If there’s one thing that irks me about live music, it’s that every now and then you have no other choice but to put up with fans behaving as if they’re in the presence of a musical messiah. You know the types, the ones who applaud even the dullest between-song banter and shush the barman for shoveling a few cubes of ice into your drink. Despicable people.
Everything Joan Wasser does in the first few minutes of her set is absolutely lapped up by her dancefloor coterie, so I’m expecting tonight will be one of those nights. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve read Ulysses... to the best of my ability,” she chuckles, to – you guessed it – rapturous applause. “It pretty much changed my life. I’ve read the letters too. They’re so nasty! They really make me feel better about myself!”
This last part sums up our wiley frontwoman’s charm perfectly. Wasser is a wild thing, a truly great rock Sheba with a timeless rock voice and an all-important naughty streak. She looks phenomenal, clad in a black leather jumpsuit, bellowing out from beneath a crop of unruly raven hair. Although she’s joined on stage by Parker Kindrid (drums) and Tyler Wood (vox, keys and hopelessly funky synth), there’s no taking your eyes off her.
With a set bound to please Joan fanatics and casual midweek boozers alike, the gems come quick and fast. ‘Forever And A Year’ is oddly haunting, while eerie aria ‘Flash’ is drawn out to a stunning 10-minute wail. Oldie ‘Save Me’ is suitably raunchy while encore ‘Say Yes’ is delivered with pure fire. If anything is going to tempt me into full-on drooling devotee territory, it’s the staunch beauty of simple keyboard ditty ‘Real Me’.
Joan may look like the longest-serving rock minx in the business, but hers are not the songs of a woman who’s lived through a handful of careers and as many (often, public) relationships. She writes with a refreshing girlish anticipation, and croons ‘I’m looking for the magic’ as if she expects it to bound through the door of the Button Factory any minute, and rush the stage to meet her. Wasser is a believer - in Joyce, in music and in all’s well ending well – and that’s what we love about her.