Ok, I have finally gathered my thoughts about last night. Here’s a small recap of the concert.

It was an incredibly hot day and the aircon at the venue wasn’t all that. We sat at the back row of the balcony (that’s what you get for buying tickets too late) and to start with I was sure I wasn’t going to see anything from all the way over there. At eight Ben Taylor opened for Tracy and he was quite good (in a Jack Johnsonish kinda way) and quite funny (in a smarmy american kinda way). He played a half an hour long set, which was very nice apart from the people coming in late and constantly standing in front of me. And he did say that apparently finnish girls are the most beautiful in the world (I bet he says that to all the girls :P). After his set there was an intermission where he signed CD’s for those who were clever enough to bring cash with them to buy stuff. 😐 Oh well.

At nine it was finally time for Tracy to get on. She kicked it off with a wonderfully potent rendition of Say Hallelujah and blew Ben whatshisface out of the water already with just that one song. Her voice is so incredibly powerful live. Blew me away. It doesn’t really come across in the same way from listening to her songs on CD’s (where you appreciate the warm quality of her voice more). Being in the same space with her makes you truly appreciate what an incredible voice this tiny woman has. There was a lot more punch to most of the versions she sang, I especially enjoyed Another Sun – really rocked. She changed guitars/instruments between each song and I really enjoyed the way the whole set was constructed. Perfect balance between her old and new material.

I loved the contrast of when she spoke with a shy little voice and then belted out a song that made you think that voice cannot come from the same person. It seriously gave me the chills. She asked if reindeer were really real and what was the difference with a reindeer and a moose. 😀 And wondered about our midsummer traditions. Songwise the highlights for me were Another Sun, Fast Car and America. She didn’t sing For My lover (which I waited for) but she did come back for an encore and did Baby Can I Hold You, which made up for it. All in all, a wonderful experience. In the end, sitting in the last available seats didn’t matter at all, she was so present and powerful that I might have as well been sitting next to her. And I think it would have been hot in that room no matter what, people’s enthusiasm made sure of it.