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Noa's concert in Utrech, Netherlands. Dec. 7th 1994 |
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By Marion Kippers Noa live in Utrecht, the Netherlands December 7th 1994 This is a translation of my report of Noa's concert in Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, the Netherlands, 7 december 1994. It's quite long... but I think she deserves a lot of attention. :-) I really liked Noa's last CD, but Marcel had to persuade me to go and see her in concert with him. And boy, was I happy he did! It sure was worthwhile. It was also a bit of a surprise for me - very different from what I had expected. This concert was in the small concert hall in the Vredenburg Music Centre - the same building where we saw Sarah, but she performed in the big hall. This small hall holds about 300 people, and it's very intimate. The walls, ceiling and floor are decorated with wood, the stage is very low (about knee-high), and the first row of chairs is very close to the stage. We had front row left seats, and if I would stretch my legs I could lay my feet on the stage... I wondered what sort of band she would bring. On stage there were only some percussion instruments like conga's, Darbukkah Drums, tambourine etc. and acoustic guitars, but nothing like drums, keyboards, electric guitars or a bandsetting - just two microphones and two chairs. Then the lights went out, the door at the right side of the hall opened and Noa and Gil Dor walked in. They climbed on the stage and Noa began to sing, a-capella - "Mishaela" was the first song. She accompanied herself with two rhythm eggs, one in each hand, and with her arms she danced the melody. Gil joined her with his acoustic guitar. Noa has a fantastic voice, and I was amazed at how easily and supple she sings. Especially when I realized that _she_ would play all those percussion instruments and some guitar as well. I was a bit concerned she would talk to the audience in Hebrew, but she didn't. She would explain the lyrics to older Hebrew songs, but she didn't explain those of the latest CD, so I still don't know what they're about. After "Eye Opener" she told that they were very happy to play in this concert hall as the hall looked beautiful (it does), the acoustics are very good, and she was really pleased that the stage was so close to the audience. Noa told that they now both live in Israel (she lives in Tel Aviv and Gil in Haifa), but she spent the first 18 years of her life in the Bronx in New York, and that's what the next song "Wildflower" was about. After that she picked up some notes that fans had thrown on the stage, and she said that she would read them to us later on. Gil asked her 'Who are they from?', and Noa started to look for names. But Gil meant something else, Noa didn't understand him until he played the first chords of "I don't know". The live version of that was very catching. Noa isn't just a great singer, she's also a very good percussion player, and I think there are not many who can combine the two as well. She really knew her way with the conga's. And then it stopped. And very soft and quietly she sang some additional lyrics that gave a whole new meaning to the song: "darkness, edge of night, I'm in flight, cause now I know, now I know, now I know" - it really gave me goosebumps... "Uri" followed, and after that they performed a song of their second Israeli CD. On that CD they had put poems of well-known Israeli poets to music. One of those is a declaration of love where the man tells his lover "Come, my bride". She painted the scene of that man walking around in his room, outside he can sea the stormy sea, and he hears the seagulls... and we heard them too, as Noa imitated them with her voice. Goosebumps again. Noa played guitar together with Gil, a dark driven song. Then she told about the tour around the world they had been doing since the past six months, all due to the succes of the third CD, the first one to be released outside Israel, all over the world. She told about those moments when she would feel like giving up and go home, and how important it is to have a good friend - Gil played some chords of "You've got a friend". She pointed to Gil, her support and anchor, a great musician and songwriter, and also her best friend. He played one song on his own, a bit jazzy. It sounded familiar but I didn't recognize it. After this it seemed like Noa sang "It's obvious - you're special" especially for Gil, from the bottom of her heart. "Inspire me to more"... "Traces of love" was a new song, with naughty lyrics about white silken underwear, hanging from the washing line to dry, "drip drip dropping traces of love". After Vickie's and Mike's descriptions of "Marionettes" I hoped she would perform that song, and she did - at least, I think it was "Marionettes". It was a Hebrew song about Pierretta. She had a cape/skirt that was 'Pierrot' on one side (the other side was red), she danced like a marionette, and she sang a short piece of 'opera'. She should put more theatre in her concerts! Two more songs from the first albums followed, "Light and darkness"(?) and a song about marrying off, where Noa played her chest as if it were a percussion instrument ('human beatbox'?!). The last songs were "Path to follow", an unknown song entitled "Conga's" on the setlist (well, that's what it was mostly as well, I don't remember any lyrics to this song), and finally "Child of man". They left the stage during our standing ovation, only to return a short while after that. "OK, you've made your point", she said, and she indicated that we could sit down again. She then sang a moved version of "Ave Maria" - or did I imagine that her voice nearly broke? After another old folksong they left again. They came back one last time, to say farewell with a moving last song: "Everytime we say goodbye"... Go and see her if you can! I've only got (and heard) her last CD, and I'm not sure of the titles of the older songs, maybe somebody else can fill them in? We're trying to get the first two CD's from Israel, but we haven't got a reply yet. |
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