Sunday, June 3, 2007

Feist in Montreal Concert Review June 1 2007


Feist Lets it Die in Onstage

Computer printed signs outside the Olympia Theatre read "By participating in this event you give permission to the video crew to use your likeness for a live concert DVD" "Cool" I thought. After the usher rip my ticket I run towards the stage and I am in the front row. 45 minutes later the opening band. Some Chad guy that sounded like Neil young. Pretty depressing stuff. Not much of a marketing genius either. Usually the opening band interacts with the audience and says "Our CD is available over there, and its called..." All this guy said was "I'm having a baby soon, & I'm excited" My cousin was temped to yell out "So get a real job!" He ends his painful set with a Roy Orbison cover which was the highlight of his set.


Feist comes on 30 minutes later. It wasn't gonna be hard to top Chad. The cameras start rolling and out she comes singing a few tracks off her new album The Reminder. The mise-en-scene was the worst I've ever seen. Christmas lights in the background. That's it. After a slew of songs off the new CD she finally plays one off Let it Die: Gatekeeper The crowd goes wild; singing along. We were really putting on a good performance for her camera-men. I think Montrealers are polite people. Even if something sucks, we still clap and cheer. Because after this track it was all downhill. She plays every track off The Reminder minus one and then comes Mushaboom. Finally. She leaves stage, the crowd cheers for an encore. She comes back does another track from The Reminder and ends with Let it Die. I can hear everybody around me saying "What about Inside and Out?" So the light come on, but the crowd keeps cheering, we want to hear that one familiar song that we all love, and that Montreal radio supported non-stop for over a year. She comes back, my cousin and I smile at each other thinking "here it comes" She sings Brandy Alexander. We are furious! We walked out after that song so mad that she did 3 songs from Let it Die. First of all Feist you are in Montreal, a French speaking city. You have 2 French songs on Let it Die, why not sing them? Secondly, you are not Madonna, you don't have 100 singles to choose from. You have 1 that was in heavy rotation on Top 40 radio. Why not sing it? We later on thought that she was being cheap, because since this was a Bee Gees track, she would have to pay royalties to it for including it on the DVD. All I know is that I won't pay to see her live again. Won't even buy the DVD of this show.

Rating on 10: 5/10