Monday, December 19, 2022

Live Shows: Savoir Faire, Union Coffee Co., Milford, NH 12/17/22

Photo by Sasha Pedro

Since discovering Savoir Faire back in January, I've been dying to get out and see her live, but it just hasn't quite worked out for me. She's played a decent number of shows, but I unfortunately couldn't make any. Luckily just before the year ended she played a show at the tiny Union Coffee Co. in Milford, NH!

How tiny is Union Coffee Co.? In the room with the stage, there were only ten chairs. Sure, there was room for people to stand, but it's a tiny stage and a tiny venue. That and the fact that it was a hometown show for Savoir Faire with the audience made up mostly of people she knew, it was an intensely intimate show. For an artist that normally plays rooms with fifty to one hundred people, it was a special chance to see her play in the smallest room possible.

Playing with a bass player, Savoir Faire played a late afternoon/early evening show broken into two sets. She mixed it up by playing mostly originals with a good number of covers, too. Her cover choices were an interesting mix that rarely went with obvious choices. Possibly the most obvious choice was a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," which was perfect for her jazz meets indie rock/folk vibe. Other covers includes a song from Radiohead's In Rainbows, Sheryl Crow's James Bond theme "Tomorrow Never Dies, Fiona Apple's "I Know," No Doubt's "Climb," and Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains." It was an eclectic mix for sure, with Fiona Apple being the most obvious choice as Savoir Faire has played entire tribute sets for Apple. There was also a planned Tragic Kingdom anniversary show that was derailed by COVID, so we might see more No Doubt covers down the road.

It wasn't all covers, of course, and Savoir Faire's originals held up to he cover choices. She has this wonderful mix of jazz standards meets an indie edge sound which was shown off perfectly on a song like "Sweet." "Alias" was another highlight of the evening with it's attention grabbing guitar work. The closer of the night was "Think Twice," which ended with one of the finest laid back guitar solos I've heard in a long time. You don't usually get shredding at a jazz inspired singer/songwriter performance, but most artists aren't Savoir Faire.

No comments:

Post a Comment