Elementary, My Dear Watson

I attended a pop concert at Trinity-St.Paul's United Church on Saturday with headliner Patrick Watson, a Montreal native, and opening act Laura Barrett. Short review of the night: I liked their music though I didn't love it.

I first heard Laura Barrett at last year's Word on the Street book festival. She writes interesting, quirky songs and her primary musical is the marimba (or thumb piano). Since then, she has gotten more mainstream exposure including a profile in the Globe and Mail. Judging from her MySpace page over the last year or so, her music has taken her to some interesting places and venues.

Her songs are probably better appreciated with the lusher arrangements on her latest album or in a more intimate setting. In the larger setting of the church and with a stripped down band, her songs had a plinkety-plink sameness. The enthusiasm that first greeted her died down to polite applause after the second song. Only the final song "Deception Island Optimists Club", a more "conventional" love song, was well received. Perhaps she should have done more songs where she played the piano.

I came for Laura, I stayed for Patrick. Unlike myself who knew nothing about Patrick Watson, most people were obviously there for this singer, especially the women who made up about 70% of the audience. In any case, Patrick was backed by a 3 member band as well as the occasional 4 piece strings section. Like Laura, he doesn't write too many love songs either. His music was great to listen to but I had a hard time understanding the lyrics. He frequently mushed the words into one long melody line of "ah-wah-shah-blah-rah-tah-you". Overall, as a 1st time listener, I felt there was a sameness to the songs which I'll call "Anthem Pop".

Anthem Pop begins with the singer and a simple backing of perhaps piano or guitar. The drummer might provide some soft accompaniment on vibraphone, wooden blocks, or some other "percussion"-y sounds. Next comes bass and perhaps some strings. By the 2nd chorus, an insistent bass drum drives the song forward. By the time of the extended coda, a frantic rhythm is laid down by the drummer, and guitar and piano have become cacophanous. The singer has gone into full "white man wailing" mode (as A.O. Scott once described the movie Once).

It certainly makes the heart beat faster. But when more than half the songs were like this, I started to think "Hey, didn't Arcade Fire do this song?" This impression was not helped when the band waded into the audience with megaphone in hand during the encore. (Yes, Arcade Fire does that too). To be fair, Patrick Watson has at least 3 albums out. So given that he probably only did 1/3 of his repertoire, hopefully it means that he only writes maybe 20% Anthem Pop? The 2 waltz-like (3/4 time) songs that I heard were quite lovely. Overall though, a fun evening of music in a great venue.