Suzanne Vega

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Isle of Wight Festival 2006

Friday 9th to Sunday 11th June 2006
Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2DN, England MAP
w/e £85 (under-12yrs £42.50), £105 with camping (under-12yrs £52.50), campervans £60 - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 35,000

The two previous bands have come and gone as those not joining the exodus pull up in front of the stage to put down blankets and apply sun lotion and despite the ranks of festival goers on the roads there’s still a decent crowd to see Suzanne’s performance which she’s flown in from Los Angeles specially for.

‘Marlene on the Wall’ opens with a really heavy bassline from Mike Visceglia the only other person on stage with Suzanne and builds nicely. More people arrive and I realize that despite England kicking off in 25 minutes of Suzanne opening, there’s many that have given up on the effort of trying to find the match being aired off site or aren’t football fans or judging by the number of people joining in on ‘Some Journey’ Suzanne Vega fans.

They’re treated to a new song ‘Unbound’ which has Suzanne showing her lyricism and vocal power are still on form and is well received before ‘Left of Center’ and she still sounds as good with just a bass and her acoustic guitar as she did twenty years ago and behind those shades it would appear time has been good to Vega.

‘Blood Makes Noise’ has Mike really rumbling on bass and I’m surprised how well this duo work on such a big stage as IOW and would’ve liked to see if it would work so well on a packed 65,000 audience, I’d be inclined to think it wouldn’t work at all. It needs the quiet and intimacy a crowd a tenth that size provides.

‘Solitaire’ draws a huge applause and Suzanne smiles, she clearly likes being at this festival. I’m not sure but I don’t think she’s done many appearances in the UK since her last visit in 2003. ‘The Queen and The Soldier’ is still a tremendous tune in spite of the number of times I’ve heard it. ‘In Liverpool’ is fragile and this is already a great greatest hits set before ‘Luka’ drowns the sound of chanting from the footie and ‘Joe’s Diner’ is greeted with a huge cheer, made all the resounding by Beckham’s free kick. Clearly many of the audience have radios too.

A very polished performance by one of the forgotten stars of popular folk music who has crafted some well made tunes. Despite being hugely popular many years ago it would appear she’s happy to remain in the margins and the fringes. But I’d love to know how many people have an album by her I’ll wager it’s a fair number.