On this windy and chilly Saturday night (4 June), I welcome the warm and moody embrace enveloping me as I enter the atmospheric interior of The Tivoli (in Brisbane).
Tonight, the lavish historic venue is hosting a single act, Joan As Police Woman (Joan Wasser). That's right with nada no support acts.Wasser is on an international tour performing favourites to fans as well as promoting her latest album 'The Solution Is Restless'.
Accompanied by her band of exemplary musicians, Parker Kindred (drums), Eric Lane (keyboards) and Benjamin Lazar Davis (bass, guitar, percussion, piano), tonight is their last Australian show before gracing the shores of New Zealand.
In anticipation of the jazz-style ambience and two-part format for tonight's show, there are red chairs lining the curved balcony rail of the mezzanine and placed in rows across the entire parquetry dance floor in front of the darkened stage filled with instruments including piano, drum kit, guitars, two-tiered electronic keyboard, guitars, and an array of handheld and standing percussive instruments.
Image © Clea-marie Thorne
I notice the placement of the piano with its ivories visible to the crowd and drum kit positioned side on to the crowd. While somewhat teasing punters with a limited view of Wasser on keys and Kindred at the tubs, this arrangement seems to have been creatively staged to replicate a studio room – one see-through wall for punters to voyeuristically watch the musicians jam.
Deliberate or not, I like it and with her small Roland adorned with tambourine and what I think may be claves homed in a fluoro crocheted bag, guitar and mic and stand awaiting their mistress centre stage – I know we will be getting a good deal of full-frontal action. Stop it!
Punters are arriving, unhurried and seemingly chill and there is a low din of conversation as the venue accepts a decent crowd.
While there are some attendees below the age of 30, it is a very chill and relaxed crowd compared to some boisterous audiences the walls of this fine establishment sees.
I'm very excited to be here to experience Wasser performing live and as we are warned to take to our seats, I verbalise my feelings with a fellow punter. In turn he whispers that he's looking forward to "falling in love with Joan all over again" as he moves to take his seat closer to the stage.
I smiled at his words – Wasser knows how to romance us with her presence, light soul soaring pipes and song-writing abilities.
Image © Clea-marie Thorne
We cheer as the band members take their places. Joan starts off at the piano and although she has her back to us, we hold our breath as the intro to 'Get My Bearings' begins.
Goosebumps ensue with her dreamy, sweet tones and I swear they are rising and falling in time with the gentle but busy percussion rippling the air around us. Continuing at the piano for 'Take Me To Your Leader' with its more upbeat tempo, the jamming vibe I get earlier on is cemented even before Wasser comes before us at centre stage for 'Masquerade'.
Looking smart in perfectly mismatched prints of her jacket and pants, which is adding to the chaos we know can come with certain songs or components that we will hear tonight.
I hold my breath again. 'Sweet Thing'. This has to be my favourite track or medley track from Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs' that never got the early recognition or understanding it deserved. I am smiling as Wasser nails it and I bet Bowie would be too – what a damn-fine tribute and on par with the original. I am a huge Bowie fan.
The soaring vocals in 'Geometry Of You', another off her new album, are seriously compelling against its grooves. "How do you like it?" Well, Wasser we love it! It has all the right angles.
Another cover 'I Keep Forgetting' (Michael McDonald) is making bodies sway in seats. For Wasser's own music, you listen and think, absorb some more of the lyrics and music, and then think again, over and over.
This cover, however, gave us license to sing-along. I did too albeit softly and low – I do not want the fans in this crowd frowning at my flat and off-key vocals, although I notice quite a few are doing the same as me and so am smiling again.
Hey! Davis takes a seat centre stage between Wasser's keys and mic and gets his jam on by playing guitar while shaking from his curly locks held hostage under his hat, all the way down to his toes that are making his fluoro shoelaces flop about. Definitely vibing his energy to the crowd and I can assure you it is a cover we will not be forgetting anytime soon.
Image © Clea-marie Thorne
With 'Warning Bell' and 'Steed' rounding out the set, this cohesive combination of artists is taking us up to glide on the thermals of glorious pipes and exquisite beats and rhythms all the way to interval.
Wasser has an internal music compass that enables her to effortlessly navigate music styles from song to song, and even within songs without falter. It is also Wasser's between-song banter and playfulness that endear her to us – she is telling us to get a round of Bloody Marys with the weird stuff in them and go have some sex during intermission.
The band pipes up about the last comment and Wasser retorts that their call is fair enough, after all it is only the first set. She sighs and then says: "Be bad, just be bad."
Intermission sees more sales at the merch stand, drinks ordered at the bar and conversation between punters. I'm just waiting at my seat for round two! Ding, ding, let's do this.
In no time, they're welcomed back on stage and we get our second helping starting with 'Let It Be You' from the album of the same name, and another from the new album 'Enter The Dragon' before the moving arrangement of 'Feed The Light' with Davis now jumping on ivories.
At the end of the song a punter tells Wasser "it's a really beautiful song" to which she replied: "Thank you. That's all I really care about." I believe her.
Image © Clea-marie Thorne
'Tell Me', another track from her album 'Damned Devotion', has us in rapture before 'Dinner Date' and the quirky sounds of 'Barbarian' with its high harmonies and sense of displacement.
I have to say Wasser allows her band members to shine in their own right – they really work as a single organism to generate intricate instrumentation, lilting and easy melodies and a range of rhythms that can make you feel comfortable one minute or awkward the next, in complement or contrast to the confronting and honest lyrics.
'Why Can't We Live Together', a Timmy Thomas cover, was also performed in absolute homage and exquisite perfection. Many more in the crowd are joining in with song and body movements. This late in the set, I was brave – I was channelling my own Angie Dickinson and singing bravely and loudly and didn't care who heard!
Well it came time for the end of the second set and jazz brunch was over. Or was it? Yeah? Nah? Wasser tells the crowd that the shipment of vinyl they have is just killing their backs and they cannot possibly take it to New Zealand – coaxing punters to "buy it all" to help them out and lighten their load. Many punters waved their copies for her to see.
With a raucous call for one more song – we got more than that. The music and poetry of 'Real Life' and 'Start Of My Heart' are casting a spell in the air above us that drops threads of deep emotion to settle way down in our bones.
Image © Clea-marie Thorne
Now Wasser and the band are giving us that "one more song" for real, as they are casting their final enchantment with 'The Magic' and I am feeling I will be forever spellbound by Joan As Police Woman.
Joan As Police Woman may have been excited to tour Australia again and punters without a doubt ecstatic that she returned. The jam-like performance added a dimension of energy that cannot be had from the well-crafted recordings and is truly indescribable to those not in attendance tonight.
However, the punter I met earlier tonight did a good job at predicting the outcome and I bet there is not a single entity in the venue that didn't "fall in love with Joan all over again". I know I did.
More photos from the show.
