5/25/03 - Paris, France, La Cigale

5/25/03 - Paris, France, La Cigale

Setlist (incomplete):
Intro - 0:56
Empty Shell - 4:35 
Willie - 1:50 
Willie - 4:08 
Names - 5:25 
Norma Jean - 1:26
Mama, You Got A Daughter - 2:43
Why - 4:50
Islands - 1:52
Good Woman - 9:31
I Dont Blame You - 4:28
Sad, Sad Song - 4:35
Remember Me - Try Me - I've Been Loving You Too Long - These Arms Of Mine Medley - 7:43
Teaches Of Peaches - 3:30 
Colors And The Kids - 0:46
Rockets - 6:49
Fool - 8:03
Knockin On Heavens Door - 7:56
Total Time - 81:06

This was the 59th performance of the tour. There is a decent recording of this concert. My copy which appears to be incomplete is mp3, but doesnt include "Knockin' On Heavens Door".



Matador Forum Member Review

Personal Background: Several months ago I visited a friend in Germany and on that occasion he played me his new musical discoveries, among them "Satisfaction" from the cover album. Shortly after I bought the "Moon Pix" and the "The Covers Record". Until today I have not bought or listened to the new album.

The Venue: The concert happened to be at "La Cigale", near the Montmartre and the Parisian red-light district of "Pigalle". "La Cigale" was originally a cabaret theater founded in 1887 and therefore it is typically furnished with comfortable red seats, a gallery and some art nouveau reminiscents. If I am not completely mistaken, the concert was nearly sold out.

The Music: It was very laid-back and folk-oriented. Throughout the concert I could recognize solely two songs (two cover versions of "Knocking on heaven's door" & "Try me"), so I can only assume that most of the concert material stemmed from her new album or was maybe released on other albums. Marshall started the concert with a handful of solo songs accompanied only by herself either on guitar or piano. Initially I was thrilled because the live songs carried perfectly the same melancholic mood of her cover album, and her voice, although evidently roughed up by a lot of recent concerts, was as beautiful as I expected it to be.

The mood did not change when her band entered the stage. A violonist underlined the folky character of the songs, and besides one rather unsuccessful attempt of an up-tempo song, the band stuck to slow or mid-tempo songs. The concert was concluded as it had been started, with Marshall alone on the guitar. No encore aongs were given, but at this stage I would have been surprised if she had done so.

The psycho-drama sideshow: Is it my advanced age (37) or my own present sentimental, melancholic mood that for the first time in my life it happened that I found myself to be concerned about the emotional and mental stability of the performing artist during a concert?

I have seen drunk and excentric musicians before, but there was something worrying in Marshall's in-between-songs-psycho-dramas, which consisted mostly of either incoherently talking to real or imagined friends of hers in the audience, drinking too much French (?) wine, making immature jokes and displaying sometimes an irritating body language and helpless gestures. The more the concert progressed, the longer the breaks between the songs became and the more I was afraid that Marshall would not be able to finish her performance in a somewhat approriate manner.

Miraculously during the later phase of the concert, when she appeared to fade slowly but completely away, she still managed to be concentrated and focused on her music, as soon as she and the band actually began to play. Nevertheless as soon as a song was finished, the next psychological mini drama began to unfold before the audience.

The symptomatic scene of the evening: After a beautiful sung ballad Marshall collapses on her stool, slumpes into a heap and holding her head with both arms. One comes to think, "Girl, what is going on with you?“