Review – Lynda Wehipeihana + Janine Emerson
@ the Harbourside Brasserie 8Mar00
The bill read
as though Lynda would
be up there last, with Janine
Emerson in the middle and Simon Cox opening. That’s how it
was written on the advertising and on the bill out front of the venue and so that’s why I’ve
written it here like that. It’s also the thinking behind arriving a few minutes
after the scheduled kick-off; so I could just blend in and be my usual
inconspicuous self. Well, sound the buzzer Glenn, coz I got it wrong yet again.
Lynda’s was
the opening set, and one of the two reasons for my being here tonight, so
missing the crucial opening tune/s were a little let down as far as the evening
was concerned.
I should also
have taken the hint from a recent interview where she stated that she doesn’t
do late shows… what with the family and all… so seeing her up there as I
wondered in should have been expected, but it felt like the set was through
before I’d had a chance to get into it and she’d had a chance to tell the
audience off for talking over her act; not quite in the Angry Anderson style
but enough to give the impression that the lady wasn’t impressed. There weren’t
many of them but they could be heard, even over the acoustic ambience oozing
seductively from the FOH. Tonight’s relatively short time on stage featured the
title track to her album of last year “Your So Beautiful” as
well as the perennial Throw
Your Arms Around Me and the rock-it-up closer Who Are You, about as rocky
as you would expect but somehow you know there’s more rock in there somewhere.
The Lynda Wehipeihana
Band comprised Steve Edmunds: guitarist extraordinaire,
suppressed rock-god with a jazz flair, toned down without the amplification;
and Sunil Da Silva in the tempo-maintenance department with all
the acoustic-jazz kit. Lynda
was in no way held back her Kate
Ceberano/Wendy
Mathews/Janelle (Cozmetyx) Hewetson
styled vocalising… dancing and moving in her own inimitable style like it were
a huge production with all the entourage and crowd support.
So after the disappointment of not being able to see as much
of Lynda’s show as I would
have liked, I was able to catch another artist I had not seen for not quite a
year. Janine Emerson has been knocking around the venues, pubs
and brasseries of this town for quite a few years now. Blicka was
there, as always, and tonight’s added attraction was a percussionist/drummer,
albeit much later in the set.
Destination BC, the show’s opener, had only the two of them up there but
there seemed to be an accordion-type sound backing them toward the end of it.
That and Blicka adding a distinct harmony line which gave the
song a folky/America
edge and a big response from the crowd who was obviously here for this spot. A
glass of red and some new guitars helped Janine get a grip on proceedings. Blicka also added to the
rock-god tag tonight as well by backing many of the vocal lines, and even
taking the lead in Crossroads with an almost-gravelly style. Apparently
he has been adding that touch to many of the songs slowly over the past year
with the view that too many bands go over-the-top to start with and then have
nowhere to go: building the sound and act up slowly is a better approach.
It was I Do, the third song of the set, in which the entire
range of Janine’s magnificent almost-baritone was on full
display. The other stand-out was the Blicka-penned Still No
Closer To Lucifer The Devil which had the author on open-E slide and the
chanteuse moving and shaking about, really getting into the night. Kosta
the percussionist came on half-way through the set and while I felt his
presence initially detracted from the production with a hands-only style, he
too built up to a crescendo that turned this initially acoustic-folk duet into
a full-on rock affair with bass levels on the guitars taking up the lack of a
bass guitar, not that there was want of one (tonight anyway).
Babs
and the weather kept the crowds down tonight. But for a fraction of her
ticket-price we were privy to two artists who may never command those
ticket-prices but will be around for longer than she will and actually visibly
enjoy what they do up there every week.