Portland, OR show

Howdy, y'all!

It's been forever since I have posted to the list, so I thought I would give 
a wee li'l review of what's her name's recent show in Portland. The show was 
at Mississippi Studios which is a small venue, essentially a converted 
house/store front. The crowd was small about 60-70 people but the space was 
full and the show sold out. The setting reminded me of my first Jane show 
way back in March '94 at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus in Austin. I have 
since seen her 9 more time, 6 of them with my husband. A fall Jane/Issa show 
has become one of our personal traditions.

As for the show itself, she opened with 'Willow' and then launched into new 
material for the rest of the evening save for 'Walk on Water' and the always 
(and tiresomely) requested 'Calling All Angels', for the final encore. Mind 
you, I like CAA but I've heard it live now 10! times and would like 
something else like 'You Don't Need' or 'Hockey' or 'Bessie'. Variety and 
all that. George started to shout the title of his favorite Jane song, 
'Everything Reminds Me of My Dog', but the cries for CAA drowned him out.

Aside from the finale, I must say that I enjoyed most if not all of the new 
songs, although there were moments when her flat whoa-whoa-oooh-oooh singing 
induced my eyes to roll. As stated years ago, I don't care for her flat 
moan/singing. Her sense of joy and enormous whit were fully on display. And, 
dare I say, she had a vivacious aire about her. At one point, she asked 
everyone how we were doing in general. Someone stated that they were sad at 
times, and she responded (I'm paraphrasing here) that sadness was part of 
her past but she's quite hopeful and happy now. The new music sounded good 
if not great live but I can't wait to hear it in it full recorded version. 
She's inching closer to releasing the new material. I'd pay a pretty penny 
for any of it even though I no longer need her music to maintain my sanity. 
Hopefully, that pretty penny will be spent sooner than later.

Cheers,
Troy