Carmen Consoli, Triple Door, Seattle, September 22, 2008 (MvB)

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Two years ago NPR did a story on Sicilian singer/songwriter Carmen Consoli trying to break into the U.S. music charts; we don't know if that happened, but last night at the Triple Door there was an appreciative audience clad in stylish wool sweaters and hand-tooled leather footwear, and who evidently needed no subtitles. She's a bit like Italy's Ani DiFranco, known for her feminist indie-rock sensibility--but she's also Italian enough to play a concert in black 4-inch stiletto heels. Meanwhile her songs feature a parade of female characters--the woman addicted to plastic surgery, the woman ditched at the altar, the woman hounded by small town gossips. It's a bit like The Nails' "88 Lines About 44 Women," except with Consoli, it's more like 88 songs about 88 women. Her 2006 album Eva Contro Eva continued that trend. We knew her from 2000's Stato di necessità, which included "Parole Di Burro," (sung last night slowed to crawl, sadly), "In Bianco E Nero," and "Ultimo Bacio." She read Emily Dickinson's "Wild Nights" to us, and told us about the dubious U.S. customs officials looking over a shin-based instrument of hers made of chain and rattles that, combined with the stilettos, gave off air of workmanlike BDSM. At the end of each song, people put down their merlot and applauded like crazy.