REVIEW: JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN AT BRISTOL THEKLA (05/02/11)
Every now and again you get the feeling that you are at one of those ‘special’ gigs. A gig which the artist and the audience will always remember, a gig which you will look back on with fondness when you’re old and grey and say ‘I was there’ and a gig which substantiates a love you have for a certain artist and this gig was one of those. Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Policewoman) may be in her 40s, which inevitably attracted an older crowd, but she sure didn’t look it rocking the leather catsuit look and that did not impact on the freshness and relevance of her songs. She looked genuinely thrilled to be there and her enthusiasm was met with raucous applause at every opportunity. It was a cry away from the gig Joan played the previous night in Nottingham and a far cry away from her last Bristol gig at the refined St George’s. Hell, she even got a standing ovation at the end (if you ignore the fact we were all standing anyway). And boy did she deserve it. Her vocal performance on To Be Loved was out of this world and justified any comparison’s to her former lover the late great Jeff Buckley. Even when she forgot her words and threw in ‘I’ve temporarily forgotten the words’ in her sweetest voice it just added to the charm of the heartwrenching love song. This, combined with her inter song tales of seeing Prince in concert at Madison Square Garden or seeing Al Green perform in his American church just cemented her status (among this room at the very least) as one of those understated music legends. You could hear the blues and soul influences running through her songs, from Anyone to Save Me and Eternal Flame to The Deep Field, where she croons: “What if I woke up tomorrow not afraid?’. Each song offers a window to her soul and what a very beautiful soul it is.
Words: Laura Williams
