Joanna Newsom @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto (March 13, 2010)

Update [March 22/2010, 1:30 AM]: Post now up. Unfortunately, because of the no-cameras policy at the show, security wasn't allowing me to take any photos, but I snuck some photos during the encore anyway - nothing special, but at least I got the one below for posterity.

  Joanna Newsom:
  photo by Michael Ligon
Sometimes you just got to believe the hype. I'd largely been unfamiliar with singer/songwriter Ms. Joanna Newsom who'd until this year had already released two albums on the strength of which she'd built a loyal following. With the release of her most recent full-length, in fact a triple album (although technically-speaking could have been released as a double album), entitled "Have One On Me", it was the stronger-than-ever word-of-mouth recommendations and critical accolades which convinced me that perhaps that I should give her a chance and buy a ticket to her show. But save for sampling a few of her studio recordings, I went into her show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre last Saturday night with relatively a clean slate. In short, she was quite the revelation.

I missed opener Kevin Barker entirely, arriving to discover a packed house. However, with Canadian Musicfest plans later than night, missing Mr. Barker's set wasn't necessarily the end of the world. Instead, I looked at the situation with optimism, being able to go into Ms. Newsom's set with a clean palette. With a band that featured a two-member string section, a trombonist, drummer/percussionsit, and a multi-instrumentatlist(mandolin, banjo, flute, guitar) and with Ms. Newsom on piano and harp, it was a set of beguiling, folky chamber pop. Starting off the set with a trio of songs at piano, the audience was as attentive as one could hope, Newsom's uniquely askewed vocals(though in my opinion still within the realm of accessibility) played off nicely with her jaunty piano arrangements. The attentiveness of the audience was quite apparent when Newsom switched from piano to harp for the set's fourth song "In California", and if not absolutley silent, there was virtually no chatter from the crowd whatsoever during the song and for most of the remainder of the set.

The set was not without it's technical difficulties, although in a sense, these actually worked out to the benefit of the audience experience. It could have not been planned better for a comedy setup than when Newsom mentioned to the audience that for their current tour they'd been playing more sophisticated venues and that it was nice to play a rock club in Toronto, although when drummer Neil Morgan commented about a leaky ceiling above him, Ms. Newsom quipped "ok, we're leaving". Later on Ms. Newsom felt compelled to tune her harp better, handing off banter duties to drummer Morgan who took the reigns quite confidently and humourously, answering questions from the audience who were only too happy to participate. Of course, when an audience member attempted to pose a question to her, she responsed humourously that Neil had the floor. Banter doesn't get any better than that.

A gaze at the setlist is somewhat misleading. In one sense it was a short main set in that it only lasted about an hour, but most sets of that length arent't usually comprised of only eight songs. Usually, songs longer than five or six minutes on length may try my patience, but Ms. Newsom's material was such that a gaze at my watch at the beginning of a song than gazing at my watch later on during the song and realizing eight minutes had past, seemingly in the blink of an eye, truly reflected the strength of her songs and her and her band's musicianship. In a rare event, one I don't think I've ever experience, when the main set ended, the stage lights came on, and the music through the PA started, but an enthusiastic crowd and their prolonged clapping lead the club to allow Ms. Newsom and the band to come out for an encore ("Baby Birch"). Now, that's special.

Reviews of the show over at The National Post, Exclaim, chartattack, The Globe and Mail and Chromewaves. Update: It's Not The Band I Hate, It's Their Fans has his review and photos from the show now up.

It was one of those shows you'd want to relive in your mind, but fortunately a few people filmed quite decent video footage at the show:

Video: Joanna Newsom - "In California" (live, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, March 13, 2010)
Video: Joanna Newsom - "Have One On Me" (live, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, March 13, 2010)
Video: Joanna Newsom - "No Provenance" (live, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, March 13, 2010)
Video: Joanna Newsom - "The Book Of Right On" (live, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, March 13, 2010)
Video: Joanna Newsom - "Baby Birch" (live, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, March 13, 2010)

CMW 2010 Update (Part Two)

Yes, I've decided to forgo the final night of Canadian Musicfest / Canadian Music Week. I made it out to 4 of the 5 nights which I'd say is a pretty good effort, but I'm pooped and I'm not in the mood to gamble on the lineups and getting in with my media pass at the 'big' shows tonight (ie. Born Ruffians/Young Rival/Parlovr @ the Phoenix and Woods/Real Estate @ the Horseshoe Tavern). Maybe I'll use my time constructively and process some of my photos from the festival. Let's just say with the rain, and the lineups and a few TTC delays, it wasn't one of the better CMW experiences I've had. Heck, CMW 2008 was better and one of those days were smack dab in a middle of a blizzard. On the good side, I ran into a bunch of blogger friends and acquaintances, met a few new people and had not-so-terrible lineup experiences chatting with people in line.

Stay tuned for the more detailed reviews as well as my photos. I already gave a rundown of my Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. My Saturday went down like this:

The first show of the night for me was the non-CMW-related early Joanna Newsom show at the Phoenix. Left home later than I intended and ended up missing opener Kevin Barker. Because of the strict camera policy at the Phoenix, I was forced to keep my camera in my bag for Joanna's entire set, a fantastic one at that especially to a relative newbie such as myself. Though it seems that an encore wasn't planned (because of the strict curfew at the Phoenix because of the dance club later that night), the crowd continued to applaud if after the stage lights and the music on the sound system came on, eventually prompting the club to allow Ms. Newsom one more song. I managed to sneak a few photos during the encore, nothing spectacular given my partially obstructed view of Ms. Newsom but for the sake of posterity it was something.

The CMW portion of the night started a streetcar ride down the street from the Phoenix with Providence, RI's and Chromewaves-favourite The Brother Kite down at Rancho Relaxo, then continued in the same venue with Ottawa's that's the spirit, and then capping off the festival for me was Toronto's fantastic Maylee and Pegwee Power!! at Bread & Circus. Ran into a new acquaintance outside of Bread & Circus who mentioned the !059 house party where Maylee was also suppose to play, but ahh, I'd leave that to the kids. I considered taking in Toronto's Action Makes' set closeby at The Comfort Zone but opted instead to quench my thirst with a grape soda at the 7-11 across the street from The Comfort Zone and then catching the streetcar back to the subway to get back to my car in the westend. No way in hell I wanted to take the TTC Blue Line that night.

And it didn't stop raining the ENTIRE night. And I lost my sweater at the Phoenix (ok, that's my own dumb fault).

CMW sent out some e-mails recently including the list of winners at this year's The Indies, the awards show and performances going down yesterday evening. Congrats to Rural Alberta Advantage for winning this year's Galaxie Rising Stars award. They have a busy week ahead of them as there heading to SxSW again this year. Favourite Live Artist/Group went to Hamilton's Arkells, a band I haven't necessarily taken hold of although the more I hear their single "Oh, The Boss is Coming!", the more they're working-class rock n' roll reveals its qualities. Favorite Folk Artist/Group went to Great Lake Swimmers and Favourite Group/Duo Of The Year went to The Constantines. Favourite Solo Artist Of The Year went to Joel Plaskett with Favourite Album going to Metric's "Fantasies". Favourite Hardcore album went to Fucked Up. International Single Of The Year went to Phoenix and "1901" with International Album Of The Year going to The xx's self-titled effort. I just wonder how The Indies are set up, especially with the Internationl Awards - for example is there some sort of satellite video feed with say The xx thanking all their Canadian fans for voting for them? I imagine that's probably not the case but it'd be kind of cool if it were.