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Sinead O'Connor Live, August 26th 1997, New York (NY) USA, Beacon Theatre.

Setlist

The Emperor's New Clothes
You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart
I am Stretched on Your Grave
A Perfect Indian
This IS a Rebel Song
John, I love You
This is to Mother You
Petit Poulet
Thank You For Hearing Me
In This Heart
Fire on Babylon
The last day of our Acquaintance

Encores
Redemption Song
He Moved Through the Fair

Famine

By; John Whalen

Hi...Was again mesmerized by Sinead. Anyone who hasn't had a chance to experience her, AND her band should make the effort. You won't be disappointed.

The Beacon theater is old, and not equipped well for a consistent, distortion free sound. After seeing Sinead in Portland, Maine earlier in the summer; where the sound quality in this brand new auditorium was excellent, an now comparing to the Beacon - well the Beacon's sound was pretty lousy - and I'm being generous.

The warm up band was The Screaming Orphans, also Sinead's backup singers. For a warm-up band, they were enjoyable, and audience active. They have potential.

Tonight, in New York City, you just couldn't find a more psyched to see Sinead crowd. This sold out (from what I could see) crowd was totally ON, and the second the lights dimmed they went bizzerk...The energy level was pegged the whole show, and when someone yelled "welcome back Sinead", she must have been smiling inside.

Sinead was wearing a stunning long white/beige dress, with an open back. She had high platform shoes. She was absolutely gorgeous.

She played the usual songs she's been playing for this Tour, the only difference being an order rearrangement. The sound, well, like I said, the Beacon is far from the best, however, because of the crispness, and clarity of her voice, she made the sound well enough. No small feat.

A note on the negative. Sinead is loved, and it seemed obvious NYC wanted her to be accepted. So here goes - Sinead needs to reach out towards them more. A small dialogue other then a meek "thank you" would go a long way. Maybe Paul McGuinness (U2) will encourage her to do more. Then again, maybe her music should say it all.

Like I've been saying the audience was pumped the whole show, and she treated them with a third encore, Famine. Afterwards, she picked up two of her three bouquets and left - smiling and waving the whole way.

By; JCM

Great show! The New York audience went wild. There is no doubt in my mind that Sinead will have no trouble earning a living here in America. The response was even more enthusiastic than I thought it would be. The show was much more polished than it was in Asbury Park. The Screaming Orphans were 100% better and Sinead's voice was fearless and strong. The energy was more intense in N.Y. but the encore of He Moved Through the Fair in Asbury Park will still be the moment I remember most from this tour.

By: "p."

It was my second time seeing sinead and she was pure enrgy and light. The screaming orphans were a nice opener but by 9 we were ready for our girl.

She appeared onstage, like an angel, in pure white lace. she opened with "the emperor's new clothes" and closed with the famine song. she didn't say much and rarely met our eyes. but we adored her freely and she lived up to all expectation. she belted out "fire on babylon" and blew us away with "in this heart".

old favorites like "mandika", "three babies", "why must you always be around" and (my favorite) "troy" weren't included but i'll take "last day of our acquaintance" any ole day. and when the guy in front started to rock out when the song opened up he was jumping for all of us. "john i love you", "this is to mother you", the almost religious "redemption song", "stretched on your grave", "a perfect indian"....the show went on and on but not long enough.

i wish i had a better command of this language because this note simply does not do justice. sinead gets better and better, she's got a gift and she's willing to share it with us. wahoo!

By NEIL STRAUSS from New York Times

Handed by Elisabeth Loos

Sinead O'Connor: Dark-Edged Lullabies From an Earth Mother

NEW YORK -- Sinead O'Connor has hit that awkward point in a performer's career: the dreaded plateau. It's not an artistic plateau -- Ms. O'Connor is making good music -- so much as a popularity plateau. It's a place where other talented musicians, like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, now find themselves. But chances are that Ms. O'Connor, who performed Tuesday night at the Beacon Theater, doesn't mind being out of the spotlight. After a promising run of hits that, thanks to well-strategized dance remixes and cover songs, crossed her over to a large segment of the audience, Ms. O'Connor transformed into a news item. Outrage at her political statements -- refusing to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner," tearing up the pope's photograph on television -- and reports of her later suicide attempt soon overshadowed her music.

At the same time, she retreated from the public eye to spend time with her child (and possibly her therapist). Since "Universal Mother" was released three years ago, she has become one of many artists who record and perform only for the fans they have already garnered.

This doesn't mean that her career is over. After plateauing, a musician can gain popularity with another hit, a smart collaboration, a well-packaged tour or an Elvis-style comeback special (which are known as Unpluggeds in the 90's). Or her audience can dwindle further, as old fans stop going to the concerts, leaving only the die-hards.

If that happens, Ms. O'Connor could make a great living with personal appearances at people's bedsides, singing lullabies. As her last two albums and her concert Tuesday night proved, she performs pop lullabies as the Brothers Grimm wrote fairy tales. On the surface, they are soothing and transporting. But there is always a darker subtext. The sweet "This Is to Mother You," a song she performed from her new mini-album "Gospel Oak" (Chrysalis/EMI), could be sung to a child. But it is also a lullaby to her country, Ireland. "All the pain that you have known," she sang in her rich, steady soprano, "All the violence in your soul/All the wrong things you have done/I will take from you when I come."

In her encore, Ms. O'Connor made the analogy even clearer with an earlier song, "Famine," a rap in which she compared Ireland to "a child that's been battered, had to drive itself out of its head because it's frightened."

For most of her career, the formerly shaven-headed Ms. O'Connor has rejected the images of femininity that the pop-music machine has tried to clothe her in. But now she has embraced the greatest feminine myth of all, that of the earth mother. She sings as if she had millions of acres of compassion for all who are suffering to plant their problems in. At the same time, as an Irish nationalist living as a Rastafarian in England, she remains the embodiment of contradictions reconciled.

The concert's best moments were its simplest, when Ms. O'Connor sang a cappella or accompanied only by cello, acoustic guitar or a droning synthesizer. With a 10-member band, this was not always possible.

Most songs followed a strict formula: they began a cappella or with minimal accompaniment; after a minute, a dance beat and rock instrumentation kicked in, and, by the end, the music welled up to sound like the finale of a Broadway show, with the entire ensemble putting everything into the chorus.

Ms. O'Connor's backup singers, four motley sisters known as the Screaming Orphans, had beautiful voices, but they could learn a thing or two by watching Supremes videotapes on the tour bus.

Unlike many artists who have hit a career plateau, Ms. O'Connor did not need to perform old hits to put on a good show. She only needed to perform what still had meaning to her. One of these songs was a version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," which she turned into another lullaby: for herself, for her child, for Ireland and for the world.

Handed by Linger1101@aol.com

It's from a local NY weekly music news magazine called " The Aquarian ":

Redemption

Sinead O'Connor/Beacon Theater/Aug. 26

By James Campion

New York, NY- It is not unusual to find the sheer raw talent of a singer stripped naked by the glare of the spotlight with her only weapon a wonderful voice piercing through a darkened hall like a siren of distinction and purpose. It is only unusual if you consider Sinead O'Connor's tempestuous career filled with songs raging in blatant discourse, an appearance and demeanor of raucous rebellion, and questionable tactics budding from an unforgettable aura. Yet on this night an oblique, if not attractive woman, draped in an elegant white dress moving sinuously around the stage served as a testament to a body of work as diverse and edgy as any hard-driving punk outfit.

Having seen O'Connor at the genesis of her bald-headed, black-army boot, in-yo-face run seven years ago it was quite a change. Gone were her demonstrative movements declaring an inner rant which bore clarity to the ugly truth of her lyrics. Only the sting of those words remained buoyed by the beauty of the melodies and the incredible range and control of a vioce that could raise goosebumps on a cadaver.

A six piece band including a cello and accordian, enabled O'Connor to stand guitar-free, clutching her ever present controls for an ear monitor she uses as a crutch for perfection. The four piece band, known as the Screaming Orphans from Northern Ireland, opened the show and more than ably slid into thier roles as back-up singers for the evening. At key points, their five part harmonies lifted otherwise dreary dirges into sweet moments of orchestra, culminating in the vortex of an Irish folk revival.

Swerving through her entire, new six song collection calles Gospel Oak and touching on chioce numbers from her last two original studio works, O'Connor was visibly overwhelmed by the roof-raising ovations she received from the more than capacity crowd ( both side aisles were jammed with people standing and applauding throughout ). Responding with a wave and a giggle and a brush of her hand through a full head of brown locks, Sinead O'Connor put away tantrums and overt displeasure to merely sing. And to those of us present, who have always loved the songs and the singer, and could remember her being mercilessly booed from the stage at the Bob Dylan tribute five years earlier, it was the best kind of redemption.

Aquarian Weekly Sept 17, 1997.