the river live??

[abovethemountain]

don't know if this is the right place to put it but anyway..

has Polly ever performed The River live??

it's one of my favourite songs of hers but I can't seem to find a live performance of it anywhere. why??!

[Hell and High Water]

According to the Gigography, only twice, both times in Austrailia! -

http://pjharveyshows.thegardenforum.org/2006-2008.html

[abovethemountain]

thank you!! why oh why has she not performed it more

[DrDark]

thank you!! why oh why has she not performed it more

I've often wondered about that. It is definitely one of her most affecting songs. Maybe that's the problem, it's a little too affecting for all concerned.

It's a shame neither of these gigs (2008-02-22 Perth and 2008-02-20 Melbourne) were captured in audio or video. I may be wrong, but as I recall Mick Harvey accompanied her on piano for some of the encore songs, including The River. There were a few flickr photos from 2008-02-20 showing Mick at the piano and PJ standing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinstertoo/2280065377/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23984245@N07/2280785628/

This YT "video" of still photos of PJ accompanied by The River has one of the higher view counts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0q8dV5oZ8A

[Alexander]

While performing The River it is needed to play the piano on stage. I think before White Chalk era Polly just wasn't good enough at playing piano on stage (playing piano while doing studio recording is not the same as playing on stage). Besides, it needed the piano instrument (an unusual one for Polly before 2007) to be set on stage for only one song. That's why she never performed The River, I believe. But during White Chalk era she had the whole new album based on piano, right? But maybe she thought like "why play an old piano song if you have some new ones"? And I believe it was Mick Harvey's idea to manage Polly to perform The River in 2008, like "You released one of the greatest songs ten years ago. Go on, Polly, perform it, and I'll help you with playing piano".

[Aurora]

In Melbourne, Mick played piano and Polly sang.

Later on, when we saw Mick Harvey outside, I said, as did others, that it was a wonderful performance of 'The River'. He was quite excitable and said 'yeah we just threw it together'

She said that she cannot play it - too difficult.

I've got some photos that I took during the song, it really was very special. I'll try and post 'em now - close as we'll get I think

I wish I could have recorded ALL the shows..

[Aurora]

[Aurora]

[Aurora]

[Aurora]

[Aurora]

some of them are really blurry...it was hard to take pics. an usher told me not to

there's an album of them here for the ultra interested
http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/Au ... 22008%202/

guess this is more 'prettiest mess' than 'bird of paradise' now whoops..

[Hell and High Water]

Lines blur sometimes...

Thanks!

[DrDark]

Thanks Aurora. I guess it may be a little over Polly's skills as a piano player, but she's had Eric as a keyboard player all these years since ITD. You'd think they would've played it more. It's an unforgetable piece.

The only thing I can think of is that the sound of the instrumentation is so unique and studio specific (like some of the Stories songs) that she didn't think she could do it justice live. Then again, there may be very personal reasons she has for not playing it.

[Aurora]

it gives me a funny feeling looking through the photos. it was very emotional. the whole thing was, but well, that song I guess - you know, we heard the same set just about every show....then some very special surprises here and there.

yeah I agree, ITD? itself as well - both songs I adore which haven't been played live enough!

[abovethemountain]

thank you so much aurora you're so lucky to have seen that!! I wonder if she'll play it more now??! *crosses fingers* and I agree, ITD is one of her best songs and it's not played live nearly enough