Suzanne Vega has heralded the birth of several technologies. She’s sometimes called “the mother of mp3” because the first song digitized in the format was “Tom’s Diner.” Earlier this month, she made history again—as the first major artist to perform “live” in the online virtual world of “Second Life.”

If you’re not familiar with “Second Life,” at first glance it’ll look like a video game: you control a 3-D animated character, or “avatar,” who talks, plays, dances and fights with avatars controlled by other people scattered around the world. But “Second Life” isn’t a game so much as a free-for-all, player-designed social experience. And since 2004, amateur musicians have been playing gigs right in Second Life, by setting up their avatars with an animated guitar or piano and then streaming audio from their basement studios into the game.

You can catch artists like Astrin Few or Frogg Marlowe almost any night of the week, but until Vega played this month, no big names had taken the plunge. A few major label musicians have experimented with “Second Life” as a marketing platform, including Regina Spektor, who’s held listening parties in a kind of kiosk/house dedicated to her work. But Vega went the whole nine yards: on Aug. 3, she appeared as an avatar in the game, speaking and then performing at an event hosted by the public radio show “The Infinite Mind.”

The gig ran into a few glitches. As reported by “Second Life” journalist Wagner James Au—who also shot and posted video clips—the venue had to restrict the audience to about 80 people; Second Life’s servers can’t support more than a hundred or so avatars hanging around the same location. And watching the performance itself, you feel as if you’re seeing something rough and too new to judge. Her a capella performance of “Tom’s Diner” went smoothly, largely because her avatar stayed seated. But playing guitar for “The Queen and the Soldier,” Vega’s avatar jerked and quavered, looking like a one-string marionette with the shivers. Nevertheless, her voice came across clearly and beautifully, and it was completely live—and you could “attend” from the privacy of your den.

If you were lucky enough to attend the event—or like me, check it out on YouTube—you could catch a glimpse of the future, awkwardly animating before you. A future where catching a live show is as simple as clicking open “Second Life” and zipping over to a club, a future where audiences cheer on the stars by typing “WHOOOOOO!!! CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP” in the chat, and the stars respond by saying “Thank you” and clumsily learning how to bow.

To catch Suzanne Vega in this life, go to The Music Hall on Saturday, Aug. 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.50, and available at www.themusichall.org or by calling 603-436-2400.

To try “Second Life,” go to www.secondlife.com. Registration is free. Live music events are listed at www.secondlife.com/events.