John Lacey

FRIDAY 22 April 2005
Venue: The Basement, Sydney

Setlist
Mysteries We Understand
California Here I Come
Before I Walk On Fire
Saviour Child
As I Lay Me Down
Mmm My Best Friend
Did We Not Choose Each Other
Walking On Thin Ice
Sweet Sexy Woman
I Need Nothing Else
Lose Your Way
No Connection
Mr. Tugboat Hello
Beautiful Girl
Feelin’ Good
Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

Encore
I Want You (Winter In New York)

(Before the show, Gigi walks past and remarks what a “cute” table I have. They’ve put me on a round table near to the door that is labelled “Band Room - Do Not Enter.” I’m not sure if she recognises me from the instore or not. )

Mysteries We Understand was fast and crazy, and slightly disco-esque! When she reached the line, “I ain’t looking for the sky to cover my ass,” she couldn’t help but oblige, turning around and wiggling around for the audience. California Here I Come resulted in a broken guitar string, Sophie asked Genevieve (Maynard, her support act) if she could borrow her guitar for the next song. On return of the guitar with string repaired, Sophie thanked Gigi for fixing it before a voice in the audience exclaimed, “Genevieve did it!” Sophie laughed, and commented on how professional Genevieve was.

Sophie was keen to find out how many people had a best friend that had four legs and fur (a trick she repeated at each subsequent show I saw). She explained that her best friend, her dog, couldn’t be there tonight but was listening “over the airwaves - they can do that!” She even replaced a line in Mmm My Best Friend. What the line turned out to be depended largely on when she found herself. In Sydney it was “Saving all my money and I’m gonna take her to Sydney soon.” In Canberra, Sydney was replaced with “Australia.” I cannot recall what it became at the Bulli gig.

Sophie moved to a sizable piano on the corner of the stage. She insisted she needed some serious audience participation on the next song. This, she explained, was our big Motown backing singer audition. We had to clap on 2 and 4 throughout the entire song, that we weren’t to stop and anybody that could pull off the feat would be handsomely rewarded. (Sophie said it was much harder than it sounded. I thought this was remarkably true, as I noted that to clap on two and four my foot was going down invariably on one and three. My inner drummer needed a kick to… well.. kick!) She played a wonderful version of Did We Not Choose Each Other, and I sang along to every word! The best part was when she launched into that section that is on, on the album, basically a round: “Listen baby, listen baby, don’t you do me wrong. I can make my bed, you can sing your song. Ain’t nobody else gonna make you shine. If it’s the truth you seek then honey love you’ll find. I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna take your pain away. Isn’t yours to give. Isn’t mine to save…”

On the album, she sings this (through the wonders of multitracking) over the chorus. Gigi was obviously singing some backing vocals, but I was unable to make out exactly what they were - though, I presume it was the chorus.

Sweet Sexy Woman she dedicated to all the women in the audience who were over 49, although she later revised that figure to all the women over 45. (She dedicated Saviour Child to all the children in the audience, “about 93 per cent of you.” She said she thought at the Bulli venue there were ‘about four’ adults in the audience, and at one of the gigs dedicated the same song to “All the sissys.. it takes a lot of guts to be a sissy!” But I digress…) It was quite a spectacle to behold. She turned around (the piano was sideways on the stage) to where I and some others were seated, “Sorry I can’t sing to you guys..” All the time Dave is pounding on the drums, and Ed is producing a captivatingly sensual bluesy organ sound from his synthesizer.

I Need Nothing Else proved to be one of the highlights of any of the gigs. She doesn’t play the djembe so much as make love to it. Drummer Dave Foley becomes less a member of a band during that song, as a sparing partner. It almost takes on dimensions of a tribal war song, though it is apparently inspired by a passion seated in love.

Gigi materialises on the stage and hands Sophie her banjo. A member of the audience screams, “the cracker army!” Sophie says, “What did she say? Oh the cracker army… that’s so cute. This is your song.” (I had been wearing my Cracker Army “Standard Issue” dog tags all weekend, I’m not sure if Sophie noticed.)

Sophie pulls out a pipe and lights it. “Oh I love cabaret,” she says mockingly. What followed was something truly unprecendented. (I never expected it would happen, I intended to ask for it anyway… but would’ve “understood” when it didn’t happen.) She launched into a tale of a lover she knew wouldn’t be strong for her… She was singing Mr. Tugboat Hello! (The greatest Sophie B. Hawkins song in the universe of Sophie B. Hawkins songs, or, at least, my absolute favourite!) She uttered the final words, “You thought for you.. as though for two,” and continued without a missing a beat into Beautiful Girl.

“I love Sydney.. I’m a die hard New Yorker, but I love this town,” she declares loudly.

She introduces “Feelin’ Good” (the only cover of her latest offering, Wilderness) and it becames apparent it isn’t (merely) her favourite song so much as it is a new philosophy she has taken toward life. She tells these delightful little stories whenever she performs the song. Usually they involve saying how wonderful the location she now founds herself in is and involving somewhat fictional characters. In Sydney, she explained how she wanted to sleep in that morning and forget about catching the plane to Sydney, how she hated her hotel room (it had brown walls!) and how she was convinced the water in Brisbane smelt like sulfur. She then goes on to describe the wisdom that was bestowed on her by taxi-driver Jerome in Sydney (and a four year old Tuba player who was busking to get a university education in Caberra, and a Kangaroo named Austen Tayshus - no you didn’t misread it! - in Bulli).

Finally, she performs Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (the song most people associate with her). She goes round and round on stage. She unbuttons and removes her shirt, before seductively moving the garment between her legs. After the bridge, she falls to the floor and the shirt becomes impromptu headwear. The look is very Thelma & Louise, and adjusting it in such a way usually takes a bit of effort and prompts quite a bit of laughter from the audience. When she sings, “I’m feeling like a school boy, too young - too shy,” I think how true it is. lol

Sophie abandons the stage, and the cheering and applause sweeps the venue. Gigi appears again. “She hasn’t done an encore the whole trip, but if you call her I think she”ll do one.. You’ll be the first here to get one.”

Sure enough Gaston’s words ring true. She comes back on stage wearing a hooded jacket. “We’ll have to pretend it’s cold outside for this one…” She goes on to describe what winter in New York is like, and talks about a fictional persona she takes on for her rendition of I Want You. (Her character wrote one song before going to jail, “And Bob Dylan stole it… and I stole it,” she insists.) It is so magical. You genuinely feel transported to another point in space and time.

I spoke to Genevieve for about 25-30 minutes while the line to see Sophie became smaller. (Not that I didn’t want to talk to Gen anyway.. it just worked out well how it happened, that’s all.) I thanked her so much for doing Mr. Tugboat Hello, “it’s my favourite song ever!”, and she replies in hushed whisper “It’s my pleasure.” I get her to sign a copy of Wilderness for me. She asks how to spell John. I pulled out the caps and said this is for you.. and this one is for Gigi wherever she is. (The caps had “Sophie” and “Gigi” written on them.) She laughed. She picked up the cap with “Gigi” on it, and puts it on. She motions to Gigi who is in the next room, and Gigi puts her thumbs up. I explain that I’ll be at the Canberra show tomorrow night, so I’ll “see you then.” She reaches out and touches my arm and smiles.

For More Information On Sophie B. Hawkins, visit the official website here

Categories: Personal Universe
Tags: Sophie B. Hawkins