Lisa Germano, opening for the Dreamworks band The Eels, played an all too brief set to a receptive audience tonight (November 4th) at Lee's Palace in Toronto.
Starting off with "A Beautiful Schizophrenic" from her 1996 album "Excerpts From a Love Circus", Lisa continued her one-woman show with songs from her newest album "Slide". Highlights included "Reptile", "If I Think Of Love" and "Way Below The Radio", which Lisa introduced as having nothing to do with radios but rather how we as people act like our own "receivers" of positive (and negative) energy.
Most of the short set was devoted to "Slide" with Lisa giving equal time to her guitar and keyboard, which sadly was missing a note. A cry from the audience for her fiddle was met with Lisa saying she left it in her purse back on the bus.
As a conclusion, Lisa gave a long explanation about her closing song (one of her finest) called "The Darkest Night Of All". Barely a few seconds into the song, the missing note on her keyboard proved too frustrating for her and she abruptly quit playing, saying goodnight to the crowd. The audience was somewhat disappointed by this but overall were very pleased with the intimate show.
Afterwards, Lisa met with a few devoted fans and she signed some CD's and ticket stubs. I chatted briefly with her and thanked her for staying true to her unique vision on yet another fine album. She was very accomadating, even blow drying her freshly written signature on my "Slide" compact disc.
I was about to leave, blowing off The Eels show (not a big fan) when I noticed someone very familiar in the crowd about to meet Lisa. Totally unexpected, it turned out to be Nina Persson from The Cardigans, who just happened to be in town on a press tour! Nina took time out to chat with me briefly and sign my ticket stub. She says to look forward to a full North American tour from The Cardigans in early '99, while a quick US tour is on right now (NYC on November 5th at the Bowery Ballroom).
A fine evening with Lisa Germano and a nice surprise from meeting the lovely Nina Cardigan. Hello to Mr. Venn!
Here a a couple unofficial but good sites:
Lisa Germano - great lyric site! http://www.dyadel.net/~lenny/germ.htm http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/3992/lisa.htmlThe Cardigans - the official site http://cardigans.net/Frames/index.html
JEFF KEIBEL TORONTO, ONTARIO CANADA