Joan As Police Woman
Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
Friday 18th April 2025
Joan As Police Woman – aka Joan Wasser – delivers a relaxed solo set of new material and rearranged versions of her best tunes.
Joan Wasser is one of those artists who like a fine wine just gets better with maturity, winning a quietly ecstatic reaction to this solo show from an older audience who probably have been there from the start back in 2004.
Wasser has played this intimate venue a few times and it shows with some relaxed patter between some of her typically intense songs delivered on electric guitar and piano where she warms up with oldies Honor Wishes and Warning Bell. Wasser started her professional life as a violinist for New York legends like Antony & the Johnsons, but as her fingers fly over the upright piano balanced precariously on the stage it’s clear she is an accomplished pianist.
She’s on the road promoting her well received new album, Lemons, Limes and Orchids, which is a hopeful record as she finds some sort of personal contentment on the punchy Remember The Voice. Tell Me remains one of her best tunes, and her simple guitar playing allows her strong voice to swoop and soar over the melody.
Wasser has been a key player on the Big Apple alternative scene for a long time so her plaintive playing and singing on a really intense Kiss The Specifics bring to mind the great Laura Nyro, who also managed the neat trick of blending soul and angst. Wasser suggests that Safe To Say from her new record was taking her into ‘soul ballad territory’.
The title track of the new record is something of a love song to New York, albeit one where she ‘wandered the West Side of Manhattan before it was gentrified and found how and why to live’. Before a jazzy Oh Joan she thanks a respectful crowd for ‘supporting quiet live music’ as this is a performance that requires you to pay attention before she smashes out some discordant chords transitioning into a cover of Bob Marley’s Guiltiness, which is timely in what seems like an irredeemably divided world.
To end Wasser is back on guitar for I Was Everyone with more than a hint of Riot grrrl in the riffing and even inspires a totally unexpected singalong as the audience joins in with her plea to ‘be heard’. Between songs the hardcore fans did shout they love Wasser, and when someone calls out for The Ride she teases the melody, but instead closes with a moving rendition of Real Life.
Sometimes intense solo gigs can drag on a bit, but not here as Joan Wasser continues to be an artist with a very clear vision conjuring up an emotional landscape full of honesty, hope and some great tunes that genuinely benefit from the stripped down format.
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You can follow Joan As Police Woman on Facebook and Twitter.
Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.
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