We've got one thirsty songstress on our hands

Not from the show, but you get the idea

Feist and Jason Collett, Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI 1/24/06

While the Canadian Parliament may have shifted a little right of center this week, Canadian indie rock stayed put at a little right of awesome. Case in point, the show put on by co-Broken-Social-Scene-sters Feist and Jason Collett at the Blind Pig Tuesday night.

Collett began the evening with a lovely set of tears-in-your beer alt-country, composed of songs from his two Arts and Crafts releases, Motor Motel Love Songs and Idols of Exile (out in the States on Feb. 4). It was the most compelling performance from an opener that I’ve seen in a long time: they grow them passionate in Toronto (and a little drunk). Collett and his band even managed to keep the crowd’s attention when they were joined by one Leslie Feist (on drums, nonetheless). For those of you who may have given up on Wilco after A Ghost Is Born, I point you in Mr. Collett’s direction.

(Author’s note: I realize that Tweedy pretensions and on-stage drunkenness are COMPLAINTS that I have previously lobbed at Neva Dinova, but whereas Neva acted like the drunken unlce nobody likes when they opened for Rilo Kiley at St. Andrew’s, Collett was just plain affable)

I have been caught off-guard by many a rock star’s height and Feist is no exception; she’s really really short. That being said, she was carried from the back of the Blind Pig to the stage on a pair of shoulders (whose, I can’t be sure of, I didn’t get a good look), and retained that metaphoric stature for the remainder of the evening. Dressed in all white (no Canadian Labour Day?), she made Collett’s crowd control seem feeble by comparison. And let me assure you: the pipes you hear on Let It Die are Feist’s and Feist’s alone. The woman is a veritable vocal acrobat. Even the shottiest sound equipment couldn’t keep the voice down, though it was the source of some of her best on-stage banter.

Being familiar with only Let It Die, I didn’t recognize many of the songs Feist and her cohorts played (no research, this is concert-going/blogging, not real journalism), but I enjoyed them just the same. As for the songs I did know, I really didn’t know them, as they were given some new spins. “Secret Heart” was played as a Janis Joplin-esque blues-rocker (credit to Ben Johnson for the comparison) and the cabaret shuffle of “Mushaboom” was given extra guitar muscle. “Flick your lighters when you recognize this one,” Feist told the audience before her intimate acoustic re-re-envisioning of the Bee Gees’ “Inside and Out”. It took a verse and a bit of chorus for the flames to respond, but they did so en masse.

Of course, the best (like “Inside and Out”) was saved for the encore, which followed a set-closing jam with all the night’s musicians and Feist chanting something about cheetahs (question mark?) that I hoped against hope would turn into Broken Social Scene’s “Windsurfing Nation”. My prayers for some BSS were answered when Collett came to the stage one last time to play a Feist-led “fast version” of “Major Label Debut” (which you’ve PROBABLY HEARD...right?). There’s no way it could stack up to actually hearing it as played by the whole Scene, but it’ll do for now.

As her final act, Feist commissioned a grade nine slow dance (complete with the Blind Pig’s own mirror ball!) to take place around her as she played “Let It Die”. Tonight, Leslie Feist had the power to make indie kids sway before their contemporaries like the awkward 14-year-olds they still kind of are. Tonight, she stood tallest. It may be a little early, but I have a suggestion for Canadians who want to unseat the Tories: Feist for Parliament.

MP3's:
Feist-Mushaboom
Feist-Let It Die
Feist-Inside and Out
(Buy Let It Die)

Jason Collett-Blue Sky
(Buy Motor Motel Love Songs)