Tuesday, April 16, 2002
The Halifax Herald Limited
Marshall's stories enthrall Cohn crowd
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Ted Pritchard / Herald Photo
Amanda Marshall performs Monday night at Halifax's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium to a sold-out crowd, following her whirlwind Juno Awards weekend in St. John's.
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By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter CONCERT REVIEW
Imagine Cher's voice in Sarah Jessica Parker's body, and you already have a vague mental image of Canadian vocal powerhouse Amanda Marshall, but as she sings on her current CD's theme song Everybody's Got a Story, "that's not the picture, that's only a part."
The tagline to that is "everybody's got a story that will break your heart," but Marshall wasn't planning to send her fans away sad after her sold-out Monday night concert at Halifax's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.
Backed by an eight-piece band, Marshall took to a stage designed like an urban playground, festooned with neon graffiti, heightened by the musicians, dressed-down to fit in denim and brightly coloured T-shirts. Meanwhile, Marshall was all uptown, rail-thin in a red crop top, shiny purple flares and a black fedora trying vainly to rein in her trademark wild blond mane.
For her fans, the clothes are the icing, the songs are the cake, and Marshall dipped into three albums' worth, with the newer material showing a freedom and playfulness that was only bubbling under before. Dizzy's sassy strut and the gender-bending betrayal of Brand New Beau not only show Marshall stretching her composing chops, she also adds new shades to her singing style beyond a familiar take-no-prisoners vocal blast.
The Cohn audience also got a special treat when Marshall took a break from the format of the show to relate her tale of attending her first rock concert, by '80s pop icons Glass Tiger, in that very room as a teenager, when she lived in Waverley and attended Armbrae Academy.
It takes a lot of guts to own up to kissing the bassist of Glass Tiger, but that must go with the lung power.
Halifax based pop band Crush - led by Newfoundlanders Paul Lamb and Cory Tetford - opened the show with an amped-up set of songs from its debut CD Here, plus a few tunes off of Tetford's solo record Grace.
Crush has been making the most of its time on the road, with well-honed harmonies and a comfortable presence onstage, while the two guitarists trade licks and flesh out their effective arrangements. Like an East Coast Sam and Dave, Lamb's heart and Tetford's soul add up to a complete package.
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