Altes Pfandhaus, Cologne/Germany August 10, 2011

[Kaoru]

Despite her studies Vienna took the time off and visited Germany for four concerts. What an unexpected wonderful surprise!
Vienna started the concert with three solo songs (Eric’s song, Last snowfall & Whatever you want) before Alex & Ward made their „great entrance on stage“. The show was an interesting combination of old songs with new instrumentation like „Whatever you want“ – Vienna beating & singing different rhythm & recorded it on the looper, „Watershed“ – Ward strumming the strings of the piano. Alex also played one of his new songs „Are you listening“ on piano while Vienna was playing on the cymbal & singing the backing vocals.
They ended the show with „Soon love soon“ (Alex on Glockenspiel) which is always great to sing along with Vienna in the Altes Pfandhaus as the stage is right in between the audience and you can hear the chorus echoing from all sides.
Well deserved standing ovations all over for Vienna, Alex and Ward after the concert.

Setlist
1 Eric’s song
2 Last snowfall
3 Whatever you want
4 The tower
5 Augustine
6 1 BR/ 1 BA
7 Stray Italian Greyhound
8 Radio
9 Watershed
10 I don’t feel so well
11 My Medea
12 Are you listening (Alex Wong)
13 Breaking light
14 St. Stephan’s Cross
15 Antebellum
16 Grandmother song
Encore
17 Gravity
18 Harbor
19 Soon love soon

[Fred]

Thanks for posting, Kaoru! This is the longest set list I can remember seeing from Vienna's shows. (I've seen 18 before, not 19.) It is obvious that Altes Pfandhaus is one of her favorite venues. I'm glad you saw such a great concert.

[Cooler Near The Lake]

Hi Kaoru,
also on my behalf thanks for posting, now I don't have to do it myself !

Awesome performance, wasn't it? We (this includes some other listeners to whom I talked after the show) had the impression that Vienna was even more intense, more brilliant than last year at the same venue. (Well, Alex and Ward weren't bad either !) Clearly the audience loved her, and she gave back some of that love. Big applause after each song, but judging by applause-o-meter, "The Breaking Light" was probably the biggest success of the evening. So many people singing along, many of whom had never heard this song before... Let's hope that this piece will remain on Vienna's setlist for some time.

Another personal highlight: When I discovered the "World Cafe Live" DVD at the merch table a huge MUST HAVE sign immediately went up in my head. It was the one item that was still missing in my collection. I bought a copy and am extremely happy with it. It's fascinating to see her music evolve, and although, as a latecomer to Vienna's musical world, I would have loved to attend a concert in that laid-back-no-frills-no-looper-style four years ago (too late, sigh...) it may be even more interesting how the very same songs, and of course new ones as well, will look four years from now.

[aaparallel]

Thanks for posting, Kaoru! This is the longest set list I can remember seeing from Vienna's shows. (I've seen 18 before, not 19.) It is obvious that Altes Pfandhaus is one of her favorite venues. I'm glad you saw such a great concert.

Remember, Fred: Rio Theatre setlist was 20 songs long (or 19.5, as Seedling #1 is "half a song"). I remember seeing a setlist with 22 songs. Maybe a solo one.

[Reileen]

Remember, Fred: Rio Theatre setlist was 20 songs long (or 19.5, as Seedling #1 is "half a song"). I remember seeing a setlist with 22 songs. Maybe a solo one.

I think that 22-song solo setlist was from a Borders performance way back during the Waking Hour days, or even early Warm Strangers. Though if someone else can confirm this, be my guest, I don't exactly have the best memory. XD

[Fred]

@aaparallel I'd forgotten, yes.
@Reileen Sounds like a fun game: find Vienna's longest set list. (Probably Scot has some search function that would automate it.)

[Kaoru]

@Cooler near the lake: Yes, it was an awesome concert . And I know what you mean by saying „laid-back-no-frills-no-looper-style four years ago“. I really love the „simple version“ of her songs, just Vienna & her piano (and of course Alex cajon & Ward’s cello) make me completely happy. I have been to several concerts and each of them had their own highlight & charm. But my favourite one is Vienna’s first concert in "Altes Pfandhaus/ Cologne" in 2007. (beside the first time I ever saw Vienna live in Düsseldorf, her music just blew me away).
Great band, great harmonies and an almost „perfect setlist“ with almost all of my favourite songs and it was the first & last time that I heard Eric’s song (one of my alltime favourite songs) live until last Wednesday (^^). Oh and she also played the famous „Essenlied“ for the first time. I wonder how many verses it would have right now if she still play it . You can get an idea of this concert on Vienna’s internet archive of live concerts.
@ Fred: I just checked my old setlists…usually Vienna plays 19-20 songs in Germany. And I am sure you would have loved her first Cologne concert as well, just saying „Eric’s song“, „Pontchartrain“ and „I don’t feel so well“.
http://www.archive.org/details/vt2007-10-13.hlsc-2.flac16

[aaparallel]

I think that 22-song solo setlist was from a Borders performance way back during the Waking Hour days, or even early Warm Strangers. Though if someone else can confirm this, be my guest, I don't exactly have the best memory. XD

The Borders show was my guess as well. Pretty cool for her to get to play such a big set when she was first starting.

[Fred]

@Cooler near the lake: Yes, it was an awesome concert . And I know what you mean by saying „laid-back-no-frills-no-looper-style four years ago“. I really love the „simple version“ of her songs, just Vienna & her piano (and of course Alex cajon & Ward’s cello) make me completely happy. I have been to several concerts and each of them had their own highlight & charm. But my favourite one is Vienna’s first concert in "Altes Pfandhaus/ Cologne" in 2007. (beside the first time I ever saw Vienna live in Düsseldorf, her music just blew me away).
Great band, great harmonies and an almost „perfect setlist“ with almost all of my favourite songs and it was the first & last time that I heard Eric’s song (one of my alltime favourite songs) live until last Wednesday (^^). Oh and she also played the famous „Essenlied“ for the first time. I wonder how many verses it would have right now if she still play it . You can get an idea of this concert on Vienna’s internet archive of live concerts.
@ Fred: I just checked my old setlists…usually Vienna plays 19-20 songs in Germany. And I am sure you would have loved her first Cologne concert as well, just saying „Eric’s song“, „Pontchartrain“ and „I don’t feel so well“.
http://www.archive.org/details/vt2007-10-13.hlsc-2.flac16

I've seen only one solo piano show, just this year at Infinity Hall. She used looper for maybe 4 songs, but the rest were unadorned, and I loved them all. I knew I would like the plain piano songs from my first show (Emelin Theater, 1/09), because at that show she came back from intermission without Alex and played Kansas solo, with great impact.

In terms of set lists, I'm beginning to think my jokes about my ethnic heritage (half-German) are more real than funny. The set lists from Vienna's German shows are ones I would like to hear very much.

[Fred]

I think that 22-song solo setlist was from a Borders performance way back during the Waking Hour days, or even early Warm Strangers. Though if someone else can confirm this, be my guest, I don't exactly have the best memory. XD

The Borders show was my guess as well. Pretty cool for her to get to play such a big set when she was first starting.

Do you think that's in Scot's database? Must be a fair number of interesting covers, probably some she hasn't played in a long time.

[littlepieceofyoursong]

I think that 22-song solo setlist was from a Borders performance way back during the Waking Hour days, or even early Warm Strangers. Though if someone else can confirm this, be my guest, I don't exactly have the best memory. XD

The Borders show was my guess as well. Pretty cool for her to get to play such a big set when she was first starting.

Do you think that's in Scot's database? Must be a fair number of interesting covers, probably some she hasn't played in a long time.

Just one cover, but the entirety of Waking Hour, plus a few songs from the at-the-time unreleased Warm Strangers and some songs never recorded formally. Here's the list:

Gravity
The Tower
Rainwalk Song
Daughter
Say Uncle
Decade and One
Anna Rose
Homecoming
Enough To Go By
Boy At The Piano
Momentum
My Medea
Drought
Lullabye for a Stormy Night
Shasta
The Atheist Christmas Carol
Between
Eric's Song
Undone
Annie's Song (John Denver cover)
In My Arrival
Unwritten Letter #1

The show is available for download from Archive.org here (thanks, Michele!).

[Erik]

That Santa Cruz show was one of the first "soundboard" recordings we did and also the first show I attended that I wasn't able to videotape. I had a camera, battery fully charged and... no videotapes.

Glad people still like it.

There were a several setlists back then that were 20+ songs. It was much easier for Vienna as a solo artist to just play whatever she felt like. There was barely ever a formal setlist and soundchecks were often a few seconds long to test that the mic and the keyboard were going through the PA.

-Erik

[Scot]

I think that 22-song solo setlist was from a Borders performance way back during the Waking Hour days, or even early Warm Strangers. Though if someone else can confirm this, be my guest, I don't exactly have the best memory. XD

The Borders show was my guess as well. Pretty cool for her to get to play such a big set when she was first starting.

Do you think that's in Scot's database? Must be a fair number of interesting covers, probably some she hasn't played in a long time.

Hmm- you all now going to make me add a search by # of songs option?!

Glad you got to go to the show, Kaoru-san! And thanks for the setlist.

scot