Suzanne Vega LIVE

Well the pre-concert entertainment was on a whole other level tonight. First off was Hannah's Bar, erstwhile favourite of Scottish chanteuse Sandi Thom. I don't think there were too many LIPA students in there though. There was perhaps the finest collection of barmaids in history though.

After a quick Subway we then found ourselves in an "Emo" pub. It was called Bloodshed or Deathpit or some such stupid name and I should point out that we only ended up in there because there was hardly anyone in. Everyone else who was in there mind you perfectly fitted any number of stereotypes you can come up with.

All this fun meant we missed David Ford, not that I was particularly bothered.

I was happy to see, after an acapella Tom's Diner kicked things off, that our old friend Greg Rusedski/Ben Stiller's older brother was back on the bass like he was in Warwick/Coventry all that time ago. This was a full band show, although at certain points in the evening, things got stripped down to either Vega on her own or Vega and Greg Stiller.

Given the recent release of her new album this was a night that was heavily centered around new material, but thankfully the album is a great one and the songs were just as good live (even if she missed out Bound, my favourite newbie).

There was a decent smattering of the classic (Caramel, Luka, Left Of Centre), the paeans to Liverpool (which brought up the thorny question of whether the people of Liverpool considered their city to be a man or a woman) and she finished off with a proper version of Tom's Diner which the old lady in front of me found most distasteful.

The only dampener on my evening was being sat next to a couple who obviously thought they were either a) in a cheap motel room or b) starring in some bizarre form of gonzo porn. Holding hands I can take, full on face guzzling just isn't right.