Just wanted to drop a quick note that I ended up, pretty much at the last minute, going to see Vienna Teng play last night at the Minnesota Zoo.
I had no idea she’d be rolling through town until she emailed to tell me.
The setting is really nice there at the zoo; it’s on a lake with swans gliding around on it.
She was fabulous, of course. She was with Marika Hughes and a new (new to me anyway) violinist named Dina McAfee (I probably have the spelling wrong). They sounded really nice together.
The rest of the crowd seemed to be enjoying her as well. One woman sitting in front of me leaned back and said, “Do you know the name of this lady?� I told her and my husband said to me, “Well, she asked the right person.� I said, “She probably saw me singing along.�
She was opening for Peter Himmelman, whom I used to love, but have not bought an album of his in 12 years so figured I wouldn’t know any of this stuff, hence didn’t stay for his set (was that the longest sentence you’ve read today?).
Plus, it was about 95 degrees and hot, hot, hot. I felt like I was back in Mexico. It only got hotter when the rest of the crowd showed up. So bad that I couldn’t stomach it. But at least that didn’t happen until she was done.
Her set was 45 minutes but honestly felt like 10. When she said she was doing her last song, I though, “What?! You only get 10 minutes?�
‘Time flies…’ I guess.
Here’s the set list.
Green Island Serenade
The Tower
Gravity
Hope on Fire
Enough to Go By
Unwritten Letter #1
I Don’t Feel So Well (new song, really jazzy and cool)
Harbor