Double Your Fun

I usually attend the cheaper Live at Massey Hall shows where up-and-coming artists get profiled. But on Sunday night, I paid full-price for Feist because this singer can sell out this venue on her own reputation. But fans must surely have left fully satisfied with the evening.

Like all artist tours, Feist was promoting songs from her new album Pleasure. You want to hear some new stuff, sure, but you're also jonesing for all the classics. No such conundrums tonight. With no opener, she did essentially almost 2 sets worth of material. So the 1st half had her running through every track in order (which usually doesn't happen until a 10th anniversary album tour or some such), then plenty of oldies including I Feel It All, Let It Die, and Mushaboom.

The stage pyrotechniques were kept to a minimum: a giant glowing fan, a spinning planetary "mobile" in a corner, and Feist in a lush magenta red-carpet ready dress. All the whiz band came from the band. If there was any doubt that she started her career as a punk rocker, her guitar work was proof. That lady can shred! The attentive audience sat through most her set, as typical in this venerable but stuffy venue. But with Feist's encouragement, we finally got up, and some even rushed the stage, when she got into her back catalogue. A lucky few even got invited on stage for some couples slow-dancing. A piece of advice for the young man who was "set up" by Feist. Pay attention to your dance partner, if only for those 5 minutes, not mug for the crowd with a dramatic sing-along. You might stay single for longer than you like if you don't develop some social acumen. Or as Feist sang on the last number Intuition: "Did I miss out on you?"

In The Year 2000

After Ali Wong's hilarious stand-up, I headed to the Opera House to see Dwayne Gretzky, the cover band supergroup. Tonight was their first show at this baroque venue. Usually they play their themed shows at the larger Phoenix Concert Theatre. I wonder if it was a scheduling issue or they felt that a 2000s theme show would draw a smaller crowd than their usual target demographics. Well, it was still a packed and sold-out crowd, though they did skew quite younger, a blunt reminder of your own decrepitude.

Like all their shows, it was high-energy because everybody knew all the words. Tonight, it was Cake (Short Skirt/Long Jacket), Avril Lavigne (Complicated), Kelly Clarkson (Since U Been Gone), The Killers (Mr. Brightside) and many other luminaries from the aughts. It did seem to go against their dad rock image of Springsteen and Bowie, until you realized these tune are on average 15 years old. So even these songs qualify for that moniker, at least if your memories of them aren't associated with drunken high-school or college revels.

Float Like a Butterball

Friday night, I went to the Winter Garden Theatre to see Ali Wong. This Asian-American has had quite a rise in the last few years starting with her Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra. Though it got raves mostly for her no-holds-barred jokes on sex and life, the fact that she was heavily pregnant was a rarity and possibly a first in the industry. So when Wong came on stage tonight to rapturous cheering, also enormously pregnant, everyone felt a weird dissonance. Was she doing props jokes now? Nope. I guess she's expecting her second child.

The deja vu continued as there were cameras all around the theatre. It turns out Netflix is filming Wong's 2nd comedy special over the course of her 4 shows here in Toronto. As she pointed out to her "cheap Asian sisters", they could have seen her for $10 with group-on tickets 2 years ago instead of the 80 bucks they shelled out tonight. But if the laughter that rang throughout the show was any indication, nobody thought they paid for a dud.

Though there were still some raunchy stories, Wong has shifted most of her material to her pregnancy, childbirth, its aftermath, and motherhood. But no sunshine and rainbow here, it was gross but gut-busting details that had both the women crying tears of laughter (and sympathy) and the men shedding tears (but likely in thankfulness).

I have no doubt her next comedy special will also be a big hit. I'm a little worried about Wong's apparent trend though. A baby for every special might lead to a The Wong Brunch scenario, given her ongoing success.

DIY

Saturday night, I was at The Horseshoe for a rare night of all female-fronted bands. In a nutshell, they might also all be categorized as bedroom pop. But though this usually means doing all your recordings non-professionally and at home, when played live all 3 bands actually had quite different vibes.

Opener Soccer Mommy was perhaps closest to expectations for the genre. Probably because she was playing a solo set of wistful tunes and a penchant for odd chords. Stef Chura had more edge to their set. With a sharp attack to her vocals and short punchy songs, there was a pop punk aesthetic with a nice groove. As for head-liner Jay Som, I first saw her doing a solo set for Japanese Breakfast. What a difference having a full band makes to her sound. It had a 80s jam vibe that made the set fun and danceable.

Hit Me Two Times

Friday night, I headed over to The Smiling Buddha Bar. This venue may mostly be known for punk and underground bands but they also book a variety of other genres. So it was great to see 2 black artists on stage tonight.

First up was Nnamdi Ogbonnaya from New York. He alternates between soulful, though slightly off-key, singing and melodic rap. Meanwhile, his band played a sort of noisy funk. It was a high-energy set that amped up the crowd.

Vagabon is a diminutive singer/guitarist who packs a powerful voice. Along with her all-female band, she delivered a set of impassioned, loud songs that the full house ate up. The only drawback is that with only 1 album, even with some new songs, her set wasn't long enough to satisfy the crowd. Here's hoping Vagabon can find sometime to get back to the studio for a sophomore effort.

Big In Europe

"Big In Japan" is a well-worn joke about an artist being more popular outside their hometown/country. Michelle Guverich (formerly Chinawoman) plays to 600-800 people in her adopted Berlin and elsewhere in Europe. But when I first saw her a few years back at The Gladstone Hotel, she was the opener for barely a dozen people. Tellingly, she has never done another North American show even though she has released several albums since then. But Guverich has decided to move back to Toronto, at least for the time being, and the show on Sunday was a welcome home and showcase of her latest album.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a packed and sold out Lula Lounge. There were no doubt friends and family in the crowd. But from the cosmopolitan make-up of the audience, French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, and other languages could be heard, I suspect many were fans from abroad. Perhaps they have also found themselves here in Toronto, temporarily or otherwise, and were thrilled to see her play in a more intimate venue than a similar concert elsewhere.

Backed by a small band, Guverich's repertoire consisted of verbose and sardonic songs painting vivid and specific scenarios. You didn't really need any back-stories to understand, but Guverich was happy to fill in some details with anecdotes. It was unsurprising that she was witty and charming, often using slyly mischievous understatements. Given the direction of the Toronto music scene, it's still doubtful Guverich will ever achieve the same level of success here. But however long she stays, I welcome her return, especially if it means there'll be more local shows in the future.

Update (Dec 2020): Guverich moved to Denmark with her partner some time in 2019, released another album, but did not play another Toronto show.