We paused outside the spaceship of the Sage Gatehead. Across the River Tyne, we could hear the crowd in the stadium for the Liverpool vs Newcastle game. So much so that I took a brief recording of the singing. Those that know the HWKR market, with its street food and shipping containers, will know how much this area appears like Manhattan around Front Street albeit with a different bridge in the background.
Then into the vast capsule, where Suzanne Vega would play a set. I guessed that she would open with Marlene on the Wall and as she walked on with a top hat, I felt my bet was safe.
Then, ninety minutes of bliss as she sang many from er extensive back catalogue, with the merest hint of new tracks which I'd not heard before. I decided I must be a full-on fan because I knew more or less every word of every song and find, even days later, that they are still following me around as my inner head soundtrack.
Suzanne explained that the first part of the show contained older tracks because she knew that is what the people would want and this would make everyone less anxious than if she had started with new material.
She was accompanied by a guitar maestro Gerry Leonard - he of Bowie bands in the past and he played a single guitar with effects pedals and loops which was easily enough accompaniment for Suzanne and her six-string acoustic guitar.
This was a set from a performer still at the top of her game. Her first tunes were written at 18 years old and from the 1980s, but to these ears they still sounded fresh and with great vocals.
Maybe we were not in Greenwich Village, but we could have been.
I seldom say a gig is perfect, but I will for this one.
Setlist (approximately):
Marlene on the Wall
Small Blue Thing
Caramel
Gypsy
In Liverpool
The Queen and the Soldier
When Heroes Go Down
Last Train from Mariupol
Rock in This Pocket (Song of David)
Solitude Standing
Left of Center
I Never Wear White
Some Journey
Luka
Tom’s Diner
Encore:
Walk on the Wild Side
Tombstone
Rosemary
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