Music lovers at South Orange, NJ's SOPAC auditorium this Saturday, September 28, 2024 evening patiently await the start of a sold-out Old Songs, New Songs, and Other Songs performance by singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega.
Says Nick from Woodbridge, “I’ve been a fan of Suzanne Vega since around 1990. She has a beautiful voice, she’s a terrific storyteller, and she looks great, too — although I am married!” Adding, “Suzanne Vega, Alanis Morissette, and Joni Mitchell are my three favorite female solo artists,” Nick explains, “I love Suzanne’s Solitude Standing album — it’s a classic which features her hit, “Luka’ — and I did get to see her in concert once and loved her so much I wanted to come back and see her again tonight.”
Heather from Basking Ridge points out, “I’ve been a fan of Suzanne Vega since the 1980s when she came out with ‘Tom’s Diner.’ She writes great lyrics and has such a unique quality to her voice that her music has always really stood out to me.” Recalling, “Back in 2005, my niece was in a dance recital where they played ‘Tom’s Diner,’ and my kids who were with me asked, ‘What song is that?’” Heather reveals, “For my daughter’s birthday, we’re coming full circle 20 years later because my husband and I are taking both of our daughters to tonight’s show. This will be our first time seeing her and we’re looking forward to enjoying her performance as a family.”
Inside the packed auditorium, the lights dim and SOPAC executive director Lana Rogachevskaya welcomes tonight’s audience. She introduces Suzanne Vega who takes the stage with her accompanist, guitarist Gerry Leonard, to avid cheers and applause.
Strapping on her guitar and placing her iconic top hat on her head, Vega asks, “Ready?” as she launches into her rhythmic folk-rocker, “Marlene On the Wall.” Vega’s soft, sweet voice calls out, “Even if I am in love with you/All this to say, what’s it to you?” as she strums the tune’s complex chord progression and Gerry Leonard follows with a thoughtful electric guitar solo.
The crowd eagerly applauds, and Vega takes off her hat and puts down her guitar prior to segueing into “99.9” where her smooth, breathy vocal contrasts with Leonard’s moving guitar part as she snaps her fingers to the beat of this rhythmic rocker.
Vega introduces the audience to Leonard before the pair dives into “Caramel.” Motioning with feeling, she croons, “It won’t do/To dream of caramel/To think of cinnamon/And long for you,” on this Latin-inspired jazz tune.
Concertgoers applaud, and Vega responds, “Welcome to the New Songs, Old Songs, and Other Songs tour. How are you?” Acknowledging, “I have a touch of laryngitis but I didn’t want to cancel,” Vega jokes, “I just wanted to tell you just in case something wild and freaky happens.” After a fan calls out, “Thank you for coming!” Vega happily responds, “Thank you for coming!”
Vega tells a story about how she wrote her next song for her boyfriend when she was an 18-year-old camp counselor. While performing “Gypsy,” she fingerpicks her guitar and invites concertgoers to sing along on the folk song’s appealing “Hold me like a baby/That will not fall asleep/Curl me up inside you/And let me hear you through the heat” chorus.
Acknowledging that 12 years after writing “Gypsy” she went to England and wrote another song about the same boyfriend, Vega sails into “In Liverpool.” Crooning, “He sounds like he’s missing something or someone/That he knows he can’t have now/And if he isn’t, I certainly am,” she strums her acoustic guitar while Leonard adds an ethereal accompaniment on his electric on this 6/8 story song.
Announcing, “This new song is about free speech. It talks about a soapbox in the park where you can speak your mind,” Vega moves on to “Speaker’s Corner.” Strong guitar strumming from Vega and Leonard accompanies Vega’s voice which effectively draws listeners into this folk-rocker with a contemporary message.
Putting down her guitar, Vega acknowledges, “I’m recording new material for an album to come out next Spring,” as she launches into a new song about New York City called “Rats.”
Vega cries, “Jimmy said he saw a rat/Bigger than his head/It fell down from the ceiling/It ran across the bed,” as Leonard accompanies on his electric guitar and sings backup on this uptempo punk rock tune. After joking with the Jersey audience, “Aren’t you glad you live here?” Vega stands and sings from the heart on “Penitent,” popping into her head voice with ease as she vocalizes, “I ask you please?” on this prayer disguised as a folk tune.
Next up is the alternative minor-key rocker, “Left of Center,” where Vega snaps as she moves to the beat while accompanied by Leonard’s expert guitar playing. Then, Vega gets the audience clapping along as Leonard wails out an electric guitar solo over a looped accompaniment after singing “My color is black, black, black” with intrigue and mystery on the rocking “I Never Wear White.”
Fast strumming on acoustic and electric guitars support “Some Journey,” a rhythmic folk song which has Vega wondering , “If I had met you on some journey/Where would we be now?”
The crowd cheers, and Vega thanks the audience for coming out tonight before launching into her 1987 worldwide hit, “Luka.” Deftly plucking her guitar strings with her fingers, Vega sings with feeling, “My name is Luka/I live on the second floor,” as she spins a powerful tale of abuse which features soaring electric guitar playing by Leonard.
Vega places her top hat on her head again to perform her hypnotic and poetic hit, “Tom’s Diner.”
Chanting, “I am sitting/In the morning/At the diner/On the corner,” Vega is accompanied by the infectious groove provided by Leonard and his looped guitar.
Music lovers stand and cheer, and Vega replies, “Thank you so much!” After leaving the stage, she and Leonard return to perform a slow and funky encore of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.”
Joking, “We’d like to do a cheerful song to leave you with. This is the most cheerful song I have — a song about how to live your life and how to be remembered after you die,” Vega subsequently leaps into “Tombstone.” Supported by Leonard’s quick-strummed looped guitar and a distorted guitar part on this funky and swinging number, Vega impresses as she intones with feeling, “Time is burning, burning, burning/’Til it burns away.”
Taking off her top hat, Vega bows to the cheering crowd before exiting the stage.
As concertgoers make their way out of the auditorium, several comment on tonight’s performance. Exclaims Francine from South Orange, “Suzanne Vega was excellent — just out of this world! I’ve always wanted to see her, and it was exciting to get to do that tonight at SOPAC. I’ve been a fan of Suzanne since ‘Luka’ was on MTV — I was a kid then and I loved her — and she didn’t disappoint tonight; she was amazing!”
Likewise, Joanne from Maplewood asserts, “I loved Suzanne Vega tonight; I thought her show was phenomenal! She’s an amazing storyteller — I could have listened to her tell stories all night even without her singing, but the singing was a bonus! She sounded wonderful and I loved her guitarist, as well.”
Joanne’s husband, Rick, recalls, “I originally heard Suzanne Vega when I was in college. When her first record came out, I immediately fell in love with her voice and her songwriting. Later, I got a chance to interview her when I worked at MTV, which was pretty cool, but I’ve always been a fan — she has an amazing unique voice, she’s a really good guitarist, and she’s a great songwriter.”
Rick’s friend, Paul from West Orange, remembers, “I first heard Suzanne Vega even before her debut album came out. Somehow Howard Stern managed to get a demo of one of her songs and he loved it so much he played it a bunch of times on the radio. After I heard the song, I kept my radar up for when the record finally came out and, later, when I worked at MTV, made it a point to put her songs in our rotation.”
Declaring, “It was great seeing Suzanne tonight — she did some newer songs I’d never heard before and I really loved all the arrangements you’d think no one could pull off with only two musicians playing them,” Paul concludes by stating, “and with the older songs, it was nice to hear new versions of them. To me, it never seemed like she was going through the motions — you could tell by the way she had re-thought and re-staged each arrangement that she loves what she does — and I just loved her show!”
To learn more about Suzanne Vega, please go to suzannevega.com. For information on future performances at SOPAC — including Masters of the Telecaster with GE Smith, Larry Campbell, and Jim Weider on November 2, Broadway’s Mandy Gonzalez on December 8, and Valerie Simpson and Friends sing Ashford and Simpson on December 14 — please go to sopacnow.org.
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