Michelle had extra tickets so I just tagged along. I knew of Vienna Teng but never really listened to her music. I think she's pretty much a bay area phenomenon, having attended Stanford and actually worked at Cisco as an engineer in a previous lifetime. She does live in NYC now. Apparently that's not her real name

I stopped by the Tablehopper social before, real cool to meet finally Marcia (like Garcia, my bad). She had a party for the preopening of Cantina by Union Square. Cool space, for a bar. I thought it was a restaurant, I need to read those invitations. Anyway, can't hate on free drinks

Onto the show: a Jenny Owens Youngs opened, she was sassy and fun, just acoustic guitarring it. I thought there were too many jokes but the highlight was her rendition of Nelly's "Hot In Herre" (it's on her MySpace). It woulda been real original except some indie chick actually covered NWA's "Straight Outta Compton". Still, gotta big up

Vienna had a little band thing going on with a cello + violin chicks and percussion dude who did a buncha things (guitar and two weirdo instruments). From my seat (pretty good), she didn't look Chinese at all. She's tall, slender, beautiful voice. Seriously. She upped Jenny by working Kanye West's "Golddigger". Nice. All in all, a little too mellow for me though 3 songs were pretty much the shit. Also "Pontchartrain" was kinda creepy eerie sorta good. She did a great acappella Chinese song for her encore, kinda sublime but you might have to be Chinese

myspace.com/viennateng
myspace.com/jennyowenyoungs

Vienna Teng 2007 Tour Dates
May 10 2007 Palace of Fine Arts Theatre San Francisco, California
May 12 2007 The Triple Door Seattle, Washington
May 12 2007 The Triple Door Seattle, Washington
May 13 2007 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
May 13 2007 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
May 14 2007 John Henry's Eugene, Oregon
Jul 18 2007 Union Hall Brooklyn, New York
Jul 19 2007 The Birchmere Alexandria, Virginia
Jul 20 2007 Ram's Head Tavern Annapolis, Maryland
Jul 22 2007 XPoNential Music Festival (Wiggins Park) Camden, New Jersey
Aug 5 2007 Millennium Plaza Park Lake Oswego, Oregon

jbc actually got to meet Vienna back in March at his Mt Jade cult or whatevers

Some pics, entire set

Jenny Owens Youngs


Vienna Teng