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Music & Concerts

Sophie B. Hawkins D.C. concert great — just way too short

Long-out singer/songwriter previewed several new tunes at last weekend’s Jammin’ Java mini-set

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SOPHIE B. HAWKING with son DASHIELL (background) and local fan DJ MATT BAILER last weekend at Jammin’ Java. (Washington Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

It was a cruel twist of fate that resulted in Sophie B. Hawkins’ first concert in the D.C. region in more than a decade being a shared co-bill with Ellis Paul. He was delightful, just not Sophie.

But then being a Hawkins fan in general has been a bit of a frustrating experience in recent years. Known mainly for two ’90s mega hits, her output has grown lean in recent years. Her last album was 2012’s “The Crossing.” She previewed several new songs from a finished (or nearly finished) album she has yet to release at last weekend’s show at Jammin’ Java, an inviting, yet somewhat boisterous venue in Vienna, Va. (the crowd was mostly engaged and respectful yet the bar cash register clanged noisily throughout the set; how could this issue remain unresolved at a music venue? Odd).

Part of Hawkins’ appeal is that she always plays by her own rules. This has led to some delightfully kooky moments over the years and Saturday’s concert was no exception. Hawkins arrived with her two kids in tow plus an assistant and walked casually through the Jammin’ Java lobby while ticket holders were in line in the lobby waiting for the house to open. Even 25 years after her debut album, her star quality is undeniable. It was such an unexpected occurrance, it didn’t quite register instantly what was happening, yet immediately one sensed things had shifted. The molecules in the room had been altered.

Playing from 6:30 p.m.-7:25 (she’d driven to the venue that day from her New York home and commented on the autumnal beauty of the drive), Hawkins’ set was deliciously unpretentious and even at times ragged. She opened with “Lose Your Way,” her controversial 1999 single that led to a showdown with her label Sony. Accompanying herself only with a banjo (the instrument that sent execs reeling as they thought it was pop radio poison), Hawkins gave a tender, focused reading of the gentle tune. Picking gently and poised on a high stool like a mermaid, not all the chords were right but it didn’t feel or sound like it mattered. It felt like something you might hear at a super late night cabaret bar in the East Village and you just felt grateful to be breathing the same air as this musical genius.

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS performs a djembe solo at last weekend’s concert. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

“As I Lay Me Down” was performed in similar fashion albeit on guitar. The audience took over the chorus toward the end at Hawkins’ behest while she sang backing vocals. Even amidst the clatter in the room — patrons were chowing down on nachos, chili and beer — it was a tender little moment.

Playing 100 percent solo, Hawkins was an adventuress songstress. She kept going no matter what — if her voice cracked or she played a wrong guitar chord, she seemed unfazed by it. She played tenderly at times, aggressively at others. She was down for anything, even replicating a trumpet solo skat style from “Before I Walk on Fire” while she kept the guitar accompaniment going. Like a distressed Restoration Hardware cabinet, the rough patches were part of the charm.

Moving over to a slightly out-of-tune upright piano, she performed a song she wrote from the point of view of Janis Joplin (whom she portrayed in a play a few years ago) called — one guesses — “I’ve Only Hungered for Love Before.” Dashiell, her 8-year-old son, sang the chorus with her and did remarkably well. Daughter Esther, 2, could be heard squealing a time or two in the background while her mom sang. I didn’t mind as much as I ordinarily would have — it just felt like some loosey-goosey family night.

Shockingly (although I was totally fine with it), the rest of the set save the closer was all new material, performed on piano except for a feverish drum breakdown on kiss-off “Better Off Without You.” “Free Yourself,” “I Can’t Replace You” and “Don’t Give Up on Christmas” were all tenderly performed, highly melodic ballads with logical, easy-on-the-ear chord progressions and just the right amount of rhythmic punctuations here and there. It was easy to imagine them in fully produced versions taking comfortable spots in Hawkins’ lofty and sadly underrated canon.

If there was any recurring mild complaint to the evening it was only that several of the songs, especially the older ones, seemed like they were played in keys a little too high than sounded comfortable for Hawkins’ upper register. That’s OK to a point — we don’t necessarily want our favorite singers to have an easy, no-sweat outing, but it sounded at times that perhaps Hawkins wasn’t properly warmed up. The notes and pitch were mostly there — they just sounded a bit more strained than was necessary at times.

Along the way she told stories. Some were song intros — how her roommate wanted her to stop working on “As I Lay Me Down” so she could sleep (oh the irony!); others were random — for no apparent reason other than that it had popped into her head, she sang a few lines of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and said at the moment, it’s her favorite song. She urged patrons whose view was obstructed by the piano to move. She seemed in good spirits, genuinely happy to be there, throughout the set. She looked exactly the same weight she was in the ’90s, or maybe even slightly thinner. As always, her wild trademark tresses were tossed casually and even at times wildly (as during the drum solo) about during the performance. She looked significantly younger in person than recent promo photos would suggest. With little makeup and exceedingly casual (although not shredded as in years’ past) attire, she looked like she might have just sauntered in from a farmer’s market.

Hawkins closed with her trademark hit “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover.” Even all these years later, it still came off as deliciously sexy and slightly audacious. It sounded much like it did as a bonus acoustic re-recording on “The Crossing.” It was over way too soon. One craved a 90- or 120-minute set with time to savor more material from her masterpiece albums like “Whaler” (1994) and “Timbre” (1999). I’d revisited them both in previous days and had forgotten how great they are. Although known primarily for two major singles, Hawkins is really an album-oriented artist. These records take you somewhere. I desperately wanted to hear more of them live although I was also happy just to be in the same room with her again.

After the show and during Paul’s set, Hawkins greeted fans and signed albums. She departed with her entourage the same way she entered with several instruments in tow. They were driving back to New  York that night and she commented that she appreciated the early evening (she was done before it was even 8 p.m.). There was some brief discussion about who might carry the last large duffel bag. The assistant asked Dashiell to pick it up but Sophie said she had it. She slung it over her left arm, had Esther on her right hip and the group departed.

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS
JAMMIN’ JAVA
10-28-17
(some titles not certain)
6:29 p.m.
1. Lose Your Way
2. Before I Walk on Fire
3. As I Lay Me Down
4. I’ve Only Hungered for Love Before
5. Free Yourself
6. I Can’t Replace You
7. Better Off Without You
8. Don’t Give Up on Christmas
9. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
7:22 p.m.

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Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

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Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. 

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

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Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

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Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”

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