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Sinead Live August 9th 1997, Seattle (WA) USA, Pier 62/63

Sinead O'Connor: no anger, but plenty of power

by Tom Phalen

Special to The Seattle Times

It was eight years ago that Sinead O'Connor first played Seattle. It was at Parker's on Aurora and she was young, bald and angry. The set she delivered was short and confrontational. There was no encore.

Between then and now O'Connor's meteoric pop-music ascent has stalled, dipped, fallen, refired, plateaued and now seems to be circling this planet again. O'Connor isn't a brief shooting star but a comet burning on the horizon. She will not go away despite the calamities she's suffered from herself and others. Her music has made her constant.

The 30-year-old singer who performed at the Pier Saturday was quiet and smiling. There was a short, attractive covering of chestnut hair on her pate and even in green fatigue shorts she was more than fetching. She didn't address the capacity audience - a goodly portion of it women with their men in tow - except to offer an up-squeaked "Thank-YOU!" at the end of every song. There were no tirades, political rants or heart-rending speeches, even though the warships present in Puget Sound might have made a perfect backdrop. The closest she came to a political statement was in one of her encore numbers, "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley.

"Have no fear of atomic energy," she sang resolutely, " 'cause none of them can stop the time . . . Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom, that's all I have ever had, Redemption Songs." It was as political as the night ever got. The rest of her 90 minutes of singing was about love, families broken and mended, and hope.

O'Connor's performance was drawn mostly from her more recent work, the new six-song EP "Gospel Oak" and her the 1994 release "Universal Mother." She did little from 1990's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," although some of the night's most powerful moments, including the wrenching, set-concluding "Last Day of Our Acquaintance," were from that release.

Although each song was delivered with intensity and passion, O'Connor and her band tended to keep everything at the same level. There weren't any lows, but there were few really dramatic highs, those moments when the singer cut loose with her range-defying wail as she did at the end of "Acquaintance," where she is emotionally and legally cut from a former lover. It was stunning, probably made more so because it came at the end of the set.

But waiting for that moment was not wasted. O'Connor's deliberate setup was very satisfying, both her performance - she swayed and stepped with style and strength - and the support of her complementary but unobtrusive six-piece band.

But the show's most arresting feature was ultimately the singing, not only O'Connor's but also her backup vocalists The Screaming Orphans, who as a four-piece band had boldly opened the show. The Orphans are the Diver sisters of Donegal, Ireland, and their sibling connection made their singing that much more formidable. When the five were joined vocally by guitarist Justin Adams, pianist Carol Isaacs and bassist Clare Kenny on the almost overwhelming a cappella "In This Heart," it proved O'Connor needed only the human instruments to make her personal and political points.

"Nothing Compares 2 U," O'Connor's early hit, was not included. It wasn't necessary.

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From: Carcky@aol.com (ERIN)

First I have to say that the first night in Seattle was tainted for me by the reappearence of my childhood love and his current girlfriend, and the fact that they were 2 feet in front of me for the whole show. Other than that, the show was great. I must agree with what someone said earlier about the lyrical value of the Screaming Orphans. I really enjoyed the music and their amazing vocals, but I almost cringed when I heard some of the words-especially the drummer's solo-anyone who's seen the show knows what I'm talking about. The sisters sang about 5 songs, and most of the crowd really warmed up to them (the Pier was set up to hold 4 thousand, I heard someone say, and it was all general admission).

When sinead finally came out, about a half hour later, she was met with a deafening roar from the congregation. She shyly bobbed he head back and forth, as if trying to dodge the screams and applause, and managed some "thank you"s. She was wearing a light purple top that tied at the neck and midriff, and green fatigues that were reinforced with leather on the rear and knees (contrary to the posted review, they were long pants and not shorts). I won't list the songs and their order, because the setlist was identical to the others I've seen posted, even down to the encore. She spoke very little throughout the show-only saying "Thank Yooooouuu" with the latter word rising in an impossible shriekish-whine that could only have been part of an ongoing joke with some of the crew- I'll just leave it at that. The only other thing that may have been noteworthy (or not) was that in the second or third line of her last encore song "He Moved Through the Fair," her voice must have imperceptibly broken, as she paused, cleared her throat a little, and said, "Sorry". She then picked up the note she dropped and finished the song without having lost any of the disquieting fervor that she gives it. It was an endearing moment, as four thousand of us inwardly praised her humility and the glimpse of humanity we'd been given of her. It also speaks for her ongoing desire to acheive perfection in her art.