Basia Bulat w/ Evening Hymns @ Rio Theatre -- 12/05/13

Aside from an all-too short solo set opening for Nick Cave earlier this year, it had been over three years since the last time I saw Basia Bulat perform live. But she was back at a packed Rio Theatre to support her latest album, Tall Tall Shadow with her band. Plus, she was touring with longtime friend Evening Hymns -- who had already put on one of my favourite shows of the year, a couple months prior -- so I was more than a little excited for the show.

The night started with Evening Hymns, which is to say, Jonas Bonnetta taking the stage alone. After starting off with "Spirit In The Sky", which teased a bit of looping, he explained the concept of his latest album Spectral Dusk, written about his father's passing after years of illness and the deeply personal & heartfelt songs that were born. He told a couple stories about his father and brother, but also had some levity to his banter, joking around.

Half way through the set, Basia Bulat joined him on stage for a duet for an older song "Dead Deer", their voices blending perfectly together, and he fully exploited his looping pedal as he ran around building "Mtn. Song", his self professed dance number.
Jonas ended the set with the title track "Spectral Dusk", a heart wrenching song that surely caused more than a few teary eyes in the silent theatre. Not only was it his last song of the set, and his last live show of the year, but the last song for the Spectral Dusk "album cycle", and seemed noticeably cathartic for him as he ended that chapter.

setlist
Spirit In The Sky; Arrows; You and Jake; Dead Deer; Mtn. Song; Spectral Dusk.

It wasn't long after before Basia Bulat took the stage. Joined by bassist Ben Whitely and percussionist Ian MacKay, they started with "The City With No Rivers", and Bulat playing a charango; the first of several instruments she would cycle through over the course of the set. From the charango to the pianoette, the more conventional acoustic guitar to the keyboard, and of course the autoharp, she transitioned effortlessly from instrument to instrument. And her small stature -- which she joked about a few times -- gave way to a huge voice and presence. It was hard not to be entranced as her voice soared during songs like "Five, Four" and "Heart Of My Own".

There were a couple technical difficulties in the set, but nothing that took away from it; even when having keyboard or mic stand troubles, Basia was unfazed, joking and charming the crowd before getting it right rather than slipping into an awkward silence. Other highlights of the set included the soft and gorgeous "Paris or Amsterdam", the building intensity of "Gold Rush", and the incredibly catchy "Tall Tall Shadow", which saw Bonnetta coming out to join on backup vocals and staying for the final song of the set, "Never Let Me Go"

Basia came back out, visibly overwhelmed by the crowd's reaction, and went for a more loose and seemingly unplanned encore taking suggestions from the audience. "In The Night" again showed off her world class autoharp playing, and she did a beautiful cover of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You In The End", before she bookended the set by again bringing out the charango and finishing with her voice once again soaring for "It Can't Be You".

Basia Bulat is a fantastic musician and performer, and she had the entire theatre captivated throughout the show. I just hope it's not another three years before she's back.

setlist
The City With No Rivers; Promise Not To Think About Love; Gold Rush; Heart Of My Own; Run; I Was A Daughter; Five, Four; Paris or Amsterdam; Little Waltz; The Shore; If It Rains; Wires; Someone; Tall Tall Shadow; Never Let Me Go. 
(encore) Before I Knew; In The Night; True Love Will Find You In The End [Daniel Johnston cover]; It Can't Be You.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Vogue Theatre -- 04/06/13

Twenty years. That's how long it's been since Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have been to Vancouver for a show. And for ten of those years, I have been a fan. In fact, they are one of my all time favourite bands, so not having seen them live was a top of the proverbial must-see-list. Sure, Grinderman was here a couple years ago, but even though the side project featured Cave with Bad Seeds Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, and Jim Sclavunos, it was just not quite the same.
But after years of waiting, they finally returned to Vancouver touring the new album, Push The Sky Away, for a show at the Vogue Theatre. And to say I was exited would be a vast understatement (if you follow me on the twitters, you know how obnoxiously eager I was for it).

I was also excited for the opening act, Toronto's Basia Bulat. On the surface, the folky singer/songwriter may have been an odd choice to open, but from what I saw of her, she rose to the occasion.
Sadly, I missed about half of her set -- the Vogue was doing a new thing where all the tickets were held at will call, which is a great idea to crack down on scalpers, but it caused a bit of a lineup getting in.
I caught the last three songs, and with just Basia & with her autoharp on stage, her powerful voice and rollicking songs like "Heart of My Own" winning over the crowd.
She teased a new album with her last song, swapping her autoharp for an acoustic guitar, and playing the title track to the album due out in the fall. Hopefully that means she'll be back before long, since her set (or what I caught of it) was much too short.

Then, after much anticipation, the lights went down at 9 sharp and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds came out one by one, Cave last, kicking off with a few songs from the new album. The melodic "We No Who U R" starting things off soft, and the tempo stayed the same for the beginning of "Jubilee Street", before it exploded with energy by the end.

Cave is possibly the most charismatic frontman I have ever seen perform. When he wasn't behind the piano -- which was most of the set -- he was stalking the front of the stage, back and forth like a sinister preacher. Frequently perched at the edge of the stage, he would lean in, grab people's hands, sing directly to them; he was even offered up a harmonica necklace by one fan right up front, which he not only took and wore, but played for the intro of a song.

But of course passion alone does not necessarily make a show great, and they definitely had the music -- and musicians -- to back it up. Jim Sclavunos was a monster on drums, and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis was brilliant as always. The setlist spanned the band's entire career, going all the way back to their first album from 1984 with the title track to From Her To Eternity and many song in-between. It was also as diverse as the band's repertoire, from the beautiful "Love Letter" to the sinister "Red Right Hand" to the all out rocker "Deanna".

The two songs that most highlighted the extremes were also two of the highlights of the set. While Cave was at the piano, he asked for requests and after a cacophony of song titles, he went with the absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, and heartbreaking "Into My Arms", and a few songs later, he ended the main set with the frantic "Stagger Lee", a murderous ballad with Cave graphically pantomiming the sex & violence in the song's narrative with wild abandon.

After thunderous applause, they were of course back out for an encore of a couple songs, another old song "Tupelo", and the title track from the new album Push The Sky Away, leaving us with the fitting line "Some people say it's just rock 'n' roll / Ah, but it gets you right down to your soul"

There is a reason Nick Cave is legendary, and he more than proved it at the Vogue. I have seen bands half the age of Cave with much, much less energy. He worked the crowd like no other, and even though the set was nearly two hours, I still didn't want it to be over.

This wasn't just the show of the year, it was the show of a lifetime.

setlist
We No Who U R; Jubilee Street; Wide Lovely Eyes; Higgs Boson Blues; From Her To Eternity; Red Right Hand; Stranger than Kindness; Deanna; Jack the Ripper; Papa Won't Leave You, Henry; Love Letter; Into My Arms; Weeping Song; The Mercy Seat; Stagger Lee.
(encore) Tupalo; Push the Sky Away.

Review-kus.

My goal is to review every album I bought/otherwise listened to this year. But there are just so darn many albums, and sometimes I just don't feel like writing a full reviews. So to combat this, I have decided that I shall give a few really quick reviews all at once.... in haiku form. Here we go!

Heartland by Owen Pallett (formerly known as Final Fantasy)
Majestic and rich
An epic tale of Lewis
His finest to date

Download E is for Estranged by Owen Pallett

Heart of my Own by Basia Bulat
Much as expected
Some great versatility
A beautiful voice

Download Walk You Down by Basia Bulat

Henry & The Nightcrawlers (EP) by Henry & The Nightcrawlers ("Henry" being Henry Alcock-White of Bend Sinister)
A few catchy tunes
Nice teaser for the full length
Hopefully out soon

Download 100 Blows by Henry & The Nightcrawlers

Basia Bulat @ St James Hall -- 03/05/10

This seems familiar. It was September the last time Basia Bulat was in town, playing the same place, St James Hall. I'll dispense with the bad-sequel-title jokes* and get on with the show itself.

Opening was Katie Stelmanis. She came out and took a seat at the piano on stage and promptly silenced the room with her superb voice and masterful piano skills. It was no surprise to find out after she is classically trained. After the first song she tried to get some backup from her laptop, but when that failed, she ended up doing an acoustic set, more or less, with just the keyboard. She also had a pair of mics, one normal and one which I'll call the "epic chorus" mic. I quite liked her set and am intrigued to hear what she sounds like normally, what it would have sounded like if she had got the computer up and running properly. Hopefully she'll be back soon and I'll be able to find out.
(fun fact: Katie is on blocks recording club records, the same label as Owen Pallett. I first heard Basia Bulat when she opened for him, when he was still Final Fantasy, a couple years ago)

After a short break, Basia Bulat hit the stage with band mates Allison “Wonderland” Stewart on viola and backing vocals and brother Bobby Bulat on drums. They started out with a couple of her more well known songs like new single "Heart of my Own" and the incredibly infectious "In The Night". That started the night with a high energy, and even with a simple three-peice of drums, viola and guitar/autoharp/piano (whatever Basia was playing that that moment), they had no problem maintaining that energy throughout the set. There was a great moment where Bulat said something along the lines of "How do you make folk music more rock & roll? Add some distortion pedal to the viola!"
Though there were song of her slower songs; at one point Allison & Bobby took leave of the stage for Basia to play of the mellower songs alone. After a few songs they came back with Katie Stelmanis to join them for a song on the piano, and closed out the set.
The encore started off with Basia Bulat wanting to do something she did last time she was here, which was to come to the front of the stage with her ukulele, and Allison for backing vocals and handclaps, and sing "Before I Knew" with no amplification for her voice. As I said last time, I have no doubt she'd be able to pull that off in a larger venue. It's also kind of funny that every time I've seen a show at St James Hall, the performers have done a song without the aide of microphones.
They played another couple songs before Basia Bulat took to the front of the stage again, this time alone and without an instrument, and sang one last, gorgeous, song before thanking us again and taking off. However, the crowd was still hungry for more, and in what may have been a rare for-reals-encore, they came back out to do one last song.

And it was a great crowd, too. Very respectful and silent during the songs. There were even a couple songs that slowly faded to nothing, and the crowd waited to go crazy only when the final note was played.
Even though the hall was starting to get kind of warm and stuffy (again) and the seating -- church pews -- was not very friendly to tell people, St James Hall is still a pretty damn nice & intimate venue, and perfect for someone like Basia Bulat. I'm glad that I was able to see her there (twice), as her next show here will probably be somewhere bigger since this show sold out.

*Bad sequel title jokes (as in, both the sequel titles, and the jokes, are bad): Basia Bulat 2: Folk Harder. 2 Basia 2 Bulat. Basia Bulat 2: Autoharp Boogaloo.

Basia Bulat @ St James Hall -- 09/23/09

With both Transmission and Rifflandia going on this week(end), it seems like a few of the artists involved in those festivals are making the short jaunt over for shows here. This probably helped create a record breaking five shows in a row for me (and seven in ten days). So screw Victoria, I'll have a festival of my own! I don't have a name for it (yet! Suggestions?) but it is bound to be legendary.

Opening the night was Woodpigeon. Or rather, Mark Hamilton (no relation) from Woodpigeon going it alone. Armed with just his guitar (and some backtracking and looping for a couple songs) he seemed a bit shaky to start, admitting "I am nervous because Basia Bulat is in the next room. She's probably just like 'pffft!'". Over the coarse of the half hour, though, he seemed to relax, and was only really showing nerves in the banter between songs. The music itself was solid. His light and sort of folksy sound was a perfect opening for someone like Basia and reminded me a little of a stripped down Sufjan Stevens or a less bizarre Grizzly Bear... maybe a little Iron & Wine-y (but not whiny). He also gets major "props" for not only breaking out a cover song in the middle of his set, but covering an ABBA song. I knew the band name from from R3, but couldn't think of anything from them before the show... but after the show, I have to say he won me over. At least enough to want to hear them as a full band.
Sidebar: They're playing as a six piece Saturday night at Little Mountain Gallery... shame I can't make it though, I wish I could.

After a short break, Basia Bulat hit the stage with band mates Allison “Wonderland” Stewart on viola and backing vocals and brother Bobby Bulat on drums. The one thing that struck me right off the bat is how tiny she is. I didn't realize she was so short, which made it all the more impressive that such a powerful voice -- which is even more amazing live -- comes from such a small stature. She started the set with The Pilgriming Vine, which began with just her & her guitar before exploding energetically half way through as the other two joined in. The high energy was kept up through the entire night, even during the slower songs. There was a good mix of old & new, giving us a preview of the album due out next January. Most of the newer songs were pretty high energy and a bit faster, and got me really excited for the new album... there was even a song where they added a distortion pedal... to the viola!!
The older songs were great, too, with the seated crowd bopping along to In The Night, I Was A Daughter and Snakes & Ladders, but the highlight of the show was most definitely Before I Knew, which saw Bulat take to the front of the stage with her ukulele and Allison for backing vocals and handclaps, and proceeded to sing the song with no amplification for her voice. That was a pretty amazing sight, and even though St James Hall is not very large, I have no doubt she would be able to pull that off at a venue of any size. It was a testament to the raw power, and beauty, of her voice.
Through the set, she seemed incredibly grateful to be there, and that the audience was there. It was her first Vancouver show of her own, and even if it was just the generic "[TOWN] is the best city to play in!" banter, she managed to sound incredibly sincere. She was charismatic and goofed off quite a bit between songs, joking about introducing her glasses too early in our "relationship" and her Beatles guitar picks... I'm not gonna lie, I think I developed a bit of a musician-crush on her last night.

I don't know why, but I wasn't really expecting anything from the show -- not low expectations, but rather... no expectations. I saw her once before, opening for Final Fantasy, but that was before I knew her, really, and since she was the first of three, the crowd was pretty noisy. (HATE) After the show, though, I was pretty blown away and now I can't wait to get my hands on the new album, and I really hope she is back for a tour then.

All in all, an excellent start to Kirkapalooza.
(ok, terrible name)