The Modern Age

As cold hearted as we have been known to be (”Ow! You hurt our feeling!”), we were shocked to find ourselves sobbing like a child during the Drag City Christmas Party at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday. The reason for the outward display of emotion while dressed in a scarf, sweater and hat? San Francisco’s very own Ms. Joanna Newsom aka “She Who Sings Like Lisa Simpson.”

Never before had we cried at a concert. So it was quite surprising when we started pouring out uncontrollable tears during Joanna’s entire second set. (The three bands on the bill, Joanna, Weird War, and (Smog) each played songs in rotation.) We had no idea why we were crying, and the only reason could be that we were so taken by the beauty of Joanna’s performance.

As she plucked the strings of the harp, and sang her fanciful lyrics in that child-like voice of hers, we searched for a word that could sum up what we were experiencing at that moment. It was pretty creepy because the only word we could think of was “magical”–as if some other worldly force was connecting us to the music. And it’s not even like we’d listened to Joanna’s music over and over–on the contrary, we’d only known one of her songs but liked it enough to check her out.

But weirdly enough, we haven’t seen anything quite so special as Joanna Newsom in a long time. On a personal note, she reminds us of the “beautiful weirdo” vibe that Rufus Wainwright gives off when he is performing. Perhaps it’s because Joanna seems so in the “zone” and happily playing in her own little world that makes her music so inviting and warm.

We can’t say enough about how good she was. We’d even go so far as saying it was some kind of mystical event in which Joanna had the entire audience in rapture. Everyone was just kind of holding their breath, just quietly listening, trying not to disrupt anything out of fear that somehow their own actions would disrupt the perfect balance of the room.

It was totally nuts. Joanna Newsom, fully recommended.

Here’s a link to an interview with Joanna we found on Brooklyn Vegan.

Other people who love Joanna: Scott, Janelle, Jenn, and M.

Need we also remind you that Joanna is on the cover of the latest issue of Venus? (We also have an interview with Sondre Lerche that appears in the issue as well.)

P.S. Joanna changed clothes and hair for each of her sets. Was Morrissey her stylist for the night?