By Megan Richardson
Arts Editor

Singer/songwriter Jennifer Marie visited Bates last Thursday night as part of the weekly Village Club series. Marie, who is currently doing an eastern college tour, is working on releasing her fourth album sometime this year. Normally performing with a band, Marie is travelling alone with her piano on this tour, and Marie alone with her piano is what we got here at Bates last week.

On recordings, Marie displays a powerful voice and some interesting lyrics (you can sample her music at www.jennifermarie.com). In person, however, Marie is over the top. She interrupted songs with so many sighs, moans, shrieks, and groans that it was hard to understand just what she was singing about. It felt more like we were interrupting an intimate moment with a girl and her piano than actually attending a concert. Marie was also very loud. Loud can be good, but in the quickly-emptying Silo last Thursday, the loudness served as a reminder that not many people wanted to stick around to find out just how intimate Marie was going to get with her piano.

As far as stage presence is concerned, Marie basically had none. She spoke very little between songs, and on the rare occasions when she tried to get the audience involved either by clapping or by asking us questions, she failed miserably. At one painful point in the evening, Marie got up from her piano, expecting the audience to maintain a clapping-beat, and started to sing and dance. The lone clapper keeping the beat started to clap less and less, until finally the song ended. “Don’t be afraid to get involved,” Marie said. I don’t think fear had anything to do with it.

The overall appearance of the stage, and of Marie, was distracting. Bright fuscia lights were aimed directly at Marie, creating a glare that made her hard to look at. Also, Marie wore a large white hat that covered most of her face for almost the entire night, making it seem as though we were being screeched at by a Q-tip. It wasn’t until the very end of the concert, when Marie put on a tape of her band and removed the hat, that we really got a taste of what she - and her music - are really like.

Marie did two covers that night. The first one, Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” was barely recognizable. Had she not told us before hand that she would be singing a Fiona Apple song, I don’t think I would have known what it was. She butchered it with so many shrieks and sighs that it lost all of it’s basic appeal. Her second cover of the night, though, was actually pretty good. Despite going a little crazy with the ending, Marie did a strong rendition of Janis Joplin’s “Bobby McGee.” Though the audience had dwindled to only a handful of polite students, Marie managed to inspire us to actually sustain a clap through to the end of the song, with much more enthusiasm then she received from her earlier attempt.

It’s really a shame that Marie gave such a poor live performance. Her influences, which include Tori Amos, Led Zeppelin, and Madonna, can be heard quite clearly in her recorded work. She really does have some talent, which is evident from her earlier albums. She just let her voice - and her moaning - get away from her while she was here last week, which made for a disappointing performance overall.





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