Concert Review: Rachael Sage Transforms City Winery
You ever have a bad day? You are on a superbly packed train, half your friend group books the wrong restaurant, and you get a case of bronchitis that makes squeaky toys sound clearer than you? Welp, that happened to me, and as someone who swears perfection is real, it was an un-welcomed ordeal. Yet, Rachael Sage was at City Winery to teach me that pettiness is the biggest detriment to joy and thus creativity.
If I could make a hurricane out of half a cup of water, then Rachael Sage can make wine from it! In essence, Rachael Sage is the person who transforms worry into works of art encouraging persistence. While most of us fiddle through our issues like one would a knot in their hair, Sage flows through them to untie the “hair-strings” that cause us to feel like an unnecessary, cluster of life. While, at first, I thought the songstress was popular amongst dancers because of her own dance history, I realized it is because she plays to transformation. She is all about taking the bits of yourself you deem “less”, and elevating them into love, which is what a dancer does with their body.
“Myopia”, “I’ve Been Waiting”, “Frost”, and “I Don’t Believe It” were stringed and keyed gently in instrumentals, but were packing and punching with messages on metamorphosis. It was something she alluded to in our interview, but only amongst the dim lights of City Winery, and the winding down of “everything” that could go wrong, did I realize Sage’s purpose as a songstress: to musically guide listeners on how to transform the wrongness of a day into the righteousness of being. Sage lyrically takes in the flaws of society and humanity, “Olivia”, and turns them into soft, serene tracks on how your imperfections can be used to highlight your goodness. Although she hailed Howard Jones, the headliner, as a positive person, she, too, felt like a genuine, needed version of positivism.
You do not deny “the bad” of life to get to “the good”, but you do not live in “the bad” and presume the good will just come. Life is a delicate balance, of which Sage has placed it in her melodies that leap and gloss like ballet slippers, and her pastel voice that hues over her music like coloring entering candy. Once again, I allude to her sweet singing to “transformation”, but it all stems form her belief in compassion. If you understand yourself, from limits to capacities, you gain a kinder understanding of others, and the resilience needed to work either through or with them. For More Information On Rachael Sage Click Here.
