had played Los Angeles, it all seemed rather churlish to complain.
And as Keren was to remark, the evening was most definitely going to be intimate. Backed only by Thomas Bartlett on the keyboard, she regaled us - not so much as a paying audience, but more as old friends - over the course of the best part of a couple of hours with somethings old, something new (a track from her latest, as yet unreleased, album) and even a chanson 'en français'.
The set - opening with "End of May" - actually drew heavily from 2007's eponymous album and 2011's "101". Indeed the only other song to feature from "Not Going Anywhere" was that album's title track as one of the encore numbers (that being said, when you've a back catalogue as rich as Keren Ann's, what to leave out must be a bit of a challenge). There's a haunting and poignant version of "You were on fire" ( a beautiful homage to her late father) before, harmonica to hand, she goes way back to "Nolita" and "Chelsea burns." That album also see's evening's only French number ,"Que n'ai-je." My one small (indeed not sure why I'm even mentioning it) criticism - and I made the same comments after her other shows in LA - is that her first two albums ("La Biographie de Luka Philipsen" and "La Disparition") tend to be criminally under-represented. That being said, Los Angeles isn't - despite fact-fans hosting the second largest French Expat community in the US - noted for being a particularly Francophone city...
Apparently Keren Ann has been referred to as "Norah Jones for Velvet Underground fans." The again, some of us who were spending our first snowy winter in the Suisse Romand and listening to "La Biographie de Luka Philipsen" - the first of a handful of CDs given to them by a colleague who insisted that 'Les Rosbifs' start listening to some artists "qui chantent en français" - and who immediately fell in love with the soft, beguiling voice that magically floated through that album's opening track "Dimanche en hiver" actually just refer to her as Keren Ann...
A balmy April evening in LA seemed a million miles away from that cold winter's evening in Switzerland (and yes it was also a Sunday) and to be honest this was arguably the weirdest concert venue I'd been to. With small circular tables fanning out from the raised stage, for one minute I thought I'd accidentally stumbled in on some schmalzy awards dinner rather than a gig. Indeed to add to the evening's surreality my Alma Mater, The University of Kent, was bizarrely holding a TransAtlantic shindig there that evening...
Having said that, the venue was cosy (probably set-up for a couple of hundred souls tops) and I'd grabbed a spot, front and centre, where any self-respecting mosh-pit would be. Our award was to be rewarded with the most intimate of soirées from arguably one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her generation. And with this being only the third time to my knowledge since I moved to La-La-Land that (insert superlative of your choice here) Keren Ann had played Los Angeles, it all seemed rather churlish to complain.
And as Keren was to remark, the evening was most definitely going to be intimate. Backed only by Thomas Bartlett on the keyboard, she regaled us - not so much as a paying audience, but more as old friends - over the course of the best part of a couple of hours with somethings old, something new (a track from her latest, as yet unreleased, album) and even a chanson 'en français'.
The set - opening with "End of May" - actually drew heavily from 2007's eponymous album and 2011's "101". Indeed the only other song to feature from "Not Going Anywhere" was that album's title track as one of the encore numbers (that being said, when you've a back catalogue as rich as Keren Ann's, what to leave out must be a bit of a challenge). There's a haunting and poignant version of "You were on fire" ( a beautiful homage to her late father) before, harmonica to hand, she goes way back to "Nolita" and "Chelsea burns." That album also see's evening's only French number ,"Que n'ai-je." My one small (indeed not sure why I'm even mentioning it) criticism - and I made the same comments after her other shows in LA - is that her first two albums ("La Biographie de Luka Philipsen" and "La Disparition") tend to be criminally under-represented. That being said, Los Angeles isn't - despite fact-fans hosting the second largest French Expat community in the US - noted for being a particularly Francophone city...
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| Keren Ann by Sixlocal Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons |
Joking that old songs given new treatments are really new songs, we are treated to inventive reinterpretations of some standards; "The harder ships of the world" is layered with heavily echoed and reverbed keys. Keren unleashes her inner rock-chick on "It 'ain't no crime", complete with psychedelic keys and a great tumbling jam to end; "Sugar mama" gets the "Peter Gunn" treatment and (with a nod to our location) a touch of the surf-rock guitar, while "My name is trouble" adds staccato guitar and "Blood on my hands" is textured with a deliberate change of pace during the middle-eight, featuring gunshots and 'plink-plonk' western saloon piano effects on the keys.
Keren Ann is also a great story-teller, spending time to tell us of her thoughts and background to some of her songs; "It's all a lie" is dedicated to Philippe Petit - a bit of a nutter, give that his hobby is walking the high-wire between tall buildings; "All the beautiful girls" we discover is loosely based upon an old lover - an artist - ("it's not him - honest") to whom the denouement is quite humorous, "I thought he was a genius. My friends thought he was an arsehole..." The motto of this tale? Always listen to your friends!
We're finally treated to a brand new number - destined for her new album - but as yet not yet laid-down. The song is a haunting and biographical tale of a mother seeing in face of her child an old lover, and is heart-warming and evocative. If you haven't already pledged to help fund her new album, do so now. There is no excuse!
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as the set ends with - probably to the public at large - her best known song, "Strange weather" and while kudos to both Anna Calvi and David Byrne for bring this song to everyone's attention, here - with heavy reverb and echo, swirling keys and the guitar crying as if falling rain in a storm - the song got re-owned...
Keren encores with "Not going anywhere" - and visibly moved - an a cappella cover of the Chet Baker standard "It's always you." I'm more than happy. I've also heard the best version - on record or live - of "Lay your head down", arguably one of the greatest contemporary love songs ever-written and the finest 4'46" ever laid down in the studio... Tonight the song just felt personal... hard to explain really, but the song's message seemed addressed to all present. The show was - despite my earlier reservations about the venue - the best performance I've seen from one of my favourite artists.
Keren Ann is also a great story-teller, spending time to tell us of her thoughts and background to some of her songs; "It's all a lie" is dedicated to Philippe Petit - a bit of a nutter, give that his hobby is walking the high-wire between tall buildings; "All the beautiful girls" we discover is loosely based upon an old lover - an artist - ("it's not him - honest") to whom the denouement is quite humorous, "I thought he was a genius. My friends thought he was an arsehole..." The motto of this tale? Always listen to your friends!
We're finally treated to a brand new number - destined for her new album - but as yet not yet laid-down. The song is a haunting and biographical tale of a mother seeing in face of her child an old lover, and is heart-warming and evocative. If you haven't already pledged to help fund her new album, do so now. There is no excuse!
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as the set ends with - probably to the public at large - her best known song, "Strange weather" and while kudos to both Anna Calvi and David Byrne for bring this song to everyone's attention, here - with heavy reverb and echo, swirling keys and the guitar crying as if falling rain in a storm - the song got re-owned...
Keren encores with "Not going anywhere" - and visibly moved - an a cappella cover of the Chet Baker standard "It's always you." I'm more than happy. I've also heard the best version - on record or live - of "Lay your head down", arguably one of the greatest contemporary love songs ever-written and the finest 4'46" ever laid down in the studio... Tonight the song just felt personal... hard to explain really, but the song's message seemed addressed to all present. The show was - despite my earlier reservations about the venue - the best performance I've seen from one of my favourite artists.
Setlist:
1. "End of May"
2. "You were on fire"
3. "Chelsea burns"
4. "The harder ships of the world"
5. "Lay your head down"
6. "It 'ain't no crime"
7. "Sugar mama"
8. "Que n'ai-je"
9. "All the beautiful girls"
10. "In your back"
11. "It's all a lie"
12. "My name is trouble"
13. "Blood on my hands"
14. New song
15. "Strange weather"
16. "Not going anywhere"
17. "It's always you" (Chet Baker cover)
2. "You were on fire"
3. "Chelsea burns"
4. "The harder ships of the world"
5. "Lay your head down"
6. "It 'ain't no crime"
7. "Sugar mama"
8. "Que n'ai-je"
9. "All the beautiful girls"
10. "In your back"
11. "It's all a lie"
12. "My name is trouble"
13. "Blood on my hands"
14. New song
15. "Strange weather"
16. "Not going anywhere"
17. "It's always you" (Chet Baker cover)
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