Last night, Rae and I went to Vienna Teng and Alex Wong’s performance at The Independent in San Francisco. It’s been quite some time since we last saw Vienna perform; once again, she did not disappoint. I especially enjoyed the additional musical layers in her live song renditions; she’s certainly come a long way from just using the piano at her performances.
I’ve been listening to Vienna’s new album, Dreaming Through The Noise, on repeat for the past several days. This is how I experience her music, letting it leave a permanent imprint on my auditory sensors and memories. The album at first glance appears to be a departure from her first two albums, Waking Hour and Warm Strangers. Waking Hour was a collection of autobiographical songs, and Warm Strangers offered tunes detailing the lives of semi-random fictional characters. Dreaming initially seemed more atmospheric than the previous two, detailing the lives not of people, but of the buildings, vehicles, and locales people inhabited.
The more I listen to the album, however, the more I realize that this is what Vienna’s all about. She’s weaving stories out of the vibrancy of life. You, me, the rock, the tree, and the X-Wing (okay, maybe not that X-Wing).
I’m rambling… my favorite songs on this album include:
Vienna has embarked on a crazy tour schedule with Duncan Sheik. Check her out if she’s coming through your town!
Despite their schedules being a click away, Eric and Vienna are hard people to keep track of. Eric recently returned from a trip to Fiji, where he continued to demonstrate his growing mastery of underwater photography. Vienna was getting ready for another mini-tour to Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and San Diego, before returning to San Jose for a show a Montgomery Theater on June 1.
Mission Street. I finally walked into the apartment where the song of the same name on Warm Strangers was written. Vienna made the comment that her apartment doesn’t feel like home anymore. The motels and hotels she stays in during her tour are home now. “Is she lonely, driving all those miles on the open road?” “No,” she replied, “At times. I felt more lonely sitting in front of my computer in my cube at work.” So true. I sometimes wonder if the life of the cube is waiting for me after the Fellowship is over, or if I’m better suited to continuing to do my own thing for a little while longer. We’ll find out soon enough; the program is ending next week!
Vienna Teng performed in front of a huge crowd at Cowell Theater last night, accompanied by musicians Jim Batcho (drums), ??? (bass), Eric Cheng (cello), Marika Hughes (cello), and Alan Lin (violin). Marika and Alan will be touring with Vienna for part of the year. Having toured with Vienna in the past, I wonder what kind of van or truck they are going to rent; there’s a lot of equipment to be transporting this time around!
Hearing her music with a full band is quite an experience. The sounds have more depth and are much richer. It’s neither better nor worse than just her and the piano, just different. A good kind of different! The opening act, Noe Venable was pretty good too, hitting my soft-spot for female vocalists.
Warm Strangers, the second album from singer-songwriter Vienna Teng was released today. Vienna performed in front of a huge crowd at the Borders Bookstore in Palo Alto. Two years ago, only a handful of people might have attended one of her in-store performances. Now, the line goes up and down the stairwell and around the second floor aisles! It has been quite the treat to see her fan base grow over the years.
For many, this was the first opportunity to hear new tracks such as Homecoming, Shasta, Mission Street, Atheist Christmas Carol, and the Green Island Serenade. As Letterman said of Waking Hour, “I’ve heard the entire CD and there’s not a dud on this.”
This just in! Copies of Vienna Teng’s new album Warm Strangers were spied on the shelves at Santana Row Best Buy! The second full-length album from Vienna Teng was supposed to be released on Tuesday, February 24, 2004. It is likely that some over-zealous employee gave the go-ahead to put it up. Warm Strangers was also seen on Apple’s iTunes Music Store a few weeks ago, but a return trip to the ITMS reveals that the album is now offline.
Vienna will be performing at the Borders bookstore in Downtown Palo Alto tomorrow evening. On Sunday, she’ll be on stage at Cowell Theater in the Fort Mason complex in San Francisco. Rumor has it that cellist Eric Cheng will be joining her on stage for a few songs! It’s a not to be missed event, with tickets still available!
Thanks to the heads-up by reader, James Matthews, I learned that Vienna Teng’s Waking Hour is now available on the iTunes Music Store! This is very cool!
Her new album, Warm Strangers, is due out at the end of February. Check out the pre-order page from Amazon.
Best Buy would be one of the last places I could think of as a venue for Vienna Teng to perform. There she was last week, however, performing in front of fans and Christmas shoppers at the Best Buy in Santana Row in San Jose. Some of the usual fans were there, including Levi and Vanessa, and Michele and Eric. I also ran into Gordon Lai and his family; not only is he a Vienna Teng fan, but he also frequents tow.com and Eric Cheng’s! Hey, I can’t argue with that!
Actaully, Fry’s is one of the last places I could think of, but that might just become a reality one of these days!
Drove up to the City this afternoon to review some of the Vienna Teng East Coast Tour footage with a crew from Voice of America, who is doing a segment on Vienna. While Vienna and Jim worked on some new recordings, I reviewed the tapes with Lily. Overall, the footage was decent, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Fortunately, the sound came out pretty well, thanks to one of the cameras being plugged directly into the sound board.
Afterwards, I hung out at Eric’s place, watching him clean his 1Ds sensor before going to dinner at Alice’s in Noe Valley.
19 performances and a number of television and radio appearances later, we’re at the end of the East Coast Tour. Vienna’s tour began on March 27 at the Kendall Cafe in Boston, MA and today, April 17, it ended at The Basement in Nashville, TN.
Nashville, as one might suspect, is a music town. I wasn’t prepared for the silence that came whenever Vienna performed. Kathy and Tom, proprietors of Linden Manor, the bed and breakfast inn where we stayed, told me that the crowds in Nashville are really respectful of musicians Certainly Mr. Clap and Snap from Eddie’s Attic would have been eaten alive by the crowd had he been at The Basement.
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