Jill Sobule ~ 2013 October 2 ~ Club Passim ~ Cambridge, MA
Jill Sobule on electric guitar and lead vocals, accompanied by Alex Nolan on lead electric guitar and backing vocals
Set List
Resistance Song - Jetpack - Where is Bobbie Gentry? - October in Paris - When They Say We Want Our America Back, What the F--- Do They Mean? - The Rapture - Somewhere in New Mexico - Vrbana Bridge - The Look of Love {Bacharach/David} - (Theme From) The Girl in the Affair - San Francisco - {audio: 1960s recording "How To Pick Up Chicks"} - Back On Your Knees {ad lib, to man holding Jill's lyrics} - Strawberry Gloss - Soldiers of Christ - When My Ship Comes In ... encore ... It Was a Good Life
Scroll down past the video for review; photo gallery is to the right.
Video
"San Francisco":
Review
Jill Sobule brought her marvelous singing voice, clever and poignant songwriting, superb guitar playing, humor, and upfront lefty politics to the wonderful Club Passim in Cambridge. She also brought an accompanist -- guitarist/singer Alex Nolan. Alex, with her black-and-red hair, Rolling Stones t-shirt, and youthful strut, added a lot to the show, both in terms of music and personality. She is a very talented and confident guitar player and her backing vocals blended beautifully with Jill.
Jill performed an eclectic selection of newer songs, older songs, songs that made the audience laugh, and songs that brought tears to their eyes. She also did one cover, "The Look of Love." I particularly liked one number that is relatively new, and a very good singalong, called "When They Say We Want Our America Back, What the F--- Do They Mean?" It echoes the politics of "Soldiers of Christ," an older tune that also deals with the "Christian Right." Jill included several songs with themes of religious questioning, some of which were very funny ("The Rapture"), some touching ("Somewhere in New Mexico"). As a songwriter, she moves smoothly from offbeat character sketches ("San Francisco") to songs of personal longing ("Jetpack") to celebrations of being happy with what one has ("It Was a Good Life"). She includes funny lyrics in even the saddest of songs. (The audience cracked up on this lyric in "Jetpack": "I'd take you up so high, if I dropped you, you would die.") She looked adorable, dressed in a sailor hat and sailor's striped jersey, jeans and boots.
She's also quite a storyteller; the stories tend toward, how shall we say, naughty material, but naughty in a good-natured, not vulgar way. She wanted to play a new song and brought an audience member up on stage to hold her tablet computer to read the lyrics, but it was out of battery and so we didn't get to hear what Jill assured us was the best song she'd ever written.
More Jill
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