Peter Viney's Blog

k.d. lang

“Ingénue Redux 25th Anniversary Tour”

support: The Grigoryan Brothers

Thursday, 25th July 2019
Poole Lighthouse Concert Hall

SETLIST

Save Me
The Mind of Love
Miss Chatelaine
Wash Me Clean
So It Shall Be
Still Thrives This Love
Season of Hollow Soul
Outside Myself
Tears of Love’s Recall
Constant Craving

(Band intro section)
Honey & Smoke
I Dream of Spring

(The three Canadian writers set)
Help Me
Helpless
Hallelujah

encores
Sing It Loud
Sleeping Alone

BAND

Image: The Sage Gateshead from the website “BeBop Spoken Here.”

k.d. lang- vocals, guitar
Daniel Clarke – piano, Hammond organ
David Piltch – bass guitar, double bass
Grecco Burrato – acoustic guitar (mainly), electric guitar
Andrew Borger- drums
Rich Hinman – pedal steel guitar, electric guitar
Tahirah Memory- backing vocals, percussion
Moorea Masa – backing vocals, percussion, guitar

I like the one album show concept. I also can’t believe that it was a quarter of a century ago that Ingénue was the soundtrack wafting gently along behind every restaurant meal.  Actually it was more, as this is the second year of the 25th Anniversary Tour as she pointed out.  As she introduced her band she told us that one backing vocalist was 9 months younger than the Ingenue album.

We saw k.d. lang back in the 1990s (front row) and it remains one of the best concerts I have ever seen.

‘Canadians are punctual …’ she said. More than that. They’re early. They announced “five minutes to the start” of her set, my companion went into the ladies, and Save Me started before the door even shut. I’d say it was about a minute!

k.d. has retained every nuance of her voice as well as the full power. She remains one of the most extraordinary vocalists. She didn’t do Roy Orbison’s Crying tonight, but she is one of only three people who could hit the notes … the others being Roy Orbison and Raoul Malo of The Mavericks. She has also retained all of her extraordinary charisma and stage presence. She is in completely relaxed command of the stage area as she moves around, barefoot of course.

INGENUE

Photo from Brighton Dome review of 17th July online

The album was played in sequence. I got the impression that the earlier tracks were done pretty much straightforward, but as she got through, the later songs had added solos showcasing band members. There’s not much to say. you’ve got the album. All were beautifully performed,

Save Me
The Mind of Love
Miss Chatelaine she lightened the mood, dancing and twirling across the stage. As ever, a consummate performer.

I think it was after Miss Chatelaine that she introduced the show. She said the rest of the album was a meditation so she would not interrupt with any more banter. I agreed and decided not to think about reviews bt float with it.

Wash Me Clean
So It Shall Be

Always two of my favourites that segue together.

Still Thrives This Love This was the point where David Pilch switched to double bass, improving his sound markedly. Daniel Clarke took a long piano solo to close it.

Season of Hollow Soul Double bass continued.

Outside Myself. This was David Pilch’s moment. He had switched to the black bass and did a long and astonishing solo, accompanied by drummer Andrew Borger, with fabulous sound too.

Tears of Love’s Recall. Sorry, I’m bass obsessed. Back to double bass.

Constant Craving started with Daniel Clarke on accordion, before switching back to piano. It got the singalong section as her greatest hit. It’s pretty hard to sing along too for me but this audience managed..

After a standing ovation following Constant Craving she introduced the band – leisurely, personal, funny, interactive. The best band intros I’ve seen with lots of humour. Some great lines. No plot spoilers for future shows, but as she noted David Pilch has been playing with her for thirty-two years.

Honey & Smoke is from 2016’s case/lang / viers album. I’ve played the album a lot, but that song had never stood out to me. It did tonight. I love a classic Hammond organ soundn. It’s a swine to transport and they didn’t use it much!

I Dream of Spring was co-written with bassist David Pilch for Watershed in 2008. It’s the opening track. k.d. land played guitar, and Moorea Masa played guitar too.

THE CANADIAN SET

This three song tribute to Canadian songwriters was the highlight of the show for me. Hymns of the 49th Parallel is my favourite album of hers.

Help Me was first covered on the Joni Mitchell Tribute show in 2000. While she sang sublimely, the backing felt flurried and confused to me (The Band had the same problem with Joni Mitchell songs inThe Last Waltz). I‘d rather have heard her on A Case of You, which suits her perfectly on Hymns of the 49th Parallel .

Helpless. Neil Young from CSNY’s Deja Vu  and it is also on Hymns of the 49th Parallel. This was a new arrangement and even better. She did it with just David Piltch’s superb double bass for most of the song, then a touch of piano before the whole band took it home. I love this song, and the The Last Waltz version with The Band  is better than the CSNY version. Then on Hymns of the 49th Parallel she did it better than that, and tonight she took it to a further dimension. The best ever version.

Hallelujah is also on Hymns of the 49th Parallel. It starts with just piano, and eventually added double bass, but not till near the end. No others. I’ve seen Rufus Wainwright do it in this hall. I’ve seen Leonard Cohen do it just down the road in Bournemouth. I thought her version of Crying twenty odd years ago was my ultimate vocal performance. Sorry, this was better again and better than the album version too. An incredible and very moving moment that ended with a rare 100% instant standing ovation.

I so wish she would do More Hymns of the 49th Parallel. She missed out both Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel and indeed Daniel Lanois last time. Correct that! I’d love to hear her sing It Makes No Difference or Sleeping or Lonesome Suzie. Even better, solo Robbie songs like Breaking The Rules or Fallen Angel which … let’s stay polite … suit her range better than his. There’s so much more she could do.

ENCORES

Sing It Loud we loved the introduction chat. It’s the title track of her 2011 album.

Sleeping Alone was written in the same era, but released in 2018 on Landmarks Live   aka Ingénue Redux: Live From The Majestic Theatre. I saw the blu-ray in London last week and thought I’d wait and buy it at the concert. Damn. None on sale – a lost opportunity.

SOUND

When we saw her in the 90s it was the best sound we’d ever heard at the BIC warehouse of a hall in Bournemouth. Poole Lighthouse is a classical concert hall, and in the balcony, there was a little too much echo on the voice, most noticeable in the first three songs so perhaps they adjusted or maybe I adjusted. I noticed the same when she restarted after playing the album with Honey & Smoke. The odd thing was the bass sound… David Piltch sounded totally incredible when playing double bass and the black bass guitar which he used for the solo, yet muzzy, farty and blurred playing the red bass guitar- which he did in the early numbers. I’d say overall sound was a smidgen below Paul Simon / Leonard Cohen quality and clarity in separating instruments, but that may well be the balcony position. Classical halls are very live – which benefitted the more stripped down sections of the show with fewer instruments.

LIGHTS

Before the show (no photos was strictly enforced). This whole front curtain was part of k.d. lang’s stage set, nothing to do with the concert hall which has no curtains. The support act’s chairs are visible, then this disappeared for the show except for the curved drapes at the top.

They’re carrying a full stage set with front curtain. The background set is waves of drapes in style which can be lit in anyway they wanted. The lighting plot was long and complicated and ever-shifting. There were follow spots on k.d. lang – you see them less and less often nowadays but that was my job for three summers. You need two to avoid shadows. In my day they were each swung by an operator, though I’d guess it’s all controlled by a mouse nowadays. It’s a huge set to carry around. As can be seen:

SUPPORT SET:

The Grigoryan Brothers are virtuoso guitarists from Australia, playing classical guitars too. They sit in front of the front curtain which is part of k.d. lang’s elaborate stage set. Beautifully played instrumentals to soothe and relax the audience. Of course their classical guitar sound was exactly what the concert hall excels in.

1  Fantasy on a Theme by William Dawes
2  Tchaikovsky: None But The Lonely Hear
3  J.S. Bach, Cantata WV 156
4  This Time
5  Jongo