Hi List,


What can I add about this performance ? It was amazing indeed, just as
amazing as it was unexpected...

With every new album, we're used to Polly saying that the new record is
completely different from the previous ones, that she's going exactly in the
opposite direction... This time, it's more accurate than it's ever been.

It's weird, because for the moment I was puzzled about the few excerpts I
heard. I felt like these songs would take a long time to grow on me, the
vocals being unusually high for her...
But believe me, when you see her doing these songs live a few feet from you,
at no time you're making idle considerations on whether they're typical PJH
songs or not, or on how they will fit in her collection of songs.You're not
making considerations on anything at all actually. They're breathtaking.

They're glaringly obvious.


On a lighter note, I truly enjoyed the contrast between her costume, the
certain solemnity floating in the studio, and her attitude between songs,
joking before doing "Silence" for the third time, telling that we'll soon
know this song very well, and that it was giving her the opportunity to
practise, if I remember well.
I'm also thinking about some details, like the way she was sitting to play
the zither, apparently disturbed by the volume on her victorian dress : she
took the posture of a cello player... but with a shorter instrument, the
effect was quite strange.
It's the contrasts we're used to, and attached to, with her, after all.


Stéphanie



----- Message d'origine -----
De : "Mélanie Fazi" <fazimel@...>
À : <PollyJean@yahoogroups.com>
Envoyé : mardi 11 septembre 2007 23:20
Objet : [PollyJean] Just came back from...


... the recording of a TV session for a French programme
called "L'album de la semaine", on Canal+, which features live
versions of songs from one particular album. As I suppose you can
guess, the album was "White Chalk". So we got to see Polly playing
solo in a studio that's much smaller than most venues where I've
seen her, even though we were a little further from the stage than
I'm used to. The crowd was really small, so I feel incredibly lucky
to have been there, especially as there are no tour dates yet.

It was amazing. She played most songs on the piano, only switching
to the guitar for "The Piano" (funnily enough) and to another
instrument (maybe the zither mentioned in Wire?) for "Grow Grow
Grow". "The Mountain" and "Silence" (which she had to do three times
due to a technical problem -- not that anyone complained about that)
actually gave me goosebumps. She was wearing the same white dress
we've seen on recent pictures and live videos and seemed quite
relaxed, even joking about the technical problems (it must not be
that easy to relax when you have several huge cameras revolving
around you). It was strange to actually see the decorated piano I'd
glimpsed on various videos, with the electric lights and all. It all
looks really good on stage. Before the show, I heard some grumpy
people in the crowd complaining that it might be boring if she only
stuck to the piano and didn't do any old numbers -- it definitely
wasn't.

I'm not sure about the order, but she did the following songs:

The Devil
Grow Grow Grow
Silence
When Under Ether
White Chalk
The Piano
The Mountain

I'm not sure when they're supposed to appear on Canal+ (one song a
day, all on the same week) but they will probably end up on YouTube
sooner or later. You should definitely check this out.

Mélanie





Yahoo! Groups Links