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Fiest tonight in the Hammer!

Sarahbelle

By Sarahbelle
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dave-O Newbie

dave-O

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Saw her in Moncton last week, I thought it was a total snoozefest. Slow song after slow song, she even did a couple of her up-tempo tunes in slower stripped down arrangements. Now I'm a fan of the slow songs (see Ryan Adams), but this really dragged and had no energy or emotion.

For what it's worth, I loved her show the previous time I saw her (Halifax, Jan 2006).

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jazzyjeff Newbie

jazzyjeff

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The Massey Hall show back in May put me to sleep.

I chalked it up to not really knowing the new album, not recognizing the arrangements of songs from "Let It Die" and being at the back of the venue.

Now that I've listened to the new album a lot and like it I am giving her another shot tonight but am now prepared for how mellow it will probably be.

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phishtaper Rookie

phishtaper

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i liked it a lot too. we had front row seats, so it was great to see her expressions and silky moves up close. her band was really good, and I just love her voice. she's fun to watch on that big ass guitar she has.

this was a bit of a hometown show for her, mentioning that she had a steady monday night gig at the mermaid lounge in the hammer years ago, and that her father has a painting hanging in the lobby of the theater.

i really do not like the Apostle of Hustle mix of Inside and Out off the Open Season disc that she did last night. in fact, i find it agonizingly slow. i would rather she have done the Let it Die version. it seems she intentionally slowed things down a few times, and I think that's a mistake. her forté is arts & crafts pop, not paris art.

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phishtaper Rookie

phishtaper

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The Spec reviewer loved it ...

Feist puts on show of the year

Indie pop's 'It' girl is one of the first true originals of the new millennium -- style with substance

Graham Rockingham

The Hamilton Spectator

(Dec 4, 2007)

Feist is the current "It" girl of indie pop, winning the world in word-of-mouth increments.

She has the look all the hipsters want -- dark beatnik bangs asking to be capped by a black beret -- and the sound all the coffee-house chanteuses try to match.

Feist is one of the first true originals of the new millennium. Style with substance. And people are catching on fast.

You may not be familiar with her name (it's Leslie Feist, born in Nova Scotia, raised in Calgary, feted in France and currently residing in Toronto), but you've probably heard her music.

Her current hit 1,2,3,4 has been all over TV as the theme song for iPod nano. The ads never mentioned the singer's name. The cool kids knew without asking.

Last month she was on Saturday Night Light. In August it was Letterman. Next Wednesday, Dec. 12, it's NBC's Today Show.

That word-of-mouth hipness sold out last night's Hamilton Place concert in a flash. There hasn't been a single seat available for weeks. No hype was necessary.

On stage, Feist projects a school girl naivete, head coyly tilted toward her shoulder in sulky seductiveness. It's like her music, simple on the surface as 1,2,3,4, but different, off-beat in subtle ways -- bending and turning in places pop music isn't supposed to. What's that banjo line doing there? Or those horns? And why do the lyrics skip from 6 to 9 and 10? What happened to 7 and 8?

At one moment she's a prairie-bred Nina Simone playing surf guitar on a shiny red Guild. The next she's flying through Bacharach-styled eighth notes with Dionne Warwick phrasing.

It's something that's hard to put your finger on. Playful and joyous and sexy, Feist makes you want to dance, not like crazy wild though, just a step here and a step there. Like a hipster in a black beret.

Last night's show was the first major concert she's performed in this city. But the 31-year-old singer-songwriter has plenty of connections here.

Feist told the crowd about the shows she used to perform every Thursday night at the old Mermaid Lounge in Hess Village, often to fewer than 10 people.

She pointed to that shiny red Guild she has been playing every concert for the past eight years and proudly announced that it was given to her by her uncle Dan Achen, former lead guitarist for Junkhouse and current owner of Catherine North Recording Studio in downtown Hamilton.

Feist even mentioned that she stumbled on a painting by her father, Harold Feist, which had been hanging in one of the hallways of Hamilton Place for the past 20 years.

"I can play in halls all over the world," she said. "But how many of them have paintings hanging in them by my father?"

Interestingly enough, last night's show almost didn't happen. Early in the evening, Feist explained how she and her band almost didn't make it out of a Newfoundland blizzard.

"We're here by the skin of our cod tongues," she told the audience. "We've been snowed in for the past few days in St. John's. We just barely made it here tonight."

It may be only the beginning of December, but the folks at Hamilton Place may want to consider closing up shop now. Last night, Feist probably put on the show of the year.

She's quite likely the most interesting singer-songwriter to come out of Canada since Joni Mitchell.

* Local music fans may have noticed Hamilton's Julie Fader playing keyboards and backing vocals with opening act Great Lake Swimmers. Fader, formerly of Flux AD and the Sarah Harmer Band, has been touring with the Swimmers since September.

The Great Lake Swimmers band just returned to Canada from a European tour to perform three Ontario shows with Feist.

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