Jane Siberry one-ups Tweedy

[bobfrombob]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/is-jane-siberry-in-the-house/article1556528/

 

Not just living room shows but an entire tour, self-promoted, playing in homes, etc. Interesting.

 

 

Is Jane Siberry in the house?

Randy Quan for The Globe and Mail

 

The Canadian singer-songwriter is staging her bare-bones European tour in the living rooms of her fans – provided they feed her dinner first, and put her up for the night

 

London — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

 

The last time Sarah Gillespie had seen Jane Siberry in concert, it was at London's Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank of the River Thames, along with several thousand fans. Last Wednesday, Gillespie was able to see Siberry again, but this time in a much more intimate venue: Gillespie’s own living room.

 

She and about two dozen other fans crammed into her shared two-bedroom ground-floor flat in Brockley, a leafy, nondescript southeast London neighbourhood, to catch Siberry during her swing through the British capital on her do-it-yourself world tour.

 

“Oh my gosh, I've been travelling through so many villages to get here,” Siberry said as she took the stage, which was a patch of floor by the bay window.

 

“Have you ever heard of Brockley before?” a man in the audience asked.

 

“Never,” Siberry replied, before kicking off her set.

 

The cozy concert at Gillespie's home in a semi-detached Victorian house was one of a dozen microgigs the Canadian singer-songwriter has played in London during her salon tour's British leg. The night before, she had played to 40 guests at a small organic café-bar in Bethnal Green in east London, where the organizers were also putting her up for a few nights. The night after, she was scheduled to play to 30 people at another Victorian house in Battersea in southwest London.

 

“ I don't have a promoter that's interested in bringing me over, and I thought, 'Am I just never going to play there because someone's a gatekeeper, but people want me?’”

 

After becoming disenchanted on her last tour, Siberry decided to arrange this one mainly through word of mouth. She's using her e-mail list to invite fans to host her in their homes or other small venues, and is paying her own way through ticket sales, thereby allowing her to travel to places she might never have been able to go if she relied on a conventional concert promoter. To keep costs down, she’s also asking hosts to give her a bed for a night or two, and to cook her up a dinner before she goes on.

 

And she's travelling light, with her guitar and her dog, a border collie named Gwylym. She's taking buses, trains and ferries. Any further erupting volcanoes in Iceland won't be able to stop her.

 

From London, she'll be making her way to Scotland and Ireland before heading to Sweden, Finland and Norway this month. In June, she's scheduled to be in Rotterdam, Warsaw and Paris. Many dates are already sold out, with tickets ranging from about $30 to $40, but she's encouraging other fans who want to see her to volunteer their homes so she can add more.

 

It's the latest innovation from the 54-year-old performer known for her relentless reinvention. She started out with quirky new-wave pop songs in the early 1980s, before branching out into jazz, classical, folk and gospel. She set up her own record label, Sheeba, in 1996. She gave away most of her possessions and moved into a cabin in Northern Ontario. She even changed her name briefly to Issa.

 

At Gillespie's concert, the do-it-yourself ethic was in evidence from the start. The songstress flicked on a light to brighten the room, tuned her guitar herself, and summoned backing tracks from her own iPod. Most of the audience perched on stools while a few others sat on chairs from the dining set. A lucky few slouched on the sofa. Two guys sat cross-legged on the floor at the front.

 

The set consisted mainly of songs from Siberry's most recent album, 2009's With What Shall I Keep Warm, and ranged from free-form jazz and ballads to punchy numbers strummed on her guitar to spoken word.

 

She upheld her reputation for improvising freely, breaking off in mid-song to deliver monologues about ordinary 9-to-5 workers, matchmaking, tai chi masters and other subjects. She brought the audience into her own mysterious, dream-like world with tales of a black dog named Magic.

 

During one monologue, she even explained to the audience why she stopped doing big tours. In an interview before the show, she had elaborated on that theme: “I would play at clubs and we'd go there and people wouldn't be prepared, or the dressing room would be filthy once again. So I'm standing there and these people have come from far, Detroit or whatever, and security guys are walking back and forth as if people are going to shoplift. It's so rude. Promoters are looking at the empty seats and waitresses are so bored, cash registers are going and it's against the force of music.”

 

Siberry came up with the idea for the tour after receiving e-mail requests from fans in out-of-the-way places. “I don't have a promoter that's interested in bringing me over, and I thought, 'Am I just never going to play there because someone's a gatekeeper, but people want me?’ So that moment I wrote an e-mail and said, 'If you miss me, invite me to your living room and find, say, 30 people at 30 dollars.’ ”

 

As she played, the sounds of the street filtered in through the open window. People walked past the house and whooped and cheered; a car alarm went off briefly. The noise added to what Siberry called the “magic” of the event. She sang about her mother, and about delinquent, unloved teenagers she observed while staying in an English village for a week.

 

Midway through When we are Queen, from 2008's Dragon Dreams, she abruptly stopped. “Next,” she said, as she clicked to another track on her iPod. By the end of her set, the crowd was transfixed; some were weeping. They applauded as she dashed off-stage, into the kitchen. Returning for an encore, she said, “If you want to hear a song, just shout it out.”

 

Someone immediately blurted out: “Everything Reminds me of my Dogs.” Someone else wanted her 1985 new-wave hit, One More Colour; one woman asked for Calling all Angels. Siberry obligingly played snippets of the first two and a full version of the third.

 

As she thanked the audience for coming, her thoughts turned to her journey home. “If anyone's driving up to Bethnal Green,” she said, “I didn't realize it was so far.”

 

For more information on tour details, visit www.janesiberry.com.

 

Special to The Globe and Mail

[jff]

I like this concept.

 

She played a house show/fundraiser for a dog rescue organization that my neighbor co-owns. So although the article makes it sould like she's focusing on Europe, she's already brought this type of performing to the states.

 

http://www.potcake.org/Jett.html

[cryptique]

Anders Parker and Will Johnson just concluded a tour of this nature.

[hardwood floor]

people have been doing house concerts and house tours for years

 

great idea but siberry certainly didn't invent it

 

in the last few years i've seen steve wynn, graham parker, jules shear and matt keating at a house in jersey

 

fantastic way to see music and terrific for the artists, who leave with a grand or so plus lots of merch sales

[tinnitus photography]

David Bazar did one last year as well, iirc.

[jonbama]

David Bazar is doing one right now too. For what it's worth, the Johnson and Parker living room show I saw was terrific.

[Lammycat]

JANE SIBERRY HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR A LITTLE WHILE K=NOW. STILL A COOL CONCEPT. I SAW TODD SNIDER AT ONE OF THESE IN BOULDER A FEW YEARS AGO. WHAT A GREAT NIGHT.

 

ed.

Oops, guess I should check the caps lock button pre-posting.

[tinnitus photography]

a good friend of mine has put on two of these shows at his place...Wreckless Eric in '06 and The Renderers last year.

[cryptique]

Wreckless Eric in '06

Wish I could have been there for that one. Wow.

[LouisvilleGreg]

I've toured with punk bands where every show for 2 months is in a living room or basement or kitchen or in a field, a squat, etc.

[W(TF)]

:thumbup

[tinnitus photography]

Wish I could have been there for that one. Wow.

 

he did some readings from his book, too. really fun evening.

 

 

more:

http://narlus.zenfolio.com/p423561013