Natalie Merchant Really Gets It Right...

I had the pleasure of seeing Natalie Merchant at the O’Shaughnessy in St. Paul on July 24th, 2010. Let me say up front that I’ve never been a big fan of Merchant’s solo work. My liking and support of her goes back mostly to her 10,000 Maniacs days, and to a time about 20+ years ago when I saw that band open up for Squeeze at a little theater in Mesa, AZ. It was a night that still sticks out in my mind, where that band completely won me over and made my jaw drop to the floor in a rather embarrassing manner.

I’ve always been a bit disappointed in her solo works. Due to this, I’ve been rather taken aback by my reaction to her new album, “Leave Your Sleep”, a two disc album comprised of 19th and 20th century British and American poetry adapted to music, fully equipped with a lovely booklet. You see, I’ve completely fallen head over heels in love with this album and think it’s quite frankly one of the best albums of 2010.

“Leave Your Sleep” is an example of the kind of work that I think Merchant should have always been doing. It’s an adventurous album, a journey of sorts, that’s both magical, enchanting, stimulating, and quite fun. A wide array of instruments were used with musical styles ranging from folk to jazz to even a bit of Celtic flair. It’s an album like no other that I’ve ever heard.

When I heard that she would be in town in support of the album, I knew I had to be there. It took a bit of searching but I finally landed a 3rd row Pit seat through Ticketmaster. As I always say, I usually don’t go to shows unless I’m in the first 10 rows. In my viewpoint, the show had one of two ways of playing out: she would either completely focus on the new material and then maybe play some of her hits for the encore, or she’d intersperse her catalog of songs together which, I think at least, would be rather weird and awkward. I of course had my fingers crossed for the former.

In typical me fashion, for one reason or another, I ended up running late to the show. I purposefully try not to get to shows too early because about 50% of the time I go alone and I hate sitting there in silence for a long time, twiddling my thumbs and such. So, I try to nonchalantly arrive about 15 minutes early, but on this particular evening, time somehow got away from me.

To make matters worse, I’ve never been to the O’Shaughnessy and so I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. I was afraid I’d be caught in late-comer traffic; to my surprise, there was none. Instead, upon searching for the entrance gate that was listed on the map from the website, I was greeted with a summertime MN original…road construction! I found the gate sign but it was smack in the middle of two torn up entrances and roads, literally just a couple feet from one another. Both looked like something you wouldn’t normally drive down, consisting of dirt and stones, and there was a visible huge pile of dirt and concrete up ahead. It was completely confusing. Which was the real entrance?! Even funnier, as I was approaching from the north, an SUV was approaching from the south and we were both stopped, confused, looking at one another, trying to figure out which way to go. Being impatient, I just chose a road. The SUV promptly followed me.

About 10 seconds later, I realized I was in maybe the rectory’s parking lot? I don’t know. I spun around as the SUV came up behind me, confused as to where I was leading them. We both exited and then tried the other road, both of us parking in different rows of the lot.

It was now about 3 minutes to show time. I obviously wanted to get to the theater as quickly as possible but where the heck was it?! Just like the parking lot fiasco, there were no signs at all, nothing visible that looked like a theater, and so I was completely confused. I started making my way across the parking lot and ended up by my SUV friends, a young couple that seemed to be as lost as I was. The guy came up to me and asked, “Hey, do you know where the O’Shaughnessy is?”

I looked at him with a faint smile. “You’re asking me?! I lead you into the wrong parking lot!” We both laughed. At least we weren’t alone in our confusion.

I finally found a map of the campus and pointed in the proper direction. It was a bit of a walk but I finally made it. It was now exactly show time. I entered as quickly as possible and once again there were no signs on the walls about where to go. Like I had done previously, I simply choose a direction and hoped for the best. I had my ticket torn and then made my way to the door leading to the very front of the auditorium. I was standing behind 2 women that were also a bit confused. We opened the door together to see that the auditorium lights had just gone out and it was pitch black inside. Merchant’s band had just walked out on stage and the crowd was applauding. At this point, I uttered a mild obscenity, and the lady nearest to me giggled and said, “Shhh!”

Just then, Natalie Merchant came out on the stage and cheers from the crowd erupted. At the same time, I was trying to figure out where the heck my seat was and I was a bit confused. There were no ushers in sight and the only “worker” was the security guard sitting on the stage. He directed me to a row that just didn’t seem right but he also informed me that my seat number was way down on the left side of the auditorium, whereas I had entered via the right side doors. It made sense that I should just walk out the doors and go all the way around the other side.

While I was doing my walk, I ran into the SUV couple again and promptly said, “Why, hello again! I’m still lost!” I then made my way around the left side and through the front doors. I was standing behind 2 couples who were just coming back from the bar area. As we made our way through the door, Natalie Merchant, on stage, said, “Wow…they’re still coming in through the doors.” She was literally looking right at us! As I was trying to make my way to my seat as quickly as possible, she said, in a rather annoyed tone, “Come in, people…the show has started…” pretty much in my direction. How embarrassing! I hate when people arrive late and now I was “that guy”! Ugh!!

Anyhow, that was my fiasco in regards to getting to the show and so I had missed Merchant’s introduction speech about the project and such. She had not performed any music up until this point. She introduced the first song which was “The Sleepy Giant” and had only sung about 2 lines when she started coughing out of control. I’ve never seen this before in a show, although I’m sure it happens quite frequently. It was very obvious that her throat had clogged and she very calmly told the band, who was still playing the music without her singing, “We need to start over”. A few moments earlier, a couple more people had entered and sat down in the front row of the theater. Merchant tried desperately to clear her throat but it wasn’t cooperating. After numerous coughs, she did her best to lighten the moment with mild humor. She finally told the audience, “I hate to admit this to you but I should probably be one of those people who should live in a bubble. I think what happened was that someone who just came in had strong perfume and I got a big whiff of it.” Considering this was the first song, I had minor doubts about how the show was going to go. Within a matter of moments, though, the band restarted the song and Merchant’s voice came back as powerful as ever. I must say that she handled the whole thing very calmly and professionally.

From here, the whole regular show, meaning before the encores, was completely focused on the new album as I had hoped and predicted. Merchant talked and explained tidbits of information before each and every song and at times it almost felt like more of a lecture than a “rock” concert. Having said that, it was an absolutely brilliant presentation of the songs and extremely informative, allowing the audience to get a deeper glimpse into the project. Merchant also had a fairly large screen behind her which displayed various slides which she worked herself via a clicker device. There were pictures of the poets themselves, some illustrations from various works, and so on. The pictures of the poets were absolutely fantastic, at times showing off a side of the artist that I didn’t previously pick up on. Most of the slides were black and white and quite beautiful in their own rite. Some actually added a mildly eerie atmosphere that created an unprecedented mood within the auditorium. The presentation, at least for me, gave me a connection to the work in a very remarkable sort of way.

Merchant’s voice, once it was fully back, was simply beyond words through the entire evening, constantly outdoing itself. It filled and echoed around the interior of the theater and seemed as dense as fog over a harbor. It’s interesting because when Merchant speaks to the audience, she uses a rather soft and quiet tone. Then, when she starts singing, the volume and thickness of her voice is about 10 times her speaking voice. The sound in general in the theater was also amazing, probably due to the concrete walls and such. It was mixed perfectly and it really made the music stand out. It was one of those rare shows when all the various elements came together and worked perfectly in unison.

Merchant’s persona throughout the evening was also interesting. She completely exudes confidence in everything she does, even coughing, and seems to really speak her mind. She made several comments that made me a bit shocked, one even about how the theater seemed “cold” upon arrival to sound check due to all the concrete, and how she was worried for a bit about how the show would unfold. I believe she even compared the interior of the building to a concrete bunker. Whereas most artists are busy thanking the theater and its’ owners endlessly, Merchant went the opposite direction and I’ve just never heard anyone do that before. The funny part was she was absolutely correct; it does like a bit like a prison in there! But, just as she later pointed out, no matter what it looked like, they ended up making “beautiful music” that evening and the sound was impeccable. So, ironically, I really quite recommend the theater, especially for its’ intimate setting.

There was also an interesting moment when two gentlemen came and sat down in the very first row during the middle of a song. There had been no one sitting there for the entire performance and clearly Merchant had noticed this. She turned around on stage for a bit during the song and then turned back to see these two gentlemen now sitting there, probably like a hocus pocus sort of thing. She did the most hilarious double take, right in the middle of singing a phrase, and then gave a small smile/smirk. I could only imagine what it was that she was thinking and it made me want to wi-fi connect to her private thoughts.
Stand out songs were “Bleezer’s Ice-Cream”, “Adventures of Isabel”, and “The Peppery Man” which simply “rocked” the house. Like only a very small handful of shows do, it was so amazing that it actually brought a tear to my eye. The strange part was that, while I was sitting there like many others in amazement, some people were actually walking out! I couldn’t understand it. Were they late for another engagement? Did they not know or like any of the new material and they only came to hear Merchant’s older hits? If so, didn’t they understand that she’d probably get to those during the encore, so why leave then?! I was a bit puzzled and halfway tempted to follow someone and ask but that would have meant missing the show.

The first part of the performance lasted about an hour and a half. After a short break, the screen disappeared and the first encore began. Merchant played four tracks, none of which were the big hits that were probably expected. One track was “Life is Sweet”, quite a lovely rendition that was rather moving. All four songs were a bit slower and more mysterious, if you will, and quite enjoyable. My favorite was “The Worst Thing” from the “Motherland” album which truly held a strange mystique that was quite captivating.

The second encore completely consisted of four of her biggest hits. Like I’ve already stated, I’m not a big fan of most of these tracks but I must say that they came off much more to my tastes using this more diverse band and arrangement. One of the real highlights was Merchant calling local artist Jevetta Steele to the stage, who happened to be in the audience that evening, to help her sing “Kind and Generous”. From what I gathered, Merchant and Steele met back in the 80’s and actually sang on 10,000 Maniacs’ “Trouble Me”. “Kind and Generous” isn’t exactly my favorite tune on Earth but the energy between the two was amazing and it really captivated the entire audience in a random and impromptu sort of way. This ultimately ended the show and what an amazing ending it was, filled with multiple hugs between Steele and Merchant.

It truly was a show like no other. It’s funny because there were so many issues throughout the evening, starting with her voice tickle and then moving on to many forgotten lyrics, misses of portions of songs, etc. In the end, none of it mattered; in fact it literally made the show even more endearing. For any fan of “Leave Your Sleep”, all I can say is that if you have the chance to see her live on this tour, you simply must for it’s not to be missed.