Rickie Lee Jones – The Forum
June 4, 2010 by Andrew Watt
Filed under Live Reviews
Rickie Lee Jones performance at The Forum was simply mesmerising. It was one of the most pure musical experiences I can recall having the privilege to be a part of.
And she didn’t even need to play her two best known songs!
It’s difficult to explain just how both joyous and melancholy this concert was – two different but closer than is immediately obvious emotions!
Jones wanders on stage in jeans and one of her own t-shirts and she is joined by two musicians – drummer Lionel Cole and bassist Joey Maramba. She straps on an electric guitar and they launch into a very cool little power-pop song. Had the artist on stage been twenty-five instead of fifty-five and had the venue been a tiny pub in Northcote (or Silverlake) instead of Melbourne’s most ornate live music theatre, I imagine we’d be thinking that she was a deliciously influenced punky decendent of Patti Smith or Polly Harvey. It really wasn’t what I expected from the jazz-inflected Duchess of Coolsville.
The surprises keep coming. Jones explained that they were performing without a setlist and it was an approach that bore fruit. She mixed newer songs with older material and with either group she could barely disguise her sense of wonder in where the music would take her. Her spirit of adventure made some songs almost freeform and the dexterity of the players allowed this approach to bring rich rewards.
In this respect – the ability to reclaim and re-embrace her own music – this concert reminded me a lot of Leonard Cohen’s triumphant shows from last year. It was truly like Jones had made peace with her songs after years of working to constantly re-invent herself and with that peace came the realisation that her catalogue was indeed all part of one very personal body of work.
Rickie Lee Jones doesn’t need to run away from herself – and that’s a healthy realisation to have.
Accordingly we received the gift of stunningly good versions of some remarkable songs. Among the highlights were It Must Be Love, The Last Chance Texaco, Living It Up and Coolsville and the pin-drop genius of We Belong Together which surely transported every person in the room to another place and time in their lives.
But remarkably, even in this exulted company, two new songs were just as startling – the song Wild Girl (written with reference her daughter and her late mother) and the simple and simply beautiful Bonfires.
Rarely have I felt an audience so entranced by a concert as this one. Similarly to the Cohen show there was an initial sense of an audience “willing” the show to be great almost out of a desire for redemption for the artist and then this feeling giving way to a sense of sheer joy when the performance exceeded their most optimistic expectations.
It was a special night of adventurous, brave and spirited music.
Yes! I am so looking forward to seeing her tonight (Fri.June4). Thanks for the excellent review… not caring if she sings those ‘two best known songs’ or not – want to hear more and more of the new stuff. I cannot wait! See you tonight Rickie!
I could not agree more with Andrew’s review.
For many years her performance at the Palais back in the 1980s was the benchmark by which I would judge all other concerts/gigs I went to.
Can I just say that Rickie Lee Jones has just raised that benchmark even higher. A truly beautiful performer.
We Belong Together a true highlight – I got shivers.
Absolutely fantastic concert on Thursday night. Rickie was as I expected, just sensational. I’ve seen Rickie on each of her visits to Oz and they all represent the very best live performances that I have seen over the years.
I still get goose bumps when Rickie does certain tracks whether on CD or live.
One question though from Friday nights concert. What happened to Lionel?
Rickie was her true self though and put a great show together.
“It Must Be Love”, “Living It Up” and “Wild Girl” just the best.
I am looking forward to Rickie’s return in Sept/Oct.
Well I am not sure if we went to the same concert.. I went Friday. I was disappointed.
She appeared disoriented. Sluggish. No encore and no respect for her audience.
Yes, I also went on Friday – I enjoyed her performance – who wouldn’t. But there was something missing. She was distant despite the audience obviously trying to draw her out. She did play a few of her older ‘hits’ and some newer stff. The bass player was fab most of the time. And then I heard the next day that there was meant to be a drummer! WTF….Apparently he fronted for the sound check but didn’t make it to the concert. Hmmm…..very poor not to front for all the folk who paid to see the band. And Rickie didn’t even mention it or appologise.
That explains the unused drumkit and Rickies thin attempt at some percussion on ‘His jeweled floor. Also no encore and little sparkle.
I really wish I did not find out about the missing drummer, now I feel really dissapointed. We don’t have much cash and can only afford to go to one or two concerts a year and this was it. We also organised some country farm friends to come from a couple hundred Km away for their first night out for years. Real bummer for them.
My wife and I also travelled 200 kms and lost a day’s pay to enjoy MOST of Thursday’s concert. Rickie’s voice was superb as usual with gorgeous pitch and epressive nuance but I knew she was fighting to keep her flair for amazing phrasing because Lionel (the drummer) wouldn’t stay on tempo or in a groove for more than 4 bars without moving off the groove…..and not that he had too much groove in the first place. Any artist and especially Rickie Lee Jones deserves a musical, rhythmic pulse that she can intertwine her phrasing around and poor Lionel just wasn’t delivering. RLJ was even trying to direct him to no avail and perhaps his ego was bruised or he was high on something for the no show at the Friday night performance.
I also found the bassist a little annoying. Although reasonably competent he was bowing his electric bass too much, perhaps trying to create an orchestral ambience (or perhaps trying to emulate Jimmy Page). Buy a cello!
Anyway, I agree with Alison above that RLJ’s concert in the early 80s at the Palais was a benchmark concert for me too. She is still one of my favourite vocalists/songwriters of my lifetime even though this particular night’s performance had me wanting to yell to the drummer…..”Keep the bloody beat!”
To those people who attended on Friday night and felt ripped off … don’t! I would have swapped nights with you. We will see RLJ again next tour to Melbourne but I’m sure she will have more appropiate musos with her.
Wow, there’s some neg commentry here especially about the drummer,,i saw Rickie on the saturday night show at the opera house in sydney, i didn’t know she was touring until the night before, and managed to get fourth row tickets at the box office on saturday morning, was walking away feeling proud about all that, as i’d been waiting twenty years to see her…..walked passed a few shops and …..wow there she was,,,i felt like a complete dork but just had to say hello, and i heard this super straight star struck voice come out of my head and thought,,,oh shit….[ha], then i ran away, and went to the gig that night,,i think Rickie said something to me that night, but i’m not telling……..i wish i could have told her that i’ve been teaching drums steely dan style for ten years, and playing acoustic steel string the rest of the time…….anyhow, …….what are you cats saying?…her drummer didn’t show up to gigs in melbourne? and he didn’t keep time?……listen up kids, he is one super cool shaker player, he pulled that suff for the first ten minutes of the show i went to, and they launched in to a song called ‘cloud of unknowing’ shortly after, and that song has one of the most sexy bass lines and rhythm section i’ve ever heard in a modern composition , Rickie is an artist on stage and i’d hope if i saw her two nights running for instance, that the second one wouldn’t be a pallid copy of the first…..so rest assured she delivered something special for you even if it wasn’t quite what you expected , i couldn’t see her for tears, for two songs after she played ‘stewarts coat’, something gets going in you and it haunts and mystifies…….i don’t know what that is,,,but it don’t happen when i watch the telly or sit at a traffic light, the only thing i could say about the drummer ,is that his snare wasn’t what i was hoping to hear in the mix, and he played a bit early on his hits, ricky’s shure 58 was beautiful for her vocal mix with ac git and electric stance, but was a bit muddy from the piano…..strange, same mike!,,,,,she was great………., i’d follow around the world circuit if i had unlimited funds………..Brettskibeat.