Sarah Kimball: Demon Lover & Songs of Other Dimensions
Sarah Kimball
Demon Lover & Songs of Other Dimensions
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, December 6, 2014
Reviewed by Annamaria Alfieri for Cabaret Scenes
For this theatrical and winning performance, the lovely Sarah Kimball took the stage at New York’s Don’t Tell Mama dressed to kill in black lace and delivered a song list that ran from romantically twisted to seductively spooky to downright paranormal.
“My time of day is the dark time,” Kimball began, setting the tone for a performance that showed off her considerable dramatic skills as well as her impressive vocal range. She delivered “Purple Haze” in beautiful voice, nuanced with guitarist Sean Harkness’s touches of Hendrix-like ethereal cries. Songs as familiar as “Witchcraft” took on a special eeriness in the company of “Demon Lover” and “People Are Strange.” Kimball showed her sense of fun as well as her vocal chops with “Dead Egyptian Blues,” and her straightforward and heartfelt rendition managed to keep “Jacob’s Dream” from turning melodramatic and maudlin.
Musical Director Rick Jensen’s arrangements and piano accompaniment gave the performance a powerful thrust and nuanced color throughout, but nowhere more so than with Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” and Jace Everett’s “Bad Things,” which was the hit of the evening—part sinful anthem and part impish come-on. In fact, “Bad Things” was so good that it was too bad the evening did not end with it. The encore of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” paled by comparison.
Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews
