I had the opportunity to see Joe Jackson at the Chan Centre in Vancouver last night. While not familiar with most of his music, I was told that it would be a great show and I’ve always wanted to check out the Chan Centre, as I heard it was an amazing venue – so off I went!
The Chan Centre is located at the northern end of the University of British Columbia campus overlooking the ocean. Nestled amongst the cherry blossoms, the unique circular tower looks more like a power-station than a state-of-the-art theatre.
Once inside, the crowd was buzzing. Many fans have been waiting over 10 years for Jackson to return to Vancouver. Shortly after 8, the lights dimmed and the audience erupted in applause and cheers, while Jackson walked on stage, sat at his grand piano and started the set with his 1982 hit Steppin’ Out to the audience’s absolute delight.
Playing with only two other musicians (the incredibly talented bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton), the trio’s tunes filled the auditorium crisp and clear as if they were playing right in your ear.
Jackson was in good spirits with his quick British-wit on form cracking jokes between many of the songs. He seemed sincerely appreciative of the warm reception, even stating at one point that he was surprised by the turn-out as he was half-expecting to show up to “two men and a dog.”
Along with older hits like You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) and It’s Different For Girls, which were very well received by the crowd, Jackson played a number of songs from his latest album, Rain.
One of the highlights of the performance for me was a song called Solo which Jackson performed, you guessed it, solo. A heart-wrenching ballad, which Jackson explained, was about loneliness and solitude, had me fighting back tears to the sounds of sniffles all around me.
With his band back on stage, Jackson kicked things up a notch with a cover of his “American musical hero,” Duke Ellington’s Don’t Get Around Much Anymore and a unique piano-based arrangement of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by his “English musical hero,” David Bowie. He teased the crowd saying he wanted to include a song by his “Canadian musical hero, Leonard Cohen, but sing it in a falsetto just to be perverse.”
Of course the crowd was eagerly anticipating Jackson’s biggest single, Is She Really Going Out With Him, which he held out on performing until the encore. The crowd clapped and sang along and ended the song with a drawn-out sing-a-long to the line “something going wrong around here.” The final song of the evening, A Slow Song, wrapped things up for the evening as each member left the stage one-at-a-time while Jackson continued on the piano. By the time he had finished the song the crowd was already on their feet with a final standing ovation.