We are quite fortunate to be inhabiting the same timeline as Leslie Feist, and she (and Chappell Roan) have been intent on reminding us lately. After performing at NPR's Tiny Desk last month, she's hit another staple in the high-quality filmed live set circuit: Seattle's KEXP 90.3 FM studio.
Filmed back in May, the singer-songwriter took a similar approach here as she did with the Tiny Desk set, spending about half her time with songs from 2023's exquisite Multitudes and the other half with older stuff from her back catalogue. To open the KEXP session, she played "The Circle Married the Line" from 2011's Metals before moving through to last year's "Forever Before" and then "Century" from 2017's Pleasure.
In the subsequent interview segment, Feist reflected on the beginnings of the Multitudes journey, when she was trying out new material live for small audiences in the round, incorporating a multimedia element to the performances.
"The show was in a time when shows had ceased to be and it was that moment when there was a gentle re-entry," she remembered. "So because of [the pandemic] and all that I had been through [the birth of her daughter and death of her father] that had kind of wiped the slate clean, I felt [like] why did gigs need to take place the way they always had been?"
Feist added, "There was an opening there and a fresh moment to reconsider the audience and performer relationship that had gotten a bit baked in." Don't make me go back to grad school and write a thesis about this! Watch the performance and interview below.