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June 14, 1997 The Fleadh - Randall's Island - New York City

set List
The Emperor's New Clothes
You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart
I am Stretched on Your Grave
This IS a Rebel Song
John, I love You
This is to Mother You
Petit Poulet
Thank You For Hearing Me
The last day of our Acquaintance
In This Heart
Fire on Babylon
Encore;
He Moved Through the Fair

From: Someone

Davy Spillane joined the band for the Fleadh and improvised his way through the set. I couldn't hear much of what he played but I did hear him playing some great stuff on ' Thank You For Hearing Me' There were horrible technical problems at this show with a nasty buzzing noise in everyone's monitors for the entire show due to differences in power supplies running at 110 and 220 volts. Sinead's set was the first one up with the lights and this made the problem ten times worse. They managed to control the problems in Sinead's monitors but everyone else had a very bad time up there. The front of house sound engineer was really unhappy with the sound as well.

From: Artemisia Gentileschi <kak2395@is4.nyu.edu>

This is my official review of Sinead's Fleadh show, June 14.

Sinead opened with a new arrangement of The Emperor's New Clothes. It rocked. Then she did Thief of Your Heart, which also rocked. Then she did a powerful Stretched On Your Grave, where she sang the first verse alone, then was joined by that jammin' beat for the rest of the song. Then she gave a beautiful This IS a Rebel Song, much like the album version. The she did John I Love You, which lacked the piano charm and stark emotional power of the album version, but, as this is one of my favorites, still rocked. This is to Mother You was much like her Letterman performance, but she allowed her vocals to soar more here. Petit Poulet rocked much harder than the album version. In This Heart made me roll my eyes, but by the time she was through, the harmonizing, far more beautiful than the UM version, had me in a trance. Thank You for Hearing Me flowed through the world, with the help of some sort of echo mic. It was a great sing along number. Then she did the ultimate sing along number, Last Day of Our Acquaintance. This disappointed. She omitted the powerful extra concert verse ("You were no liferaft to me...") and didn't make one angry or emotional face. It seemed very much like she was going through the motions, not the emotions. Fire On Babylon was perhaps the highlight. Her vocals were loud, high, and powerful. She closed with He Moved Through the Fair, which was a sensation, the best vocals of the evening. I was lucky to be standing about five feet back from the fence that separates us from the stage (this area, unfortunately, was the mosh pit during the Saw Doctors and I'm a little bruised...I went through a lot of shit for a lot of hours to see Sinead from there!). I couldn't really jam to her groove because there wasn't a square inch to any side of me. Although this set left me euphoric, I have some big complaints. She didn't seem too into it to me. I mean, the only Sinead show I've seen before this is the Year of the Horse video, and on that one she gets angry, she grabs a guitar and throws herself around the stage. Last night, she did some swaying back and forth, but no real movement. She didn't once pick up a guitar! And she didn't sing a thing from the very important album, The Lion and The Cobra. And no Troy. If she had just said, "I remember it...," the stadium would've gone nuts. And I think she knows that.

She was very cute however. She wore her Letterman outfit. Most've what she said was in a cutesy voice that I could comprehend. She said: "Why are Irish jokes so silly? So the English can understand them." Then she told a joke that I didn't hear all of.

Kevin Kochanski

From: Papioanou@aol.com
To anyone who cares:

I just saw Sinead live for the first time at Randall's Island tonight and now feel that my life is fully complete . . . After reading all these Sinead messages, I don't think I can come up with any new metaphors or adjectives to escribe Sinead's brilliant and magical charm. Because I was as close to the stage as possible, it was hard to get an accurate reading of the crowd's reaction but from where I was I think it was positive (besides the couple water bottles that went flying across the stage). I found it hard to belive that people were chatting away between one another during some of her most beautiful songs such as the Lark Song. Other than those surprises, she appeared to be welcomed by a notoriously tough New York City crowd with warm approval. She performed, and not necessarily in this order (I also don't know if these titles are exactly right . . . I just know them by track numbers on a cd),

Emperor's New Clothes, Last Day of Our Acquaintance, This IS A Rebel Song, Lark Song (??), He Moved Through the Fair, Fire on Babylon, Thief of My Heart, Petit Poulet, This is to Mother You, and John I Love You.

It is true that she has changed remarkably since her early years. After watching the Jerusalem live video off of the U.S. GO/video release, it was possible to believe that someone who doesn't know Sinead well would have thought the artist in the video was not the one on stage at Randall's Island. Ah well, she still "sang in her chains like the sea."

John

After seeing Sinead every time she appeared on the East Coast I was in for a show unlike any other. Her appearance was beautiful. She was wearing the same outfit that she was wearing at the David Letterman show and her hair and make-up was done. However, it seemed she was unable to connect with such a massive audience. The majority of people who were there were also there for the festival like atmosphere. Sinead is a very intimate performer and only the ones who paid attention were able to benefit from her performance. She didn't completely capture the crowd in the massive stadium. The reaction was positive but somewhat quiet. The songs were brief and she didn't ever fully let go. She didn't seem nervous but she didn't seem into it. The Irish people behind me were shouting and talking through the set and they were saying that she better play her hit or they would be angry. The American people in front of me were quiet and listening carefully. Boy, was that a surprise! The highlight of the day was the free poster that came with the purchase of the Gospel Oak EP. It was still so wonderful to see her again and her voice is stronger than ever! I was really looking forward to June 16th because I knew I would see her in a much smaller theatre and it would be different.

-JCM