“Not everyone knows how the original ‘Tom’s Diner’ goes” announced Suzanne Vega, just moments after stepping out on stage. She’s right, since for many, the early 90s dance remix by DNA was their entry point to the Vega canon that had begun half a decade earlier. The Brighton Dome crowd were more than familiar with the bare, a cappella original though. Its stark, assured, unadorned beauty is how her set predictably began – predictable since we were there to hear two of her earliest and most defining albums, Solitude Standing and 99.9F back to back and in sequence, and ‘Tom’s Diner’ is first out of the gate, every time.

After boldly setting the scene in this wholly expected, yet still somehow unsettling way, drums, bass and electric guitar met Suzanne’s own trademark, finger-picking acoustic guitar, but not before a brief word from Suzanne, who is quite the raconteur, it transpires. Anyone who had come expecting uninterrupted tracks in the manner of an obsessed teen cloistered in their bedroom with the album on repeat (guilty as charged!) could easily have been disappointed at this first interjection. Arguably, the spell and spirit of an album is broken by interruptions, yet to ignore an audience is a risk. It rapidly became clear (collective sigh of relief) that Suzanne’s track-by-track revelations were illuminating rather than distracting, unveiling important and enriching insights into how the tracks first came to life. A childhood living among immigrants and falsely believing she was one herself, a fascination with surrealist art, Liverpool and Peter Gabriel, and the discovery of a lineage that included a grandmother who was a professional drummer in the 1930s – all this and more makes up the tapestry of Suzanne’s early work.

The evening was a clear game of two halves; the softer, more youthful Solitude Standing, followed by the harsher and more jagged 99.9F post-interval. Notably, another album sits between these two – Days Of Open Hand – and Suzanne was keen to point out that a major life event happened between the two albums, that of tracking down her unknown birth father and discovering an identity she never knew she had. That world-altering revelation is evident in the later 99.9F, from the jarring, unsettling opener ‘Rock In This Pocket’ to the contemplative ‘In Liverpool’, musing on a love long lost, who reappeared 27 years later thanks to the invention of the internet; another fine anecdote between songs. Inevitably, this was the documentation of an artist maturing. Suzanne is still on the road, 30 years on, with her original bassist, Michael Viseglia. The affinity between them is evident and no more so than on tracks like the athletic ‘Left Of Center’ (an encore track) which is the perfect vehicle to showcase Mike’s signature bouncing bass.

It was a deserved double standing ovation for Suzanne and the band, with a surprise appearance of the DNA dance remix of ‘Tom’s Diner’ to start the three-song encore. A cover of a cover, if you will, recreated with live drums and bass, much to the crowd’s delight and disbelief.

Suzanne retains all the characteristic warmth of her beguiling vocal delivery, once used as an acid test for the development of mp3 technology. If she was once an old soul ahead of her years, she has undergone a curious inversion as she approaches her 60s, bringing a surprising youthfulness to songs conceived a lifetime ago. She is an enigmatic artist of intriguing contradictions, wise yet whimsical, ardent yet aloof. In a live context, we see the self-assured stature that has come to fruition over the decades. While she may sing of residing “in the outskirts and the fringes,” when stood centre stage, she is all-presiding – regal, even. And long may she reign.

Kelly Westlake

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