Before I write my little review, I would like to thank Katia and Let for bringing me with them to LA. I am just another poor, unemployed engineering student and I would have never have been able to afford this trip on my own. I'm glad I got to go on such a wonderful trip to see my first V show.
We got to the theater a bit before 6. We were second in line (xxbehindhazeleyesxx was the first) and waited quite a bit. You could hear the sound check if you stood in front of the door. I later discovered that you could see in through the glass door and view the stage if you blocked the glare with your hand. I saw and heard V working on The One with Stevie. Steveau brought a radio so we heard V's radio appearance on there. Since it was going on at the same time as the sound check, it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the whole thing was prerecorded. It was kinda weird to hear a recorded version of one of her songs on one side of me and her doing a sound check with another one at the same time. :-p Doors opened at 8ish (tickets said 7:30) and the curtain rose at 9ish.
Irv came on at the beginning and introduced V. It was pretty much a lovefest. The crowd cheered when he said he'd shut up and bring V on stage. It's nice that he has such a great sense of humor.
Vanessa kicked all kinds of ass, as always. She started out with Ordinary Day. If you haven't been to a concert of hers or haven't heard many bootlegs, you might not know that she almost always performs this song with the "divide and conquer" lyrics. Next, she played Hands on Me. She introduced this song with a short little story about how the title irked her mom. She introduced Nolita Fairytale by explaining how moving to Nolita and being mentored by Stevie Nicks motivated the song. After Nolita, she introduced Stevie Nicks and played The One. Stevie brought lyrics sheets onto the stage and said that it was the first time that she had ever used them at a performance. Apparently she just came up with the harmony part a week ago and lost her recording of the song when she dropped her iPod in the pool. Stevie's voice was soulful as always and the texture played off of that of V's voice rather well. She introduced White Houses not with a narration, but with an improv mini-overture of sorts. When she introduced Heroes and Thieves, she said that there were quite a few heroes in the theater and named a few people who had helped her. She introduced Fools Like Me by explaining that it's about love. She said that we're all fools. We fall in love, get burned, and then fall in love again like we've never learned anything from our prior experiences. She introduced ATM by thanking Ron Fair, who she said really helped her with that song. She introduced Home by talking about all the stuff she's done in LA and said it was a premiere (she forgot playing it at NY or WNBA?). She played Who's To Say, with the standard intro "This is for those of you who are in relationships that are not approved of by your mother or President Bush."
Up until this concert, my only exposure to Vanessa has been through her recorded stuff or boots, albeit on some rather impressive sound systems. All the recordings lack something, though. The albums are overproduced to hell and back and get rid of all sorts of interesting things. The boots, while having the raw emotion and energy that the albums lack, still kinda suck as the recordings are of poor quality. It was an entirely different feeling being right by the stage and having the amplified bass notes just shake your body and her voice engulfing you. I am now a firm believer in the idea that Vanessa is best enjoyed live. It was amusing when she messed up and said little things like "it doesn't go like that."
Somewhere during the set, V told the story of how she first played for Irv. His reaction was "you motherfucker! that's the shit!" (or something like that). The song after she told that story, Irv came on to the stage, hugged her, and yelled "you're the motherfucking shit!" She said that stuff like that is why she loves Irv. "If he feels like rushing the stage, he will." She also said that she expected him to do that after every song that night, lest she believe that her subsequent songs weren't as good.
The only thing that was bad about the show is that it was far too short. I wasn't timing the thing, but the entire set including encore and talking was about an hour long. It was still worth all the money and travel, but I would have really liked to have heard more, especially some songs from the new album that we haven't heard yet, or perhaps some songs that didn't make the cut for the album.
After the show, Irv came out and talked with us. He was really chill and told us that we (the NESSAholics) were the ones he cared most about pleasing. He said he understood that some people had concerns because acts like V's have been "urbanized" (e.g. Nelly Furtado). He told us that there is really nothing to worry about as he strongly believes in letting her do her own thing. Let told her story of how she was the original NESSAholic (if you don't know, you might want to ask her sometime) and he seemed quite interested.
V came out to do pictures and signing stuff about 30 minutes after the show. I got a picture taken of me with V, Manda, and one of her friends. When I was posing for this first picture, she told me, "wow, you're really tall." We also got a pic V with all the NH.com staff in LA (me, Kat, Let, Nicole). She signed my ticket and I'm amused that her signature is pretty similar to mine: a scribble.
