Vienna Teng, September 23rd, 2003
Sep 26 '03
The Bottom Line The Bottom Line says - Live music is the best. Go check out a band, any band, tonight!
It is concert week here at Team Freak Headquarters. On Tuesday, September 23rd, my girlfriend and I began a marathon week of concert-going: three shows in four nights, starting with Vienna Teng, at Denver's Soiled Dove.
Vienna Teng is a young, brilliant pianist of Asian parentage. She composed the demo's for her debut album, Waking Hour, while attending Stanford University. After stumbling upon Waking Hour quite by accident, we found ourselves adding it to the heavy rotation list in our home. When we learned Denver was a stop on her solo tour, we quickly added the tickets to our ever-growing stack of concert and sporting event tickets.
We arrived as the doors opened, which is a bit of a change for us - normally we arrive fairly early for a bit of pre-concert fun at some nearby watering hole or other. Mindful of the week ahead, with payday still looming in the distance, we decided to budget ourselves, and skip the early festivities. Instead, we managed to get a table, front and center, where we ordered a few drinks from our wonderful server, Allison.
The Soiled Dove is a rather intimate live music setting, with all tables forming an arc around the stage. We sat for awhile and watched the crowd trickle in, until we struck up a conversation with the leader of the opening act, The Melanie Susuras Band (MSB). Because she rides mountain bikes with a guy I sometimes ride with, I have known about Melanie for a couple of years, yet this was my first chance to meet her and see her live. We all had a nice little talk about mountain biking, tattoos, and music.
Melanie and her band took the stage and put on a rather enjoyable set of acoustically tinged folk rock. Rather than using drums, drummer David Derby kept the rhythm with congas, which I felt was a nice touch. Guitarist Eddie Garcia played a very clean electric guitar, alternately keeping rhythm with Melanie's acoustic, and breaking into wonderful, riveting solo's. Bassist Tony Thompson was steady throughout, getting downright funky when needed.
As I watched, I kept thinking that MSB would do well playing ski towns, for the band sounded very much like what I hear apres ski. Phil, my girlfriend's brother, said he got an Indigo Girls vibe from them. My girlfriend detected a bit of Melissa Etheridge, at least vocally. The band was quite good, and we are looking forward to catching them again. Did I mention that Melanie is a mountain biker? This alone makes her very cool....
Meanwhile, during MSB's set, Vienna Teng had slipped into the bar, sitting in the back, enjoying the show. Earlier, my resourceful girlfriend had stolen a Teng poster from the wall, and we got Vienna to sign it for us as she sat there.
I have used the word intimate already for this review, but it suits this show well. For Vienna Teng's performance on this tour is very comfortable. There is no band, just Vienna up there, playing a Yamaha keyboard programmed to sound like a piano. She tells nice, sometimes humorous stories about why she wrote certain songs, and apologizes for writing mostly gloomy, depressing material. Interestingly, while her vocals are quite angelic, her speaking voice is a fairly deep, which threw me off a bit, since I had never heard her speak.
After hearing some of Teng's stories, I realized I was way off in some of my interpretations of her material. For instance, I assumed Daughter was about a mother and daughter. We were informed, however, the dramatic, moving (my girlfriend claims she was moved to tears during this one) song is about her father. Teng said she began writing from her point of view, but as she wrote, the song twisted into her father's point of view. Eventually, she said, she became confused about who's point of view the song is actually from, so she stopped worrying about it and kept writing. Whatever point of view it's from, Daughter is a beautiful song, and was a highlight of the show.
Gravity featured some nifty playing from Teng, as she plays in some odd time that is far beyond my comprehension. Phil, himself a pianist, picked up on it, however. Vienna explained that before moving to America, her parents were very fond of folk-pop singers such as James Taylor, Carole King, and John Denver, and brought those albums over with them. She grew up listening to such music, particularly John Denver. She then played a nice piano version of Denver's Annie's Song. After, she explained she wanted to write an Annie's Song-type ballad for her boyfriend, and wrote Eric's Song. The result? He liked it, but he likes Annie's Song better. She played Eric's Song anyway, treating us to a lovely piano ballad with some gorgeous vocal work.
While I did not catch the name of the tune, (I did not recognize it as one I had heard,) one of the highlights of the show was a song Vienna sang in Mandarin. This was very cool to witness - personally, I don't mind hearing songs performed in other languages, and it added a bit of flavor to the show. The most requested song of the evening was Unwritten Letter # 1, otherwise known as the tango song. Vienna said she planned on playing it, but saved it for the end, because it is one of her few upbeat songs, not to mention, it takes a bit more work for her to play. The tango song received a very enthusiastic response from the crowd, and it was quite fun to watch her play it.
Overall, this was a wonderful show, worthy of our attendance. We saw a groovy opening act, and were treated to an evening of beautiful piano music. We also got to hear a couple new songs, as Vienna wanted to try out some material she is considering for her next release. We got to chat with her for a few minutes after the show. She was very nice, and seemed genuinely pleased that people came out on a Tuesday evening, just to watch her play. If you are a fan of piano music, or female vocals, or both, you might want to catch a Vienna Teng show as she continues this tour. We are glad we did.
For related reviews:
Waking Hour
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