Last Night’s Show: Flirting with Susan Werner
Attending a live performance by singer-songwriter Susan Werner is similar to attending a crash course in the art of flirtation. Probably because of the love that she has for her music, Susan flirts naturally with her instruments, her audience and her own exploration of song. Her strum of the guitar strums the hearts of her fans, her caress of the piano keys caresses the ears of her audience and her playful sense of humor teases the onlookers into enjoying the total performance of her show. Her ability to combine a funny approach to serious topics with a talent derived from a classical upbringing and honed by years of live performances makes this a flirtation which you will hope turns into an ongoing affair.
As noted here previously, Susan Werner performed last night at the Brava Theater. Her San Francisco audience warmed up to her easily as she eased right into her no-opener first set. Flirting first with her piano, and then with cheeky looks at her audience, Susan had the entire group laughing along with her flirty lyrics before she even began to interact with them. When she did engage in chat with the audience, she catered her comments to San Francisco-specific conversation, creating the feeling that she may love her hometown of Chicago but she was happy to be visiting San Francisco this week.
Remembering a comment made by an audience member at last year’s show at Freight and Salvage, Susan shared the inside musical joke and then thought to ask whether the person who had shared it with her was in the audience. Indeed, she was, and Susan conversed with the fan easily in her flirty tone while managing to include the entire auditorium of listeners in on the joke. Her ease with the audience reflected her natural performance ability, but it was her affair with her instruments which set the mood for a passionate night of music.
Combining songs from previous albums with releases from her new CD, The Gospel Truth, Susan Werner played a two-set live show which touched upon both the personal and the political affairs of the day. The breadth of the songs allowed her to showcase multiple sides of her artistic ability, with jazzy tunes kissing the cheeks of country, gospel and folk songs. If flirtation is an art, the epitome of that art comes in the form of opera, and for the final song of her encore, Susan shared her opera training with the audience. She stood at the foot of the stage with her guitar, a breath away from the breathless crowd, and wooed them with the full strength of her voice. They say you do not need to know the language to understand a foreign affair, and as her song sent chills through the audience, the saying rang true.
The best flirtations are those which blossom in to significant relationships while still maintaining the playfulness of those early days. Susan Werner artfully manages this move, turning a single performance into an all-emotion affair and a love of song into a lifelong romance. Like with long-distance loves, she can be enjoyed via CD or online clips, but the full strength of her flirty talent is best experienced live.
1 Comment
[...] Switch gears and lets head over to the dating world. At the end of last week, I went to go check out the singer-songwriter Susan Werner perform at Brava Theater. I knew in advance that I was going and I had an extra ticket so I figured that I would drum up a date. Again, it’s really not that difficult to find a date in San Francisco, because both San Franciscans in general and, I think, singles in any urban scene, are pretty comfortable with meeting up for first dates at random events like women-in-the-arts concerts. However, I didn’t put forth much effort and ended up on concert night deciding to fly solo. [...]