At Le Poisson Rouge, Susanna Hoffs Lets the Songs (and Others) Talk

Susanna Hoffs was in fine form on Friday night at Le Poisson Rouge, performing Bangles classics, a couple covers (Jimmy Cliff's “Sitting in Limbo” and Nesmith/Stone Poneys/Ronstadt's “Different Drum”) and trying out a bunch of new songs from a forthcoming album -- “Casablanca,” “None of Them Were You,” “Sometimes You Gotta Learn Your Lesson Twice,” “Bad Case of Loneliness” and “Good Luck” -- as well as one (“It’s My Time”) from a possible musical (with Edie Brickell!) based on the diminutive Bangle’s debut novel.

It’s been a particularly prolific era for Hoffs -- who released just two solo albums in the 1990s, zero in the 2000s, and one in the 2010s*, but has put out three in the past four years -- so any disappointment I felt about the set list was largely assuaged by my gratefulness for where she is now.

It was a delightful, low-key evening with just Sue and the two young men she’s currently collaborating with -- CJ Camerieri (horns; piano) and Ryan Lerman (guitar; clarinet) -- on stage, and she only played guitar during the one-song encore. As ever, she was her usual diffident self, deferring to these young guys the audience had never seen or heard of before to tell her own 40-year-old stories(!), and repeatedly re-doing guitar parts until she got them just right. (My friend Greg felt that perhaps she was a bit too low-key, half-joking that “she looks great, but that basic black Ann Taylor pantsuit infuriates me. It’s a show, not a TED talk.”)

Then, in a sweet moment, she choked up while preparing to perform a new song about her husband of over 30 years, Jay Roach, who looked equally overcome as he filmed her on his phone from the sidelines -- which struck me as particularly poignant given that he’s a world-famous filmmaker. (“Directors -- they’re just like us!”)

When I told my childhood best friend about the concert, he mentioned that he was in the middle of reading Jennifer Otter Bickerdike’s authorized biography of the Bangles, which inspired me to follow suit. I’d kind of dismissed the book at first, thinking there couldn’t be anything I didn’t already know about this group I’ve followed religiously since I was a kid. 

But boy, was I wrong -- Annette Zilinskas was in the band twice before exiting prior to “All Over the Place” and had never played bass before joining, a la Kathy Valentine! Maria McKee’s mom responded to one of Susanna Hoffs’s flyers for bandmates but then abruptly hung up when she was told Maria couldn’t be the singer! Thomas Newman is the person who got the Bangles involved in "Less Than Zero"! -- even if it also annoyingly confirmed what I had long suspected about the issues within the band, which seem to plague them to this day.

Yes, I can understand why the Peterson sisters -- whom I adore and think are incredibly talented -- were unhappy that the “everything is split evenly four ways” idea fell apart. But are they really naive enough to believe this kind of success would have ever come their way if not for Sue’s distinctive voice and star quality? If that were the case, why didn’t Crista Galli, Aishi, the Muze, the Fans or Those Girls -- the pre-Hoffs incarnations of the group -- ever get signed and shoot to the top of the charts the way the Bangles did? And it cuts both ways: Susanna bombed as a solo artist compared with her time in the band -- so it clearly was about alchemy. (See also: Mac, Fleetwood.)

So instead of being so bitter (especially Debbi) about how it happened, why not be grateful -- because, as the Go-Go’s bassist will tell you, lightning rarely strikes twice.

* Children, Matthew Sweet and the reformation of the Bangles all being limiting factors, of course.

 

 Venue note: LPR has always been a general admission venue, but perhaps because of the, um, maturity of the crowd they decided to have tables and chairs. Somehow they sold out before I could get one, so we were forced to get “standing at the bar” tickets, which were horrendous. In addition to being quite far from the stage, the path to the bathroom runs right through that section, so we spent the entire night being jostled and having our view obstructed. Buyer beware!

P.S.

Just learned that Sue does a duet of "Happy Together" with Rufus Wainwright and "Love Hurts" with Eric D. Johnson on the soundtrack of "The Roses." 

Also: 

Damian and I have been wanting to try this Georgian restaurant near our gym on the Upper West Side then noticed the very cute looking Old Tbilisi Garden on Bleecker Street near the concert venue -- so ate there instead. As you can see, I didn't like it at all!