A beautiful California night. The wind carries some sand off the beach to the pier. Wooden, the pier hosts no seats. When I arrived an hour and a half early, lawn chairians had already taken the first row. But second row center was open. I knew I should have brought my folding chair! Still, I was smart to bring a butt pad, fleece jersey and some reading/writing material. Oh, and I bought a slice of pizza on the way -- not that good.

Suzanne came up to sound check for about 10 minutes at 6:30 (an hour before the show). It was fun to hear her start one of her songs in the wrong key, then stop quick just prior to a high (would have been really high) note. "That's not the right key!" She said looking at her bassist, who replied, "Yeah, I know." To which she laughed at herself and joked, "You could have said something."

Actually, Suzanne continued that light easy, quick to the ironic humor, attitude throughout this short free concert. (45ish minutes). I especially enjoyed her intros to songs that I had listened to many many times. Oh, did I mention that I'm a huge fan? I see one rock concert a year, on average, so it was no small blue thing that I'd made the trip to this one.

Anyway, the song introductions where fun. I had no idea that "Maggie May" references that Maggie of Rod Stewart's song. Oh, dah, now I get it.

Interestingly enough, probably half of the songs were performed with Suzanne on an acoustic guitar and Mike on electric bass -- just two performers. I like this arrangement, and Mike's bass lines are juicy, sharp, and accent Suzanne's excellent songwriting. But the bass was way too loud. Not just a little, but to the point of distorting Suzanne's vocals. It was quite annoying. I'd thought earlier during the sound check that her vocal eq was messed up--nope, the darned bass shredded it. That said, the songs where Mike took a break enjoyed a pleasant mix. Refreshing. Then, as if to add salt to the wound, Suzanne performed a couple of songs with just voice and bass. Again, very bold and interesting, but the bass was too loud. Still "Blood Makes Noise" worked well. While, "Left of Center" didn't fair so well in this arrangement.

Having connected strongly with Suzanne's music for many years, I handed her a copy of one my books before the concert. Will she enjoy my stuff as much as I enjoyed hers? I don't know -- be pleased if she did. Btw, I picked up a Live CD of hers after the show -- very nice. A much better eq mix on the CD than at this particular show.