Madeleine Peyroux @ Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa
Madeleine Peyroux performed last night at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. I know, weird location, right? It’s a drive but I wanted to be sure I saw her since I missed her when she was in Oakland a few months ago.
She and her band put on an excellent show. At the medium-sized venue almost any seat is a good seat.
To me, she has always been somewhat of an enigmatic figure. I heard Careless Love one morning on KFOG while I was still half asleep and immediately fell in love. That day I searched online for “Madeline Peru” to find out more about her. Last night marked the first time I’ve ever actually seen her perform, since she’s not a pop diva and all over the media.
A big part of a show’s enjoyment is as much the spectators as it is the performers, and last night, the spectators put on a poor performance. It was all middle-aged north bay dandies continuing their Valentine’s day mushiness. At one point somebody yelled to turn the bass down because they couldn’t hear her, to which she responded, “Really? I was being loud.” My roommate and I played a game to see who could find a non-white person first; it took at least 5 minutes.
Madeleine has no say in who her audience is, so she held up her end of the bargain and put on a stellar show.
Below is an incomplete set list of the songs I remember her singing:
- Blue Alert
- Dance Me to the End of Love
- Don’t Wait Too Long
- Carless Love
- Everybody’s Talkin’
- (Looking for) the Heart of a Saturday Night
- Weary Blues
- You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go
- Half the Perfect World
- I’m Alright
- Smile
- J’ai Deux Amours