Festival season has officially started here in Ottawa, with both its eponymous Jazz Festival and Escapade kicking off this weekend — the muffled thumping of the latter carried on the breeze from time to time to Confederation Park, where the jazz be a-flowing.
Leslie Feist was the household name last night, although the arguably cooler 10:30 "after dark" slot was given over to progressive rock orchestra the NYChillharmonic. Feist has had a career that's just at the stage where longtime fans aren't necessarily the late night crowd, and there were plenty of grooving toddlers on the edges of the audience to evidence this. It was a wholesome vibe, certainly at odds with the riotous juvenilia of Escapade just up the road.
For the less-than-familiar, it can be easy to forget how left-of-field and boundary pushing Feist's music has become in the years since her height of Sesame Street-level fame. "1234" was a pretty big one-off, a sweet Apple payday that funded her more sophisticated subsequent work, and she opened her Friday night set with "I Took All of My Rings Off" (full of cool layering and effects-looping) and "In Lightning" (the high energy vocalizations opening this one getting a clear response from the audience) — both from Multitudes, both inviting thinking as opposed to dancing; mature choices. Things got more jangly and stompy from there however, with the pounding chorus of "A Commotion" getting some notable love from the audience and the bluesy riffing of "The Bad in Each Other" (another from 2011's Metals) earning cheers from every corner as well.
Said audience did a fairly decent job throughout, although reference was made to Ottawa's nightlife "reputation" at one point during an impromptu lesson in call-and-response, and anyone vaguely familiar with the arts scene in our glorious capital will know the joke. Early hit "I Feel It All" (from 2007's The Reminder) finally got the front section out of their lawn-chairs, but only after some good-natured coaxing.
Regardless, Feist herself was a charming master of ceremonies, with her musings on an errant spider visiting her mic stand ("what this spider knows about this moment makes me wonder what we all know") leading to much chin stroking and three-beers-in philosophizing in the audience.
And while there were surely some hoping to hear a straight version of "1234," the deconstructed version we got for the encore (with a lengthy intro that definitely snuck up on a lot of people) seemed more appropriate, a good compromise between the market and an artist who likely never wants to play it again. The audience participation invited for this bit seemed a bit forced (and honestly wasn't met with much response), but the reworking was cool, and there were certainly some of us who breathed a sigh of relief at not having to be reminded explicitly of the technicolor iPods the song was once so associated with.
Friendly, charming, maybe a little sedate—the Ottawa vibes were strong! There are worse reputations to have.
Leslie Feist was the household name last night, although the arguably cooler 10:30 "after dark" slot was given over to progressive rock orchestra the NYChillharmonic. Feist has had a career that's just at the stage where longtime fans aren't necessarily the late night crowd, and there were plenty of grooving toddlers on the edges of the audience to evidence this. It was a wholesome vibe, certainly at odds with the riotous juvenilia of Escapade just up the road.
For the less-than-familiar, it can be easy to forget how left-of-field and boundary pushing Feist's music has become in the years since her height of Sesame Street-level fame. "1234" was a pretty big one-off, a sweet Apple payday that funded her more sophisticated subsequent work, and she opened her Friday night set with "I Took All of My Rings Off" (full of cool layering and effects-looping) and "In Lightning" (the high energy vocalizations opening this one getting a clear response from the audience) — both from Multitudes, both inviting thinking as opposed to dancing; mature choices. Things got more jangly and stompy from there however, with the pounding chorus of "A Commotion" getting some notable love from the audience and the bluesy riffing of "The Bad in Each Other" (another from 2011's Metals) earning cheers from every corner as well.
Said audience did a fairly decent job throughout, although reference was made to Ottawa's nightlife "reputation" at one point during an impromptu lesson in call-and-response, and anyone vaguely familiar with the arts scene in our glorious capital will know the joke. Early hit "I Feel It All" (from 2007's The Reminder) finally got the front section out of their lawn-chairs, but only after some good-natured coaxing.
Regardless, Feist herself was a charming master of ceremonies, with her musings on an errant spider visiting her mic stand ("what this spider knows about this moment makes me wonder what we all know") leading to much chin stroking and three-beers-in philosophizing in the audience.
And while there were surely some hoping to hear a straight version of "1234," the deconstructed version we got for the encore (with a lengthy intro that definitely snuck up on a lot of people) seemed more appropriate, a good compromise between the market and an artist who likely never wants to play it again. The audience participation invited for this bit seemed a bit forced (and honestly wasn't met with much response), but the reworking was cool, and there were certainly some of us who breathed a sigh of relief at not having to be reminded explicitly of the technicolor iPods the song was once so associated with.
Friendly, charming, maybe a little sedate—the Ottawa vibes were strong! There are worse reputations to have.
