All About Tracy Chapman, since 2001.

2008 – Our Bright Future Tour – December 08, Dublin, Olympia Theatre

[singlepic=1074,400,268,left] SETLIST (Submitted by Kevin)

01. Say Hallelujah
02. Mountains O’ Things
03. For My Lover
04. Sing For You
05. Across the Lines
06. A Theory
07. The Promise
08. Subcity
09. Fast Car
10. Proud Mary (Creedance Clearwater cover)
11. Telling Stories
12. Give Me One Reason
13. House Of The Rising Sun
14. Save Us All
15. Baby Can I Hold You
16. Talking ‘Bout A Revolution

Encore
17. For You
18. She’s Got A Ticket

CONCERT REVIEW

Grinning all the way to the encore

Published by Irish Independent on Thu 11 Dec 2008

Tracy Chapman is full of surprises tonight.

For one thing, she hardly stops smiling, even while performing songs which, on paper at least, read like a miserablist’s manifesto. She’s also chatty and relaxed — sipping tea and spinning anecdotes with lightly worn charm. You start to wonder if a look-alike hasn’t locked the real Chapman in a closet and slipped on stage instead.

Chapman is playing her first solo acoustic tour in over a decade.

She starts with a recent track, a religious-tinged shout of acclamation, ‘Say Hallelujah’. She soon slips into greatest hits mode, explaining that ‘Across The Lines’, from her 1988 debut, was inspired by the racially divided Cleveland of her youth and bashing out an effervescent ‘Subcity’ on electric guitar.

Some drunken party-crashers shouted for ‘Fast Car’, which propelled Chapman from the folk clubs of Boston to the international stage. She delivers with a tender intensity that makes the song feel fresh despite its over familiarity.

Homage

She pays homage to the R ‘n’ B of her youth on a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Proud Mary’ before re-imagining ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ as a paean to New Orleans and an admonish-ment of the establishment that left the city to drown.

For the encore, she leads the audience through the girl-power singalong of ‘She’s Got Her Ticket’.

By the close, the room is on its feet and Chapman is grinning; her reputation as acoustic pop’s foremost misery guts demolished.

INFOS

This concert was part of the Small Places Tour 2008 for Amnesty International

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Comments 3
  1. Tracey was amazing in the Olympia last night (Dec 7th 2008). Such beautiful music and such compelling lyrics. The audiance, however were a disgrace. We were next to a very drunk group of people who persisted in barracking, shouting and singing loudly and badly. They did a very good job of spoiling the whole night for everyone! Security should have chucked the whole lot out but there was noone in sight. It says a lot about a venue like the Olympia to allow a group like that to spoil an evening for everyone.

  2. Amazing concert, but very strange audience…when Tracy mentioned she had a cold, one charmer yelled “I’ll warm you up Tracy. I’m HOT”…

  3. A fabulous concert. Tracy sang all the songs the audience wanted to hear. Soul just pours out of her. Very disappointing crowd, usually at Tracy’s concert you can hear a pin drop, but not last night. Why did they not stay in the pub and leave the concert to her real fans. I have to say The Olympia is still the best venue as it is so intimate.

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