I had the pleasure last week of seeing Suzanne Vega perform in a small intimate club The Regatta Club with just her acoustic guitar and her bass player. When the nice young girl who sat next to me for the show joined Vega on stage, I also found out that Suzanne Vega has a daughter; Ruby Floom. Ruby joined her mother for a few songs to sing backing vocals and she played bells on Solitude. Between those songs, she sat next to me and watched her mom perform a great show in front of a group of 30 or so people. If you don't get a chance to see Suzanne Vega perform live, you would do well to pick up this DVD to capture the live sound of Vega. I purchased this DVD at her club show.

If you enjoyed songs like My Name is Luka, Solitude Standing or Caramel the title song to the movie Closer, I believe that you will be glad you bought this.

This concert is quite recent, it's Suzanne Vega's second performance at the Montreaux Jazz Festival from 2004. Instead of her daughter, Ruby, Vega performs with her whole band, a drummer, bass player and guitar player. She performed songs from her first album up to recent releases. Even if the last album you bought was her popular sophomore album Solitude Standing, you will be pleased to hear that she hasn't stopped recording great music.

Performance / Set List Vega starts the show off with 99.9 F and Marlene on the Wall two very good songs. The third song, I immediately recognized because it was the haunting song played in the trailers for Closer. I hadn't realized that it was Suzanne Vega that sang the haunting Caramel and it is my new favorite Vega song. A quick tale that reminded me in topic anyway of The Bangles Hero Takes a Fall was When Heroes go Down a fast paced song about fall from grace. Gypsy is preceded by the story of the song by Vega. She explains that it is about a boy that she met as a camp counseler when she was only 18. This was the song that she wrote for him. I enjoyed hearing it. This was followed by a response song to Rod Stewart's Maggie May, the song (I'll Never Be Your) Maggie May. I enjoyed Penitent but on Solitaire, although I liked the guitar players notes between verses, I enjoyed the simpler version she played in the night club with her daughter Ruby playing the bells. It's a simple song about the addiction of that PC bundled game, Solitaire! the jack on the queen, and the ten on the jack.

I also enjoyed that like at her club show, she chats with the audience and listens to them, and banters a lot about the songs she performs.

Left of Center shows the power of Vega's voice in which she just sing talks the song, using her voice as an instrument. One of the crowd favorites, both at the club I saw her at, and here in this show was The Queen and the Soldier a rather sad song. Fans of The Who should enjoy her emotional cover of Behind Blue Eyes. I enjoyed her cover and felt she really did it justice. She performs two of her early songs next, her early hit Solitude Standing and Blood Makes Noise. Solitude is a song she performs with a full band, she wouldn't do it in her club show without a full band. Blood Makes Noise is another song in which Vega uses her voice as an instrument, sing talking the lyrics acompanied by a bass line.

In Liverpool is a pop sort of sounding song that she followed with perhaps her biggest hit Luka, her song about child abuse. Her most covered tune Tom's Diner was sung acapella next. I learned from Suzanne Vega's web site that this song is THE song used to test MP3 compression, and the song has been covered 30 times! (the latest cover by Danger Mouse). The audience all joined in with the da da duh da da da. Her show at Montreaux closes with Calypso and Have You Met Miss Jones.

Three Bonus Tracks are included from her previous show at Montreaux back in 2000, Small Blue Thing ( a great little song), Room off the Street and Knight Moves.

Sound Quality Sound quality is excellent, a full five stars. It's tough to mix a live concert and make the gentle acoustic guitar and soft voice of Suzanne Vega remain centered and audible, but this concert does so perfectly. The drums, bass and guitar remain firmly in the supporting position of Vega's voice and never overpower her. When she sings acapella or just strums her guitar you can hear each breathe and note.

The concert is offered in Stereo, Dolby Digital Surround or DTS 5.1. I listened to the show in DTS. Surround channels have a good amount of detail in them, and the stage has a great spatial quality to it, and bass response is very good.

Video Quality YES, this was recorded in high quality wide screen format, no letterboxing or 4:3 format here, just a great ready for wide screen movie screen 16:9 format with great lighting and great camera work. Although most of the time the cameras focus on Vega's face and fingers on her acoustic guitar, we do get to see the rest of the band, and a few shots of the delighted audience.

Summary All in all, this is a great concert, and if you are a fan of Suzanne Vega and missed her live, or in Virtual Reality's Second Life (yes, Suzanne Vega is the first performer to perform a virtual live concert in the popular Second Life online game), Live at Montreux 2004 is a great concert DVD to pick up. This really captured what Suzanne Vega is like live. I am both glad I saw her at the Regatta, and that I picked up this DVD. Maybe one day her daughter, Ruby, will be a singer too, although when I asked her if she wanted to be, she said she wasn't sure.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD