It's very synchronicitous and quite fitting to see the arena show reinvented by Feist and co. after earlier this summer having Broken Social Scene do the same thing for me with folk festivals, also in Edmonton, and both have been (along with Cat Power, and Annabelle Chvostek) the highlights of my musical year.
Arena shows vs. smaller settings: for me, it really worked in the rink, charmed the hell out of me in fact. Clubs can be noisy, chattery, all kinds of unrelated distraction, and by their nature eliminate young people. This crowd was not your typical stadium audience and for that I am eternally grateful, no beer-swilling lunkheads falling all over me, and walking away from a show buzzed purely from the music alone and not being utterly stoned by osmosis is a rare treat. I've never seen a concert where so many complete families attended, and the ratio of women to men was even larger than at Lilith Fair. Makes for a much better behaved bunch. I predict there will be a lot of young girls demanding ELECTRIC guitars under the tree this year.
Live visuals, love 'em. Arts and crafts indeed. I'm old enough to remember construction paper chains and scissoring snowflakes, adds a sense of wonder to the proceedings, and flashes me back to bygone theatre tech days where imagination trumped budget.
So if it felt a little strange to the musicians, it wasn't to us. My very first concert ever was Johnny Cash, just prior to his Rubin-esque renaissance. He hadn't been on the road for a while, and played most of the show straight to the front, occasionally catching himself and playing a moment to the sides and above the horizon. But there was no need to worry, he owned the house and he rocked it. Same here.
Great choice in an opener. Hayden set the bar high, and somewhere in the cosmos Gram Parsons' charred remains have arranged themselves into a smile.
The music...Ahhh...When something is really good it just sits me down and shuts me up. You are so in the moment you practically don't even think, you just absorb. If there's such a thing as an excited meditative state, this is it, that direct link to the collective unconscious, greater good, what have you.
I was late to the party in terms of the albums, Let It Die got me curious but I was a bit iffy on the production, Open Season really caught my attention (special thanks to the Mocky mix o' Mushaboom) and The Reminder just sealed the deal, one of those rare albums I'll have with me wherever I shall roam.
In live performance it ups the ante even more, brings the lesser-known tracks side-by-side with the hits, where they always belonged. The newer arrangements on the older tunes really open them up, the sequenced vocals are beyond cool, and the slower tunes are put across with as much intensity as the rockers. Great guitars. Sealion's heart beat like a hammer, and the connection to Nina Simone is no accident, the level of passion is that high. The sequence of songs was perfect, and cheers to whoever was doing your sound because I've never heard that barn sound better. I hope someone films a few of these, I'd buy a DVD in a heartbeat.
You get the applause and yells and screams, fans literally beating the boards, glimpse of us here and there, but what you don't get to see is the organically tripped-out happiness of the people post-show, packed smilingly into trains or hoofing it delightedly away into the remains of the day. It's a sweet thing, trust me.
If there is one thing I can hang on the Broken Divine Metric Apostle From The Tombs nexus, it's that it flies in the face of the music industry's tired insistence that people are only one thing and one thing only. If you're multifaceted, by all means reflect away, we need all the light we can get.
I wasn't intending to write an essay, the short of it was it looked great and sounded better.
P.S. I just saw the Sesame Street thing. LOVE the chickens. :)
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I LOVED the wolf song too, so much so I just spent well over an hour tracking it down.
Its called Sunset.
ENJOY
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Oh, yeah, and Feist? If I ever see you again, (which I really hope to), I'll be sure to bring a mitten! lol. Can you put "Phantoms" on your next CD? I LOVE IT!!!!!
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My brother and I were unsure of what to make of Feist performing in an arena... We have seen her over the years in The Starlite Room, MacEwan Hall, and The Winspear Centre and throught, perhaps, the stony cold interior of Rexall place would do her a disservice. How we underestimated our Leslie! She was the best we've ever seen her. Her band was fantastic. The set was simple, yet beautiful and artistic. We left inspired and with so many reasons to love her more and more.
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Wow, i never really listened to feist except for on the radio and on tv. But when i one the tickets for her concert through a school funderaser i was quite excited to see her live and perform 1,2,3,4 little did i know that feist has been performing MANY songs that differ. in sound but are all AMAZiNG!!!!!! I am now a huge Feist fan and from know on i am saying that Leslie Feist in my role model and she is the reason i want to become a performer... Thank you Feist, your music is amazing!
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Hell of a show. Totally exceeded my expectations. In her solo set, she played a beautiful acoustic song...something about wolves? Anybody know what its called or where I can find it?
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WOW! What an awesome show! This was my first Feist show and it was an excellent one at that! My little sister, my mom, my aunt and I attended this spectacular show. We were originally seated in the first row at the back of the venue but ended up moving up to a "no-barricade" section which was a little bit higher but it gave us better sound and a better (albeit farther away) view of the stage. Speaking of the view, that projection thing that they had going on was really cool!! That was very neat and very well done! Props to the ladies that did that! One thing that I did notice and was sort of surprised by was how laid back the crowd was. It seemed as though none of them moved a muscle, and a lot of them were talking or on their mobiles which bugs me. Well I made up for that by rocking out pretty hard and just enjoying the music! I think that these types of shows MIGHT be more suited to a smaller venue (but really, what band isn't?) I will say that a lot of the seats (except for the very high up section) were pretty much packed, which was nice to see. The merch booth was pretty cool. I got myself two Feist t-shirts (the red one and the black one) and Let It Die on vinyl (I also have The Reminder on white vinyl as well, now I need a record player!) Overall, a great show! Loved every minute of it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Please come back soon Leslie, and keep making great music!!
Travis
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AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING.
So happy to be attending her second show in St. John's, November 9th/08!
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WHAT HAPPENED????
WHERE WAS THE FEIST THAT WE CAN'T STOP LISTENING TO? I GOTTA SAY THAT I WAS QUITE SUPRISED AT THE
REFORMULATED SONGS, NOT SO GOOD. LEFT THE CONCERT EARLY, WOULDN'T PAY TO SEE FEIST AGAIN!!
what happened?????
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Thanks so much for a great show in Penticton. It was our first time to see you, and we were so pleased, and can't wait till you come back. You should have seen the long line of red taillights glowing in the dark as the many fans from Kelowna drove home together along the highway. Good luck on your tour of hockey arenas across the country!
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That concert was amazing!! I had general admission tix, so Feist was literally right in front of me!!! Amazing job hun! You're truly beautiful....inside and out!
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Fist was wonderful as always. However reguarding the security in Mershon, you have no idea what kind of security she had backstage. He is the most loyal bodyguard and protects his clients as they should be protected. He is realy an awsome man and anyone comes in contact with him knows that. He is Mr. Harmon.
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I wish feist would come back to bloomington real soon. That would be super awsome. my dream is to meet feist. right now i will just be a huge fan. from FEIST FAN 1#
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I love Feist so much, it would be so cool to meet her!I went to that concert but i fell asleep for her song The Water. I was so tired because i had been travaling.
from FEIST FAN NUMBER 1#
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. . . what an amazing AND Fortunate Luck We had to
get tickets!!! We were on holiday form Leslie's Home Town
(CALGARY) ... Her oldest fans (58 and 57) . . .
and were in Dallas at a perfect time!!!
She is the only Artist that is better live than anything else!!!
WE HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT TICKETS FOR CALGARY,
REGINA and WINNIPEG . . . seems silly I know BUT, each
show is different!!!
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