Marianne Faithfull, back to the vale of tears

Following the night with Elvis Costello, came another musical icon, Marianne Faithfull, to the same stage at the Cultural Centre.

Again, I don’t really know much about her music, though I have admired her for a long time since I listened to her album “Broken English” (eh, I probably just borrowed it from the library), easily charmed by her unique ‘broken’ voice. Only when YouTube was available that I got to see the footage of her singing when she was young and beautiful.

On stage now, her voice was simply powerful. With such a coarse voice of her, and her occasional coughing, I rather worried if she would lose her voice in the middle of the concert. Yet she managed to carry on (and enjoyed herself as she said) for more than 90 minutes.

The sound was not well balanced though. The drums were often too loud. The bass and the keyboard-piano-accordion-oboe-saxophone were not loud enough. The latter was played by the multi-talented Kate St-John. What a pleasant surprise! Yet often I could hardly hear Kate’s playing, and even the strong voice of the Marianne Faithfull was at times muffled by the loud drums.

But what really mattered was to hear the voice of Marianne Faithfull. It didn’t really matter that she was now fatter and didn’t seem more flattering than the average auntie-next-door. (Perhaps except her faces, which I could not really see at a 3xx dollar ‘cheap’ seat, and also her blond hair, which reminded me of her hairstyle when she’s young).

And she rocked. My false impression of her ‘Broken English” was more mellow and soulful than rock. But the concert was more rock than anything else. Indeed, I don’t remember when I last saw a female singer as rock as her. And a grandma as she was! The venue just seemed a bit too inhibitive for her sound. (And sadly there were many empty seats. Where have all the faithful gone?)

Only then did I learn that she had co-written many songs with Nick Cave. I dreamt to see the two singing on stage together.

Honestly I was only familiar with the song “As Tears Go By”, which I actually used to consider a Rolling Stones song (and one of the few that I really like of them). The song was beautifully played. The tone had suddenly changed from rock to folk. And finally Ms. St-John’s heavenly oboe really came out well here. I dreamt to hear Marianne and Kate sing this song together, as the latter vaguely reminded me of the younger Marianne.

Who were those sitting at the 800 dollars seat? They didn’t even bother to stand up and salute Marianne Faithful at the end. (My hatred of the rich now! Wish I were in their seats.)

There was only an encore. I thought there might be two, like Elvis Costello did. But I really shouldn’t ask for more.