July 08, 2004 - 2:52 AM

Seeing Sarah Slean

Once again, Sarah Slean has slain me. I missed her first show at Genghis Cohen on Tuesday because I wanted to see Adrianne and Rachael Sage, but luckily, Sarah had a show tonight at The Hotel Cafe. Also on the bill was Tracy Bonham, who you might remember by her song "Mother, Mother" which was an alternative rock radio hit in the mid 90's (and really, her album was a fine example of that mid 90's Modern Rock sound...brash, punchy with a chewy core of melodic pop). Tracy, who I believe originally hails from Boston, had her mother out here for the show, and puller her up on stage for a few songs to sing harmony; also backing her up on a few songs were Boston rock scene stalwarts Jack Dragonetti and Blake Hazard. A pleasant surprise seeing them in L.A.

But back to Slean. She gave me a warm smile of recognition when I entered the club and walked past her table to get a spot towards the front. There seemed to be a handful of people there just to see her as well as a smattering of others who were there to see Tracy. Many of the latter went up to Sarah after her too short set (only 30 minutes) and praised her effusively. She was able to play an upright piano instead of the usual electronic keyboard that just doesn't do her music justice, and that was a nice treat. A trained classical pianist, her songs are infused with classical tendencies, but they also contain torch balladry and cabaret stylings mixed with Tori Amos-ish quirky, tortured pop musings.

I'm not sure why she's in town for a month since she's from Toronto, but I'm going to take advantage of the many shows she's doing around here during July. She does have an album coming out on Warner in Canada in September, and her manager was handing out free promotional copies of the full album tonight. Listening to it after the show, I think that it's going to fight very strongly to claim the number one album spot in my year-end list for 2004. It's co-produced and engineered by Peter Prilesnik, the man behind Sarah Harmer's 2000 album You Were Here, which was my favorite album of that year. Interestingly, the first time I saw Sarah Harmer and the last time I saw Sarah Slean (until January of this year) was in 2000 when they were touring the East Coast together with another singer-songwriter named Leslie Feist, and they played a handful of house-concerts in the Boston area as well as Brandeis University. Those were some sweet shows.

If you're interested in seeing Sarah at least once this month, drop me a note.

Now Listening To : Sarah Slean-Day One
Random Thought : Slean mentioned immediately developing a crush on a cello player during her days at music school. hee hee.

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