A week after Festi'Neuch, Feist was coming to my hometown: Madrid. I am a lucky guy, since I arrived in Madrid on Saturday, so I was just in time to see Feist's concert on Sunday.

The show started with the supporting act of Lawrence Arabia. Their sound reminded me to that of the 60's and the 70's, with undeniable references to The Beatles and vocal harmonies similar to those of The Beach Boys or America. Nevertheless, they had a personal touch to make it sound modern and fresh. Cool band with a cool attitude that people appreciated.

Then there was an extremely long neverending break. As it happened in Neuchâtel, "patience was in short supply" and the public got quickly nervous, willing to see Feist on stage. After a few series of whistling, shouting, frenetic applause and intermitent appearances of technicians (by the way, one of them seemed to have his arm broken and he had it not in Neuchâtel... I hope he gets well soon), Feist entered the scene and the audience welcomed her with great joy.

She began behind a screen, singing a capella with the only help of a looping microphone and casting her shadow on it using background illumination. Oh, what a sensual shilouette! "¡Guapa!" -screamed the audience at the end- so she answered back: "¡Hola! Guapos, Guapas... Chicos, Chicas... Caballeros, Caballeras... and that's about all the Spanish I know". Hahaha! Nice try, Feist, but you do not say "caballeras" in Spanish, the same way you do not say "gentlewomen" in English. "Ladies and gentlemen" translates to "damas y caballeros", but thanks a lot for the effort anyway. With so many places to visit in such a short amount of time, it is already a miracle that you even know where you are.

Besides, the audience was not very strong in English either. One of the funniest moments of the night (at least for me) was the prelude to "I'm sorry". Feist tried to make four groups out of the public for singing the bass, middle and high tones of a chord: "All the people who... are following some kind of school program. Say: Oh!" As expected, a part of the public went: "Oh!". For the next group, Feist said again : "All the people who..." and, suddenly, a great part of the audience answered: "who!". I could not help but laughing at the situation. I must admit however that the final result was not bad at all, given the misunderstandings. Later, Feist tried to give credit to the girls who make live pictures and chinese shadows during the show, again in Spanish: "las chicas que están detrás con los hombres" (laughs). She realized that she confused the Spanish "sombras" with the French "ombres" (shadows), which sounds exactly like Spanish "hombres" (men) and she felt a bit embarrased (she said "the girls who are behind with the men")... well, welcome to globalization!

I think it was during "The Limit to Your Love" that some people started talking and others wanted them to remain quiet, hissing: "Shh!". At a certain point, there were so many "shh!" that the cure was worse than the disease, so Feist stopped the song for a moment and she began hissing and making noises in the mike until a final explosion: "that was a bomb for the snakes farm" (thank goodness she wanted to "stop the war" instead of
winning it in "I Feel it All"). Everyone laughed and, after that, there were no more problems with noises nor with talking. And I was right in my previous post about Festi'Neuch: songs like this sound sooo much better in a medium-size hall than in an open air festival... I was amazed. "The Limit to Your Love" ended almost in ecstasy. Unfortunately, the mike decided to introduce a bit of feedback coupling noise to ruin it. What a pity!

Then Feist made a small remark about consumerism, because the beer that sponsors the hall was omnipresent in every wall and every corner of the place: "even if you are not thirsty, you want to drink it!" -she said-. She was right: it felt a bit like being inside a big commercial. Talking about commercials: Feist, your hair was so perfect that you could have made a shampoo advertisement. She was worried because she could not have it cut for some time. I think however that a girl's hair can be too short, but never too long.

And, yes! She played "How my heart behaves"! Thank you very much, Leslie! Although the rest of the public was not so enthusiastic about this song, I was absolutely delighted and it is definetly one of my favourites in The Reminder. It always gives me spines when you get to the "Illumination" part and I sang the chorus as loud as I could! (one octave below you, of course). It resulted as well a very good anticipation by contrast to the hit "1234". Everyone sang this one loudly! Strangely enough, it sounded to me like brand new and different, even though it has been played all around since its coming out. The magic of live shows, I guess.

The first part of the show ended with Lawrence Arabia on scene again, to sing background vocals and clap hands for a super energetic version of "Sea Lion Woman" which reached its apotheosis at the end, with Feist screaming as if she was in trance and the audience jumping and shouting tiressly. What a fantastic performance! Feist gave it all and we felt it all!

After a short break, the band came back to play "Secret Heart" among others. Feist was worried because they had not played it during the tour, but again the outcome was perfect. And when I thought it was all over, she came back once again alone with her guitar to sing us an extra song "from the privacy of her privacy" because we had been a good audience. So you know now what you have to do to deserve a special bonus: just treat her right. If I remember well, the song was something like "Who could love you better than me". Simply wonderful. Then she went away for good, smiling and jumping happily for the success. So humble, so honest, so sweet, so lovable... I wish I could see her at least once a week all the year long, but I am afraid that is not possible, so I will wait impatiently for her next visit. Good luck for the rest of the tour!