Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Velden am Wörthersee / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: December 20, 2012
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: €30.00 (advance) / €34.00 (day of show)
Who doesn’t know Tanita Tikaram? Besides the one-of-a-kind color and charisma of her voice, two of her own evergreen hits, “Twist In My Sobriety” and “Good Tradition,” undoubtedly define her musical character and body of work. Hardly anyone on the planet hasn’t heard both. They’re radio evergreens – the kind of songs that have become planetary standards, practically folk music. And her debut “Ancient Heart,” home to both hits, sold over five million copies in 1988, launching Tanita into the ranks of the most recognizable female artists of her era anywhere on the planet.
After the release of “Everybody’s Angel” in 1991, Tanita stopped playing concert stages, so her visit to the cozy Austrian music haven Bluesiana Rock Cafe counted as an exclusive event! She only re-activated her live career last year.
The singer, whose folk-pop songs, built on her own personal paradigm, left a mark on a whole generation of eighties teenagers, is back with a new and highly successful studio album, “Can’t Go Back,” which she once again wrote entirely by herself and which came out this past July on Ear Music Records.
That night Bluesiana Rock Cafe was packed to the last corner. You don’t often see that many people in this club. The stage had also picked up some extra color in the backdrop, dressed up for the holidays with additional little bells, lanterns and other twinkling gadgets. Tanita really did bring a crowd to Bluesiana that would sooner go see Eros Ramazzotti than Eric Clapton.
Tanita, who you’d peg at 25, not her actual 43, walked on stage a little after nine in the evening, backed by three instrumentalists. She opened the acoustic set with the mega hit Good Tradition and instantly won over the crowd with her trademark alto falsetto, which held every single fan in the room in a kind of trance throughout the show, echoing a mildly sweet-and-bitter blend of genuine eroticism and the confessions of a broken heart. It’s hard to find a more genuine soul on a stage than Tanita’s. And it’s exactly that quality that makes her stage charisma so contagiously hypnotic.
The album »Can’t Go Back« was of course strongly represented in the repertoire! The songs from the new studio effort, One Kiss, Dusat On My Shoes, Silence, Rock & Roll, All Things To You and Can’t Go Back to close out the regular set, are more mature than ever in her career, flirting with Americana elements, and you can also feel hints of Country, Soul, Motown and Chess music.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, it was all over. The specifics of Tanita’s voice call for an incredibly soft, supple and delicate – almost »room-temperature tuned« instrumental accompaniment, which made it fascinating to watch the crowd’s reactions during the show. The concert demands total silence in the room, since even innocent quiet chatting was a real disturbance to listeners who wanted to follow the show closely. You were honestly better off keeping completely quiet, or you’d quickly draw the wrath of whoever was standing nearby. No matter where you watched from. Whether a meter from the stage or 20 meters away behind the bar.
That night Tanita cast a spell on everyone present. With her contagious and singular vocal approach, which pretty much does all the work on its own, she drove the packed Bluesiana to roaring ovations in grand style, and they just wouldn’t die down. Even after the closing standard White Christmas, a folk-song-level classic, the ovations didn’t calm down. So the singer walked out on stage one last time, all by herself, and with an acoustic guitar in hand played the classic Little Sister Leaving Town from the album »The Sweet Keeper« (1990), which finally soothed the fans.
Long after the show, Tanita kept signing CDs and posters for lovers of her music, under the watchful eye of a manager who looked like a lost evil uncle from a Harry Potter movie. The one rubbing her hands together the most was club owner Gudrun Kofler, who on top of great ticket sales had to make sure the perpetually thirsty crowd was properly watered during the show. It was once again one of those unforgettable, singular nights full of authenticity and pure-blooded musical magic at Bluesiana, the kind only the shamans of musical art can conjure, and that’s why we always love coming back to Bluesiana. Tanita Tikaram is definitely one of those one-of-a-kind musical sorceresses who, with her unique art-gravure sound and singular charisma, lodge themselves in the heart of everyone who catches her live.
Setlist
1. Good Tradition
2. World Outside Your Window
3. Dust On My Shoes
4. Play Me Again
5. He Likes The Sun
6. Science
7. Cathedral Song
8. Light Up The World
9. One Kiss
10. Valentine Heart
11. Rock N’ Roll
12. All Things To You
13. Twist In My Sobriety
14. Can’t Go Back
—encore I—
15. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
16. White Christmas
—encore II—
16. Little Sister Leaving Town
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