Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega? Remember her? Marlene On The Wall and all that? Yes, she had a few hits in the mid-to-late Eighties. I even had her debut album on tape (tape!), but haven’t replaced it on CD since all my cassettes went to the great tape head in the sky, to be eternally chewed up. Nicola, though, is the proud owner of Solitude Standing, and I have 99.9F° (sic), from the Nineties. But she has a new (-ish) album out, and is “touring” New Zealand – i.e. playing Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, which, frankly, is two more cities than a lot of visiting American artists manage. 

But first, dinner, as is tradition. We’ve not been to Wellington’s premier French-style restaurant, Le Bouillon Bel Air, for a long while – in fact, probably not since it opened! Which is (checks notes) two years ago! Time flies! Anyway, I had a hankering for some escargots, and this is probably the only place that actually does them in Wellington, so I booked it, with the proviso that we had to be out to get to the show. No problem, and I had my snails (delicious!) and confit de canard (not quite salted and aged to the extent that I would do, but still tasty), and a glass of French wine to boot. It was a rainy, windy, Sunday evening yet the place was almost full…quite a few may have been on the same mission as us as it’s only five minutes’ walk away…

…from St James Theatre. I’d misread the tickets and thought doors opened at 7:30pm (reasonable), but in fact a quick bit of Gemini-ing during dinner revealed (a) the show starts at 7:30pm, and (b) there’s no support act, so we resisted the blandishments of pudding and hotfooted it round the corner, to take our seats in the stalls.

She was prompt. None of your rock star messing about being late on stage. She kicked off straight away with Marlene On The Wall, so we all knew we were in the right place, and played a couple of other well-known songs before stopping for a chat. She told us she likes to play recognisable songs first, as if she kicks off with new material it can make people anxious! They come later in the set. She also told us the tale of landing in Wellington on the third attempt, having had to go back to Auckland after the first two failed…normal for Wellington. She introduced long-time collaborator Gerry Leonard on guitar, and cellist Stephanie Winters, who plays on most of the songs. They played a full repertoire from the very earliest song she wrote in the Seventies, through to excerpts of the new album (Flying With Angels), and finished up, inevitably, with probably her most famous, Tom’s Diner. 

They then reappeared for a three-song encore including Lou Reed’s Walk On the Wild Side, and In Liverpool, before wrapping up at – gosh! 9:15pm! Clearly she knows her audience and doesn’t want to keep them up past their bedtime!