Lion of Ireland

Taking moms to a Sinéad O’Connor concert on her last night visiting Paris was funny, considering how recently I took in a Sananda Maitreya (p.k.a. Terence Trent D’Arby) show. Both singers showed unbounded promise in the early 90s and seemed almost blackballed by the powers-that-be for different reasons come 2000. O’Connor sports such a far-ranging style that I didn’t know if her show would be mom-appropriate: there’s rock Sinéad (The Lion and the Cobra), pop-rock Sinéad (I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got), yes-I Rasta Sinéad (Throw Down Your Arms), and dare I say granola lesbian Sinéad (Universal Mother)… many many. But she synthesized them all last night at the Casino de Paris into a stellar show.

After Victoria Tibblin, an underwhelming guitar-strumming chanteuse, briefly opened the show, Sinéad and a five-piece band took the stage: bassist, guitarist, drummer, fiddler and keyboardist/flautist/accordionist. Though ostensibly promoting her latest double-disc Theology (with the same songs done acousticly on disc two), her set opened strong with “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “I Am Stretched on Your Grave,” from the multiplatinum I Do Not Want of 17 years ago; they performed six of its songs in all. She introduced “Never Get Old” from her début as a song about stealing bibles, created an arresting a cappella moment for “In This Heart,” and brought back the Prince cover “Nothing Compares 2 U” into her concert repertoire after a little retirement. All her spiritual lyrics shone through, with a prophetic veneer added to tunes like the encore, “Black Boys on Mopeds” (“These are dangerous days/To say what you feel is to dig your own grave”).

A triumphant night for the lion of Ireland overall; Parisians sang along or paid silently rapt, respectful attention to numbers like “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance,” “Whosoever Dwells,” and “Thank You for Hearing Me.” The show highlighted all the more how severely Sinéad was robbed of the pop stardom she deserved pre- the Saturday Night Live pope picture-ripping incident (which she may still be paying for). But she’s a child of god, she’ll be aiight. As last night proved, you can’t stop the shining.