The Orpheum Theatre felt the like the scene from an ancient ritual as everyone on stage stomped their feet as Feist hung her guitar and eased into the first track of the night. “Undiscovered First" opened the show with a melodic singer songwriter approach and transitioned into a rock mode.
The repetition of sound entrances as tambourines twittered and shaked as the low end drums stirred images to life. The shadows of three tambourines and the women holding them were projected onto the statues that adorned the walls and the ceiling. This trio of woman backing up Feist was the American indie folk rock group, Mountain Man, whose 2010 debut album Made The Harbor made several year end best of lists.
This Phoenix show was the first non festival U.S. performance of Feist's tour and the acapella singers appeared to be a bit nervous and rhythmically challenged at first. However despite the somewhat awkwardness showing of Mountain Man, their shape shifting harmonies paired well with the campfire psychedelic sound that haunts the songs off Feist's 2011 Metals album.
As the next song "A Commotion" rings out, it is apparent that the lyrics are the focal point of Metals, showing that Feist doesn’t need to make catchy jingles to make a dent with her audience. Her music has always been an expose of her vocal abilities set to an array of backing instrumentation and “A Commotion” is no exception with its ominous beat and chorus. Her muse lately appears to be 70’ rock and this is evident from the bell sleeved dresses adorning the Mountain Man girls to drummer Dean Stones's bowl cut. The back to basics live streaming video footage and low to high camera angles oddly resembled a classic Creedence Clearwater Revival video.
The musical quality came across rehearsed yet it was performed so genuinely, that it also feels seemingly unrehearsed. By the third song “Graveyard” the audience rose and a once stagnant crowd of people swarmed the aisles and fills the gaps between the seats and the walls and the stage as the audience and Feist together chanted the song’s chorus: Whoa-ah-ah-ah ah-ah, bring 'em all back to life. “ Feist pleased the crowd with her set list, sprinkling in fresh takes on old favorites "Mushaboom" "So Sorry" "My Moon My Man" "I Feel It All." and she ended the night with two encores featuring "Sealion," "Let It Die" and "Intuition."
Before Feist and her accompaniment walked onto the stage, the mood for the night was set by the Canadian folk music project, Timber Timbre. The indie trio comprised of Taylor Kirk (vocals, guitar, baritone guitar, bass guitar keyboards, drums, loops) Simon Trottier (autoharp, lapsteel, electric guitar, baritone guitar, percussion, loops, sampler) and Mika Posen (violin, viola, keyboards, percussion, loops) played blues drenched folk music that entrenched the audience in noise as Kirk and Trottier looped sound effects into and around the deep swooning vocals. Lapsteel swirled on top of a wave of bluesy chord progressions and violin elevated the melodies. At one point they looped a series of bird calls before starting into another haunting song. The set stirred the emotions of some deep American past that may have never existed. It was simple. It was complex. It was beautiful.
