:: Joan As Policewoman - Northcote Social Club - October 2006

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

I was especially pleased when I heard about Joan Wasser's latest project Joan As Policewoman. I was fortunate to see her perform on the violin with The Dambuilders ten years ago, as support act to the late Jeff Buckley. Australians hadn't heard much of her in recent years, after her involvement in Those Bastard Souls.

On this night, Joan looked sophisticated in an evening gown as she played a solo set of songs at the Northcote Social Club, an intimate setting for her piano/acoustic guitar sentimentality.

Her debut album ‘Real Life’ set the scene for the performance. The album has sublime tastes of heartfelt, personal compositions but it is always interesting to see how such songs are expressed live. Joan can be a witty and fun-loving person, but when providing the mood for these songs, such as she showed here, she held the crowd in her hand. Hardly a pin dropped as she settled into her set, displaying a gorgeous upper register and adept piano playing. Remember that we'd only seen her play violin previously. She enjoyed the banter in between songs too.

Songs that captured the imagination were ‘Eternal Flame’ (connected beautifully with the audience), ‘Christobel’, and ‘We Don't Own It’ (very moving).

Overall, it was an engrossing experience to see Joan sing live for the first time. She enjoyed it also. We look forward to her returning to Australia next year with her full band.