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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2007 > November > 27 > Entry
Suzanne Vega at Variety Playhouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shortly after 9 p.m., Suzanne Vega stepped out onto the Variety Playhouse stage solo and began her most popular hit, “Tom’s Diner”, an a capella song describing a moment gazing out of a New York City window.
A full-house crowd of mostly long time fans listened raptly as she made her way through a selection of songs stretching all the way back to her 1985 eponymous debut album. Touring in support of her latest, six years in the making, “Beauty and Crime,” the still waifish Vega, dressed somberly in a blue tunic over skinny black jeans, sang in her signature crisp, clear diction. Some songs accompanied by a full band, others by her own solo acoustic playing and others by just a bass guitar.
In between songs, Vega was warm and engaging, sharing stories behind the songs, which ranged from the smoky jazz of “Caramel” to the saucy “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May, ” which imagines the Rod Stewart song from the woman’s point of view. Many of them were peppered with the underlying ode to her hometown, New York, and all complete with the small details requisite to Vega’s work.
At one point, before one of her newest songs saying, “I think New York is a woman, but not always a lady. What is Atlanta?” Over the faint answers of “Atlanta is a woman” one loud shouted response rang out: “A drunken homeless man,” which seemed slightly odd, but funny, given the audience. Tucked in the seats were professor-looking type, with the slightly too long, salt and pepper hair clothed in turtlenecks and leather jackets, with maybe a sweater vest or two thrown into the fashion mix. Interspersed were the college girls wearing newsboy caps and ironic tees, and the gaggles of men in their mid-30s sipping beer clustered around the tables on the sides.
Vega, told of her first love, a fellow summer camp counselor, the subject of “Gypsy.” “I gave him a song. He gave me a bandana.” And when audience members became comfortable enough to shout out song requests, “Wooden Horses!” she gently said, “No. No. No. We don’t do those anymore. Those are the sad divorce songs. Now I am married, so maybe in another 25 years.” And went on to finish her play list, work her way through two encores and more than one standing ovation.
Set list:
Tom’s Diner
Marlene on the Wall
New York is a Woman
Ludlow Street
Carmel
Gypsy
(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May
Left of Center
Blood Makes Noise
Angel’s Doorway
Pornographer’s Dream
In Liverpool
Luka
Tom’s Diner (with full band, modeled after the DNA electronica version)
Encore #1
Zephyr & I
The Queen and the Soldier
Encore #2
Small Blue Thing
Rosemary
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