What's your favorite Modern Stevie performance?

[louielouie2000]

So I'm going to openly rip off AnthonyMI's Rhiannon thread, with the exception of broadening it's scope . The thread title says it all. What is your favorite modern Stevie performance? What makes it so special for you? By modern, I will say anything 1997-2010. This can include solo or Mac, officially released or not.

This is probably a fluid answer... meaning it wasn't the same a couple of years ago, and it likely won't be the same a couple of years from now. That being said, I'm gonna have to go for:

How Still My Love from Soundstage.

Why? I can't precisely place that answer. The performance is sort of an amalgam of all the performances of the song I've ever heard... so thus, it shouldn't be all that special. She seems to have hand picked the best aspects of every rendition of the song she's ever performed, and calculatingly wove them together. I think perhaps the answer lies elsewhere, though.

The first time I saw the Soundstage concert, I was almost shocked at the raw sexuality Stevie exhibited for this song. The whole way she moved her hips and did the shawl twirl thing is about the most openly sexy I've EVER seen Stevie act. She was basically simulating stripping and making hot nasty lovin'... in a very Stevie way of course. I didn't think the old girl had that in her... she's become increasingly staid in appearance, clothing, vocally, and performance as time has marched on. She simply threw all of that out of the window with this one rendition. It was one of the most bold statements I've ever seen her make, it was like Stevie was proving: I may be 60, but I've still got moves that will make ANYONE blush... and I don't have to dress like a harlot to prove it!

I think in the end... you can just tell Stevie was having a ball, and that's what matters the most. She said back in the early '80s that this was her favorite song to perform on stage, and you can tell that's probably still the case. And that just shines through and through with this performance... and is probably why I love it so.