/karen/

Cosmia

Saturday, 26 January, 2008

Last night, Joanna Newsom with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was enchanting and amazing. Rosey and I got there in good time and found that were in the boxes—which meant our view looked something like this:

(Just after I took that photo, an Opera House official came and asked me to switch off my camera inside the concert hall which I thought was rather stuffy of her. Did they ask Tori Amos and Björk fans to do likewise when their performances were held in the concert hall? Well, I suppose The Metro have a similar policy, but it still sucks.)

This also meant that Joanna had her back to us the entire time, and the sound wasn't quite right because we were behind the speakers. But nevertheless we really enjoyed it. It was wonderful to hear Joanna supported by a full orchestra. She was also joined by two of the Ys Street Band: Neal Morgan (drums and vocals) and Ryan Francesconi (tambura and guitar). Whereas everyone else was dressed in smart and sleek black clothing (including Joanna who wore a very simple black dress, setting off her incredibly slim figure), Neal and Ryan were in these suits that looked like something out of the 70s: mud brown and olive green (so indie!) I loved the drums that Neal added to some of the songs which hadn't really had drums before. I couldn't really Ryan that well but when I could, it was lovely. I loved how the three of them harmonised at the beginning of “Monkey & Bear”: it was just gorgeous. And having the orchestra there was so cool—being able to see and hear how their accompaniment complemented her playing—the parts they accented, the parts they played in unison with her, the different instruments coming in at different times (timpani, xylophone, those gorgeous flute and clarinet in “Only Skin”). The first half, she did the entire track listing of Ys (with the orchestra silent and listening to her in “Sawdust & Diamonds”; Rosey said that some of them looked bored but I liked that the conductor, Jonathan, who looked a lot like Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, listened eagerly and intently, and applauded her when he could. He really had the best seat in the house, I think!) Then we had intermission, during which Rosey and I went out to get some fresh air and found ourselves among the smokers.

In the second half, Joanna changed into a different dress and black high heels (didn't like this dress as much), and she, Neal and Ryan did some of the The Milk-eyed Mender (including “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie” unfortunately not “Sprout and the Bean”), “Colleen” from the EP (which was just awesome—the way the tambura and harp play together on those bits, the high pitch shriek she utters at the end of each phrase in the chorus) and she also played two new songs. One of them sounded very country, which Rosey didn't like but which I thought was an interesting direction for her.

The crowd roared and applauded after she was done, and she and Ryan and Neal left the stage but the house lights didn't come up so we knew they'd be back. And soon enough they did come back, and they did “Inflammatory Writ”. They left again, and again the crowd roared, but the house lights came up and we knew it was over, and we headed for the doors, soon being engulfed by some repulsive techno as we left the building and headed towards Circular Quay.

Current:

Blinks:

Feeds

• Full posts
• Full posts and del.icio.us feed
• Excerpts only
• del.icio.us feed only
• All comments

Social media

• Flickr
• Last FM
• LibraryThing
• Listal
• Ravelry
• Twitter