I saw her at Zanzibar blue in Philadelphia last night, and it was one of the biggest disappointments in my life.
I am a big fan of her and I worked double shifts all week in order to save money because she was playing at an expensive restaurant and having dinner there was required (plus a $35 ticket for the show). She played for 40 minutes (including 2 short breaks), and the show itself was just ok. I did not care about spending the money (money is not that important in my life), but I left the place with a big feeling of emptiness... (something I hadn't felt after watching a show in all of my years as a composer and bass player).
Peace, and plase feel free to critizise my opinions.

juan garcia bossio

hey juan,
sorry to hear of your not so great experience. perhaps you didn't know, but if you went to the 10pm show, you didn't have to buy dinner.
i was there with fellow meshell fan lisa, and we had a wonderful experience. neither of us live in philly, so we traveled to catch both late shows on friday and saturday and it was well worth it.
the only negative thing i'll say about the shows was that they were shorter than most shows of hers that i've been to.

that said, i thought it was fantastic, considering she had a brand new band, some of whom had only been with her for a week!

anyway, she played the same setlist as joe's pub with the exception of evolution which she played on saturday but not friday night.

i'm SO THOROUGHLY impressed with her new cuts... as mentioned in the joe's pub thread, the new stuff has an edgier sound to it... heavy on the guitar, which i LOVE. for almost all of the songs, meshell strapped on the bass at first to start off the bass line and then her other bassist very seamlessly took over after which meshell took off her bass and danced for the most part when she wasn't singing. it was GREAT to hear her sing again.

i wasn't disappointed at all and thoroughly enjoyed both sets. maybe i'm a biased fan, i don't know, but i was blown away by "headline" and "evolution", neither of which i'd ever heard before. the killer was "come smoke my herb" which is a song i always get excited over hearing live because of the long lasting riff/bass line towards the end. i absolutely love the sound of it, and even more the way they stray off on a tangent and then come right back to the original bass line. it was marvelous. i was grooving big time and secretly wished it would never end.

so yeah, sorry you didn't feel the same way, though i tend to think when she does two shows in one night, you're better off catching the later one as there isn't a time limit and she and the band seem to be more relaxed about it.

great, great, shows... and a fantastic overall weekend in philly! it was worth it just to hear the new shit. i can't wait for the album to come out in august (that's what meshell said to lisa).

Thanks for your reply. I did not know about the 10 pm show. That would have been nicer...
Hopefully my next Me'shell experience will be better, I am glad that you liked the show and thanks for your time. Juan

ahhhhhhh, deshigrrrl has beat me to the polylogue! i must echo what she said...we were a little disappointed by the length of the shows. but i do wonder if that may have had more to do with the venue (a jazz supper club kinda place) than with her. in fact, one of the band members said/intimated to me that this really wasn't the best venue...probably because they can't really rock out a supper club the way they'd like to, ESPECIALLY with the new material...

...which was FANTASTIC. and, to me, different from anything we've heard from her before (or at least what's been released). "headline" is still bouncing around in my head, and "point of no return" (or whatever it's called) is edgy and metal-y and meshell and the band just ROCKED it...love, love, LOVE it. "evolution" was great, too, tho we heard it just once so it's a little less etched in my brain.

i also loved that the band did songs off "comfort woman" because somehow, i think i missed that tour. and i was really happy to hear her sing!! don't get me wrong...as deshi and i have discussed, last year's show in amsterdam (where she didn't sing at all) was the best concert either of us has ever seen, meshell or otherwise...but i don't think i realized until i heard her voice friday night how much i had missed it.

i'll admit to being a biased fan (no big surprise there), but i can't express how excited i am for the new album. the last i had heard, it would be this fall, so when she told me after saturday's show that it was august?? the grin on my face couldn't have been bigger. actually, i had a grin plastered on my face for most of each show. i was just so, so happy to be there.

i'm hoping that lots more dates are added to the tour...by all means, see her if you can.

so i hit up zanzibar blue on friday.. got there earlier in the day (around 3) and got 2 hear the band jam during happy hour... that was pretty cool. m was on bass 4 a minute.

z.b. kinda pulled a fast one on the fans charging 30 bucks a head 2 sit down in the dining room n not letting anyone know that 2 sit "at the bar" was free... the sound wasn't perfect in there, but it was free. free is a good thing.

the 10pm show that i caught (cuz i'd rather buy dinner all week than 1 entree at some snazzy establishment) was basically verbatim album trax "herb" "love song" a bizarrely out of place "barry farms"... but i echo groove thang when i say that the "point of no return" track was chilling n definately the highlight of that set. chaotic n beautiful...

i met this legion of pushy lesbian "super fans"... that was interesting... though as soon as i hear "she's almost like tracy chapman blah blah blah" i lost interest in anything they had 2 say...

the torrential showers didn't make the experience any better, either.

o well. they can't all be winners. m was in high spirits when i saw her during happy hour... all smiles. n we all know how beautiful that smile is... almost made the whole experience worthwhile. almost.

-JD

well, jd....i don't think anyone who says, "she's almost like tracy chapman" should really be considered a "superfan."

I agree she can't be compaired to Tracey, their styles are so different