Artist: Tara MacLean
Date: January 25th, 2000
Venue: The Loring Bar
City: Minneapolis, MN
Review by [Amy Lotsberg] Producer of Collected Sounds
We got there in what we thought was plenty of time, but there are only a few tables and a few couches…all taken. So we hung out next to the bar.
I looked for Tara in the crowd but didn’t see her until she was getting up on stage. She was very stylish in her black bell-bottom slacks and a black shirt with a sun on the chest and red mesh sleeves. Her hair was in pig tails and she had on big chunky boots.
She chatted like she knew all of us personally and told some funny stories: Her husband, Bill gave her the boots she was wearing. She said, “I was sick and that’s what he does when I’m sick, he buys me shoes! A perfect man, perfect man.” Then she lifted up her pant leg and showed that the boots came up past her knees. He crowd “who–hoo”ed.
She said she put them on in the hotel and was, like, “whoa! So if I go bailing off the front of the stage…that’s why!”
When she introduced the song “Red” she said it was written for a former boyfriend. She dated Dennis for awhile (like 3 years) and he turned out to be a drug dealer “Don’t they all?”. And after they had broken up she ran into him in a bar. He was with a sleazy “bar fly” and Tara got angrier than she ever had been. She said, “You know how that is when your scalp tightens and your face flushes?” And she stared heading over to the girl to “take her out” (she described her as having “big hair (gestured big hair) and big __(gestured hips)”).
A bouncer who was a mutual friend of theirs stepped in a scooped her up and carried her out of the bar. She never got to beat the crap out of the girl but she said, “They’re married now.”
She spoke of growing up on Price Edward Island and of her father who was a sailor. When he would go out on the boat he would first teach her a guitar chord and she would practice it until he came back. When he would return she would be very excited that she had learned it. She said, “But I only know 5 chords…(fake weeping) he never came back”. Then giggled and said “No, I’m kidding!”
The encore. Child, was about when she was going through the bad breakup that resulted in her writing most of the CD Silence. “Most of that CD was written when I was getting over this fella.”
The song is the advice that her mother gave her. She said that she made it into a song so that one day her little girl would think that she was really smart.
After the show, she jumped off the stage and stood there while people came up to meet her. She signed autographs and sold some CDs.
I went up to her with my “Silence” CD in hand (the one I bought years ago) and asked her if she would sign it. She said, “Sure” and took the booklet out of the case. She said, “What’s your name?” I told her and she signed the booklet. I noticed that others were buying CDs but they looked different. I said, “Are those the same CD as this one?” and she said, “Yeah, they wanted me to be more direct I guess.” I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I gathered it was the cover art where she was looking straight into the camera instead of glancing downward.
She gave me back my CD and said, “It was nice to meet you Amy.”
Tara was adorable, funny, and personable and has a wonderful voice. I was actually surprised at how strong her voice is. She doesn’t cut loose as much on the recordings but her voice is positively beautiful!
Set list
That’s Me
Evidence
Passenger
Red (dedicated to Dennis the Drug Dealer
If I Fall (One I wrote for ‘Felicity’)
For You
Jordan – Dedicated to her dad A man of great faith.
Divided
Encore
Child