Tracy Chapman Live Marque Cork

Concerts are funny things, not sure what is is about them, but in general I am very apathetic about booking tickets. I could be miserable and say it is because I am South African and we are used to concerts being announced then cancelled, typical bloody South Africa who is travelling in Europe. It is not the reason either I just felt I should mention. Probably I am just no good at that level of commitment.

The concerts I have missed and regret due to my own apathy are smashing pumpkins who I will now never see and the huge Prodigy/Placebo/Faithless gig. What was I thinking, I was such a loser.

Tracy Chapman is very special for me, so many moments in my life are memories link to Tracy. One of my earliest memories (I have lots of these actually) is being driven to School by my mum in a Austin Marina listening to Tracy Chapmans first album. I can also remember the excitement of us buying the Crossroads LP at OK Bazaars. At the time I did not realise the significances of any of her songs or the link to Mr Mandela who at that stage was still in jail.

As I got older Fast Car became kind of my anthem, those opening cords still give me krills down my spine. What a powerful woman, no wonder so many people she is actually a man after just listening to her sing. The closing verse of Fast Car, when she comes to the conclusion that her man is a loser and tells him You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way
Absolutely love it.

Of course there is also the ironic male teenage testosterone driven side of the song which we played out. I remember driving around with Jurie is in his golf and my Lancia's listening to this sound blast away.

I remember running on a treadmill in Planet Fitness in Parklands and hearing the
White Label Remix of Fast Car. Which at the time sounded pretty cool (it sounds shit now I listen to it). By then the Lancia had got a Sub and Amp so this was played, giving me the vibe of a rather sophisticated ironic idiot driving around with my windows down and my system up.

After a little bit of growing up I realised the significance of what Tracy is trying to say. More recently I watched the G8 protests in London on Sky news. I felt like I should have been there, in the background you could her Tracy Chapman "talkin bout a revolution" being played by the protesters, every revolution has got to have a theme song and what better one could you have?

So seeing Tracy live was going to be another loop in the spiral of life for me and Tracy. Like any good training program I got all her songs and worked my way through, peaking the Tracy play time about 2 weeks before the concert. Tapering down for the last 2 weeks and not even listening to one song the day before the concert (the excitement literally had them strumming away in my head anyway).

The concert was amazing, the first Mary and I have seen together. Luckily we have similar vibe for these kind of events and she lead the mission to get as close to the stage as possible, then proceeded to bob and jive to the music (very sexy). We had a little cuddle and maybe a tear during "Baby Can I Hold You Tonight".

Tracy Chapman was so sincere, she walked onto stage with a huge grin and really seemed to get a kick out of the gig. During the older more popular songs the tent turned more into a karaoke session as the crowd sung along.

Before she played one of her new songs "Save us all" she made a cheeky explanation which I am not sure if I full understood. That is probably the point though.