Feist Concert

I started this entry a while ago and left it as a draft - now it's time to wrap it up and push it out. It's not as complete as I wanted, but better than nothing...

Excellent excellent concert. I would pay more than $20 to see the same concert again.

First opener: New Buffalo - thought she was great after hearing the first two songs then after a few more I realized I didn't like her too much after all. She acts quite strange on stage, doing a sortof pouty-face upset 10-year-old thing. The thing that disturbed me the most was the lack of variety in the songs. I bet it's hard when you're the only one on stage, but I'm not sure if you can use that as an excuse...

Second opener: James Collett
http://www.arts-crafts.ca/jasoncollett
One of the best opening acts I've heard (probably better than Lindy even). Never heard of him/them before, but was thoroughly impressed. Dan and I did the "sounds like..." and came up with the Wallflowers, Blue Rodeo, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones. They definetly act like the Stones on stage - same kind of strutting around, wide mouths, and possibly other stuff.

I highly recommend checking these guys out if you appreciate solid rocking Folk/Rock bands.

Feist:
Too talented to be true. Her first appearance on stage was drumming for James Collett. She didn't do anything extraordinary as a drummer, but she drummed. Then, starting her set, she sang (obviously) and played guitar. Again, the guitar playing wasn't anything extravagent, but it was 100% solid. Her voice on the other hand was more than solid - better than the recordings I've heard. Lots of vocal tricks, truely creative variations on melodies (likely improvised) and all that with that little something that makes her voice so unique.

She used vocal loops for a few songs where she layered over five different harmonies on top of each other (recorded live one after the other). They all fit together like puzzel pieces. It was to the point where I thought what she's doing up there with the melodies is beyond what I can follow. I'd have to listen to it a number of times to be able to follow everything that was going on.

Most of the songs sounded nothing like the versions on CD. Completely different arrangements and different rythms. It was good for almost all of them except for a few where I thought they should have been left in their original arragement. But others would probably disagree with me on this.

Altogether, I'll just repeat what I wrote earlier. I would pay more than $20 to see the same concert again. I would probably feel comfortable at $30 and say no above $40. As a reference point, I don't like paying more than $1.50 for a cup of tea ;)