Rebekah Higgs (Tasseomancy / Laura Barrett)
Rivoli. Saturday, February 12, 2011.
It was surprisingly well-lit when I walked into the Rivoli's backroom, finding a couple dozen people on hand, most filling up the tables along the room's west wall. As a compilation of reggae covers of popular hits played over the sound system, I saw the night's headliner and opener wandering the dancefloor, conspiring on how to create the right sort of atmosphere for the show. In the end, they grabbed some extra tables and set them up in front of the stage, reinforcing the notion that this was going to be a sit-down-pay-attention sort of gig. I stepped forward to help pull the tables in place — not so much out of gallantry as to be able to plunk myself down in a prime spot.
There were a few more bodies on hand as the lights went down, but not a huge crowd. Billed as a pre-Valentine's Day special, this was a rather under-promoted event. In fact, I came across it only by chance while flipping through the show listings, and no one that I mentioned it to had heard of it — not even those who would have been eager to have a too-rare opportunity to see expat Laura Barrett back in town. Temporarily relocated to Vancouver, Barrett led off some questions about dislocation in "Wood Between Words": "So, where are you bound this fall? Will I see you around? Where will you be moving on to?"1
After that, though, came some interesting surprises, with Barrett putting down her trademark kalimba and switching over to autoharp for a new song that might be called "No Money at All". Although the same voice and smart songwriting shone through, that certainly brought a different edge to the song. She then moved over to the keyboard for another new one — this is less of a surprise for anyone that's seen her playing in The Hidden Cameras and so on, but unusual for her own set. Having adapted the kalimba partially as a means to stand out amongst a crowded field of singer-songwriters, it was a heartening sign to see that Barrett won't allow herself to be limited to her most identifiable shtick.
And thank goodness for that confidence on stage, for between the extra instrument swapping and the new songs, things were a bit awkward with some technical gremlins poking their heads out. That led to the tantalizing tease of Barrett teaching the crowd the refrain of "The Humble Fawn" (then unreleased, now available on the National Parks Project) before realizing there was a tuning problem and not being able to undertake the song. That leaves it as one to wait for.
The crowd stayed on-side despite the problems, or maybe even to some extent because of them — when an artist has such an easy rapport with their audience, things-going-awry feel less like gaffes and more like the sort of shared experiences between friends that you can laugh about and bond over. And here the seated, easygoing crowd was attentive throughout, praised by Barrett as "the best audience of the year".
There was a lot of banter about Valentine's day — Barrett had called "Ferryland" her only love song, but the set ended with "Deception Island Optimists Club" which has something of a Valentine's wish embedded in it.
"We're Tasseomancy... we're playing a Valentines Day show," said Sari Lightman (or, possibly, her twin sister Romy). "We played one before. [beat] It didn't go so well."
"No, it didn't go over so well," said Sari (or, possibly, Romy), completing her thought in that mildly-unnerving, possibly-telepathic we're twins! way that the sisters speak. Still, they did their Valentine's Day best, trying to relate the holiday to songs like "Anubis", which deals with hearts in a more visceral way. Think organ-consuming gods ripped from the pages of The Book of the Dead.
In fact, if some bands write songs that are like snapshots vividly capturing one instant of day-to-day life, think of the Lightmans' efforts as being more like rambles through dusty old books of arcane lore and soul-menacing occult secrets. Taking the stage with a spooky moan issuing from a record on a turntable, the band asked for the lights to be lowered until they were nearly in complete darkness before launching into the the expansive "Diana", a sort of song that exists inside its own elaborate world and pulls you into it, like a series of illustrated tableaux coming to life.
Stretching more than seven minutes, the song requires a bit of investment on the listener's part. "Ashkelon", running a bit longer, works on similar principles, but with less of a sing-song motif to cling to, it's dronier in a way that you're either going to have to surrender to, or possibly otherwise tune out. Still, despite the heavy motifs and unsprightly pacing, the Lightmans' magnetism pulled me into the songs. And in between, they maintained their chipper sense of humour, finding ways to relate the rest of the songs to Valentine's Day.
Although they've experimented with more expansive lineups, here it was just two voices, guitar and mandolin, and as they finished with one look to their older material (back to when they were known as Ghost Bees), "Erl King" was accompanied only by heavily-delayed mandolin. Even with only four songs, it was still a half-hour set, and quite arguably the strongest I have seen from the pair.2
Listen to a song from this set here.
More in line with ever-popular music and V-day topics of love and heartbreak, Rebekah Higgs, now based here in T.O., showed off her Halifax roots in leading off with a cover of Eric's Trip's "Behind the Garage". And though that's sure to warm the dusty cockles of any indie-loving Canadian heart of a certain age, that song, with a straight-ahead rock arrangement (Higgs on guit backed by bass, drums and keyb) didn't particularly show this unit in its best light. As I'd noted when I saw Higgs a few months previously, she's taken big steps forward from the pleasant-but-undistinguished work on her 2008 debut. The biggest strides have come sonically, especially in the manner she's appropriated some of the tricks from her Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees dance-pop side-project. But without the extra textures, the more straight-ahead songs feel a little generic.
The contrast was made clear on the following "Lazy Morning", which slowed things down and embraced some more nuanced flourishes, such as bowed glockenspeil and effective vocal layering with the use of a looping pedal. The latter would be the key element of the bulk of the set, filled with songs from her now-released sophomore Odd Fellowship album. And there were some interesting variations in the arrangements — "Stick & Poke" ended in an accelerating spiral, like a teenager heading home drunk from the bar and trying to recreate the giddy childhood sensation of twirling around 'til you fall over.
Higgs seems to be aware of the delicate balancing required here: too much of the straight-ahead rock can be unremarkably same-y, but too much of the looping pedal and so on can get precious — but at the sweet spot in between all that, Higgs shows definite talent. Plus, she has an ear for no-doubt pop hooks, displayed on the fab "Little Voice" or "Gosh, Darn, Damn", which is a simple trifle of a thing, but with a chorus that can get stuck in your head all day. As long as Higgs can keep working out the mechanics of combining catchy-simple and intriguingly-textured — and perhaps upgrade to a drummer who can provide the material with the oomph it deserves — she'll definitely be doing work worth listening to.3
Listen to a song from this set here.
1 As of this writing, it appears that Barrett has returned to T.O. There's no word right now on any pending shows of her own stuff, but I do note that she will be alongside her friends in Sheezer when they reprise their annual Hallowe'en party — this year at Lee's Palace — on Friday, October 28, 2011.
2 Indications that the band have truly hit their stride abound on their Timber Timbre-produced full-length Ulalume, out now from Out of This Spark. The band will be playing an album release show at The Great Hall on Thursday, October 20, 2011 and will also be opening for Austra (with whom the Lightmans are touring members) at The Phoenix on December 1, 2011.
3 Celebrating her new album, Higgs has a couple local dates coming up, including a return to the Rivoli on Thursday, September 15, 2011 as well as a show at The Drake Underground with Katie Moore on Sunday, October 2, 2011.
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