Fantasy, baby

concert review: The Arcade Fire w/ Wolf Parade, Final Fantasy @ Danforth Music Hall(Toronto, Ontario), April 27, 2005

If the Tuesday night Arcade Fire show was the better show than the Wednesday night show I went to, at least we had the better weather. I had parked in a lot near the Broadview subway station(which is near Danforth Music Hall) in the morning and took the subway into downtown Toronto to work. After work, I headed back down to the Danforth. I didn't want to pay for parking in the evening and luckily I found a spot on the street where I could park for free. I headed to the venue to see if I should try securing a spot in line but actually it was so early(around 5:30) that the lineup had barely formed. Took some time to grab a bite to eat and by the time I got back to the lineup it had grown a bit. Still, considering how long the lineup got as the 8 pm doortime approached, I was relative close to the front of the line. Waiting in line was a little tiresome, but at least the weather was nice. Once I got into the venue, I was fortunate to get a seat in the fourth row, just about center stage. Ummm, soft seats.

The stage grew dim as Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy and a friend(controlling the visual slide projections) took the stage. It was the first time I'd ever heard Final Fantasy's music and I found it really interesting. Mr. Pallett usually would start off songs playing a simple violin arrangement fed into a looper, and he'd gradually build up the instrumentation, adding different violin arrangements, or percussive taps on his violin, as well as him yelling into his violin mic. His vocal style had a sort of higher octave Stephen Merritt quality, and the songs consequently reminded me of a chamber pop version of The Magnetic Fields. I didn't quite understand the slide projections visuals in the background which ranged from dinosaur silouhettes to cherubic children and so forth but the way the girl working the slides moved the different slides around felt so soothing. If it couldn't get any better, special guests The Arcade Fire's Regine, Gentlemen Reg, as well as a drummer(sorry I'm not sure who he was) joined Owen for a rousing rendition of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" ... yes, sweet, sweet, fantasy baby.

To be continued.