Neko Case / Crooked Fingers
Trinity-St. Paul's Church. Friday, April 17, 2009.
Thought I'd beat the crowd and get there early, but there was already a decent line stretching down the block by the time I strolled over to Spadina and Walmer. So instead of trying to cram myself in somewhere on the main floor, which was quickly filling up, I headed upstairs and found myself a righteous front-row spot, perpendicular to the lip of the stage on the stage right side. A good spot to look right down at the stage full of delicious gear. And then lean back and take in the pretty surroundings — the evening's light filtering in through the obscured skylights in the ceiling, and the pleasantly geometrical stained glass windows, which recall a more rigourous version of a Lawren Harris abstraction, based in some kind of heretical theosophy.1
But I digress. Though fairly mixed, it was largely an older and fairly genteel crowd on hand. The place was nearly two-thirds full by the time Crooked Fingers took the stage, and the crowd was quite receptive.2 Having seen them last fall opening for Okkervil River, it was interesting to see the band shift their sound a bit to fit venue and set the mood for the headliner. Whereas before Okkervil the band rocked it up a bit more, here there was a more meditative vibe, set right from the outset with a gentle version of "Broken Man", with Eric Bachmann's fingerpicking floating above Tim Husmann's ambient electronics. This time around the band was playing as a trio, with Husmann3 doubling on keybs and drums and Miranda Brown4 on bass. Perhaps even moreso than last time, I found the set so good I was left wondering how I had drifted away from following Bachmann and his work.
After a break5, Neko and band took the stage. Behind them, a large screen for projected videos was embraced by a giant owl with glowing eyes. The five-piece band, quarterbacked by guitarist Paul Rigby and his impressive rack of effects, is pretty simpatico with Neko, and by this point everything seems to work at a pretty intuitive level. Which is not to say that the music is subsumed by roteness, as Neko always manages to add an edge of unrehearsed randomness to every performance.6 Added to that is the interplay between Neko and Kelly Hogan, the pair always coming off a bit like sit-com-ized versions of your would-be best friends, still down-to-earth, yet with quicker zany comebacks and a little more mysteriously sexy than people usually are in real life.
As for the performance, the setlist was rooted in songs from Middle Cyclone, though from the opening "Maybe Sparrow" there were plenty of selections from the earlier albums. Neko's vox grew in strength as the night went on, and aside from a slightly flat "I'm an Animal", which felt a little dirge-y, the new tunes breathed nicely. Special mention should be made of Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me", which got a very nice reading in the encore, backed only by Rigby's acoustic guit and Hogan's vox. Otherwise, it's hard to pick out too many highlights, as the show was a delight throughout.
Neko is mainstream now, apparently, if that #3 Billboard debut means anything, so I wonder how long it'll be before I get a chance to get that close again.
1 To my surprise, doing some digging around, it's been 3 ½ years since I was last in these digs, seeing Richard Thompson.
2 One sign that this was an older crowd was the fact that, somewhat to my amazement, I didn't see anyone busily texting away during the opening act.
3 Rock t-shirt: Wye Oak.
4 Most recently seen in these parts in Carl Newman's backing band.
5 During which the crowd headed down to the merch table to buy copies of Neko's Canadian Amp EP, based on the several copies I saw people clutching on my way out.
6 On this night, the goofy wild card was the fact that Neko's pants weren't sitting quite right, leading to a series of adjustments and no small amount of on-stage ribbing.
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