[ATTENDED: December 3, 2022] Lydia Persaud & Christine Bougie
I have been a fan of Stars since about 2004. I have wanted to see them for a really long time. I thought I’d be able to see them last year on their Christmas Together Tour. It was at LPR in New York (which is just too much of a pain to get to) and at World Cafe Live. But it happened to be on the same night as our holiday party, so I couldn’t swing it. I never guessed they’d do another one. So this year I made sure to get tickets and schedule our party around this show.
I didn’t know who would be opening. technically, the opening act was just Lydia Persaud, but since it was just Lydia and her guitarist Christine Bougie, (and I’d never heard of either before) I’m listing them both here.
Lydia was speaking for herself, but I believe that they both play together in a lot of things. Lydia has been a member of The Soul Motivators, The O’Pears and Dwayne Gretzky and she and Christine are part of the the Queer Songbook Orchestra.
They played a jazzy set of remarkably sad music.
I really enjoyed Bougie’s guitar playing. She was mostly quiet strumming, but she also threw in some great bass-like melodies and jazzy chords on top of Persaud’s 4 string large ukulele (or guitar, I couldn’t tell).
Persaud has a lovely voice: jazzy/adult contemporary.
She plays exactly the kind of music that I do not really like. I can certainly appreciate it. And I can attest that she is a great singer, but I didn’t really enjoy her set. I also didn’t enjoy her lyrics.
You won’t be hearing from me today
Maybe not tomorrow
I need a little time away
That’s when I can grow
and songs like “What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas” (actually an O’Pears song) were just too down for me.
Her set was brie, though, and she was certainly very nice. And it was clear that Stars (especially singer Amy Millan was quite taken with her), so it’s no biggie that I wasn’t.
Huh, turns out that I know Christine Bougie from a live recording with Bahamas and with The Weather Station (so I guess I’ve seen her live twice).
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