Somehow it seemed fitting on so many levels that Sinead O’Connor was making her return to L.A. after eight years away the same night as the Oscars just a few miles away.
For starters, if O’Connor’s staggering story over the last decades is ever turned into a biopic, and it’s hard to think of another artist in that time whose story comes close to rivaling the incredible twists and turns O’Connor has gone through, the ending scene could be this show at the sold out El Rey Theater.
Just a few years after her alarming suicidal videos, to see one of music’s great artists smiling, reveling in the love of the rapturous audience, sounding as brilliant as ever, looked like the triumphant closing scene of a movie. It was as uplifting and heartwarming as it was musically compelling.
Then it’s also easy to see some parables between O’Connor story and Joaquin Phoenix’s acclaimed Oscar acceptance speech. Both send the same message – fame and artistry don’t mix. Fame doesn’t support artistry and for artists like O’Connor, a true artist, to deal with her early fame, hitting Number One and enjoying worldwide fame with “Nothing Compares 2 U” at 23 (remember fame at 23 in 1990 is worlds apart from the teens and tweens who now rule pop music), can be devastating. She sings it herself in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” one of the musical highlights of this magical night.
“How could I possibly know what I want/When I was only twenty-one?And there’s millions of people/To offer advice and say how I should be,” she sang at the time of I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, still one of the top albums of the ’90s.
But all of that is now in the past. Now 53, and most importantly seemingly happy and healthy, O’Connor showed at the sold-out, 75-minute showcase she is ready for her comeback. And it will be interesting to see which festival is smart enough to book her first because as the audience showed as well, they are more than ready to embrace her.
Backed by a superb five-piece band, O’Connor showed her vocal prowess is as compelling and moving as ever. It helps of course that her songs have the sort of longevity and artistry that endure for three decades. I have interviewed O’Connor multiple times over the years and during one talk she spoke to me about feeling a kinship with artists such as John Lennon and Bob Marley.
Like those icons she has crafted songs that mix the personal and political so beautifully they become timeless. It was hard not to tear up tonight during the stunning “Black Boys On Mopeds” and the vivid cinematic detail of “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance” will be as relevant a thousand years from now as it would have been a thousand years ago.
Though there were many highlights from the seminal I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, O’Connor drew on works throughout her career, opening with her 2012 cover of John Grant’s “Queen Of Denmark,” then drawing on the title track to 2014′s Take Me To Church collection.
Four of the first five songs came from 2012′s How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? with “The Wolf Is Getting Married” and “Reason With Me” both standing out. She stripped the sound down, accentuating her still mesmerizing vocals, on 2000′s gorgeous “Jealous.”
If there was one song that meant the most though on this special night it was 1994′s magical and beautiful “Thank You For Hearing Me.” Vintage O’Connor in its directness and intimacy, the song, breathtakingly beautiful on this night, took on added weight as O’Connor sang, “Thank you for loving me” before her adoring audience, who gave her deserved standing ovation after standing ovation.
She left to one last standing ovation during the closing “Back Where You Belong.” “That’s it, good night,” a beaming O’Connor said, walking off stage in what would have been a hell of a closing scene to a great, great comeback story.
