Natalie Merchant At The Sage

Natalie Merchant

The Sage

A Pictorial Report

25.5.2010

I became aware of Natalie Merchant's extraordinary music quite recently; last November in fact, when I was introduced to 'Ophelia'. I enjoyed the depth and unusual style.

I was very pleased to hear she was coming to The Sage and immediately snapped up a couple of front row tickets.

The tour is to promote the new CD, 'Leave Your Sleep'. Her first for seven years, it is based around an extraordinary concept of putting the words from 19th and 20th Century British and American poets to her own music.

The first 90 minutes of the show focused entirely on the new material. Each song was preceded by a short history lesson on each of the featured poets, complete with photos, displayed on a big screen.

The set list for the main part of the show:

No One Marries Me

Land Of Nod

Sleepy Giant

The Man In The Wilderness

Janitor's Boy

Calico Pie

Peppery Man

Sailor O Sailor

Maggie and Milly and Molly and May

Vain and Careless

Indian Names

Crying, My Little One

Spring and Fall

Equestrienne

The first encore brought forth an excellent selection of songs from earlier albums.

(I'm open to correction here, both in the content and running order)

Life is Sweet

Carnival

Tell Yourself

Motherland

San Andreas Fault

Break Your Heart

River

Second encore:

Kind and Generous

It was an amazing evening, lasting around two hours and 20 minutes. Bewitching, mesmerising and an unforgettable experience.

Here's some of the pictures I took, which will hopefully convey a little of the extraordinary atmosphere...

Here's a sample of a show similar to the one we saw, courtesy of TED: http://www.ted.com/

Many wonders await you in Natalie Merchant's back catalogue. There's no better place to start than her official website:

http://www.nataliemerchant.com/