Feist – Powerstation November 25, 2017

Auckland experienced a musical Canadian invasion last night. While Toronto’s Shawn Mendes was putting smiles on pop fans’ faces at Spark Arena, Alberta-based Leslie Feist dazzled a spellbound crowd with her musicianship and songwriting skills.

This is Feist’s second visit to Auckland, although her first, at 2012’s Laneway Festival, was way too brief to really appreciate what she’s capable of.

That situation was corrected last night. An opening act was eschewed as Feist and her band carried the night with a two hour and fifteen minute set. The band consisted of Amir Yaghmai on keyboards and violin, Todd Dahlhoff playing bass and keyboards and Auckland’s own “Lucky” Paul Taylor on drums. When introducing the band, Feist pointed out that Taylor had performed at the Powerstation as a 16-year-old Rockquest contestant.

Leslie herself played guitar, and proved to be an impressive player. Her style is all her own and her choices were both surprising and refreshing.

In fact all of the playing was stellar. No one showed off, there were no blistering solos, but all four musicians went the extra mile to serve the songs.

And what songs they are.

Feist informed us that they would be performing her most recent album, Pleasure, from beginning to end, and that was just fine with the fans.

The song Pleasure showed how Feist and her band use dynamics to help move the audience. Meanwhile Get Not High, Get Not Low, showed off her guitar skills with the song punctuated by sharp bursts of distortion, then followed by fluid, melodic lines.

Vocally, Feist is a force unto herself. She leaps and bounces from one note to the other, often throwing in an off-mic yelp or two along the way. Her mastery of the looping pedal is impressive and on songs like Lost Dreams and A Man Is Not His Song, it seemed like she was scat-singing with herself.

It took Feist over an hour to make her way through the 53 minute album, and when it was over, there was still plenty of time for more.

“Let’s go back in time!” she suggested, much to the crowd’s approval, and they were immediately clapping along to the loping beat of My Moon My Man.

Highlights from the second half of the show included the emotional A Commotion, with its cascading vocals and a rocking version of the bluesy Sealion with thumping drums and something of a guitar duel between Feist and Amir.

Despite the length of the set, the energy level of the performance and the enthusiasm of the crowd never wavered. In fact, there was one man in front of me who was literally jumping for joy during the show’s final songs.

After a dreamy Let It Die closed out the set, Feist returned on her own to play Mushaboom and Gatekeeper. Actually, she wasn’t really on her own, as the entire crowd was clapping and singing along with her.

Finally, she introduced the song with which she has a “complicated relationship”. Referring to her breakthrough 2007 hit 1234, Feist told us, “she got sick of me, I got sick of her”.

Fortunately she and the song have reconciled with the tune talking on a new resonance thanks to Feist’s moody re-arrangement.

By the end, the band had returned and everyone was counting the beat.

What a show…a highlight of the year.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Reuben Raj:

 

Feist set list:

1. Pleasure
2. I Wish I Didn’t Miss You
3. Get Not High, Get Not Low
4. Lost Dreams
5. Any Party
6. A Man Is Not His Song
7. The Wind
8. Century
9. Baby Be Simple
10. I’m Not Running Away
11. Young Up
12. My Moon My Man
13. A Commotion
14. Sealion
15. The Bad In Each Other
16. Anti-Pioneer
17. I Feel It All
18. Let It Die
19. Mushaboom
20. Gatekeeper
21. 1234