Owen Pallett - Live!
Esplanade Recital Studio
Last Friday
To watch Owen Pallett perform live is to be held enthralled. You see the Canadian singer- songwriter alone on stage and you can hardly believe the richness of the music that is being created by one man.
Dressed casually and comfortably in a long-sleeved round-neck shirt, dark jeans and socks without shoes, he gave the full-house audience a nod of acknowledgement before opening the set with The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead off the album Has A Good Home (2005).
The classically trained musician plucked a pizzicato phrase on his violin, looped it, played the keyboard as his feet worked the pedals on the floor and sang in his sweetly delicate voice, switching seamlessly among the instruments from one moment to the next.
It was an intricate performance born of supreme musicianship. The violin was not simply a violin in his hands, coaxed to yield bird-like chirps from the higher register, simulate a percussion instrument, masquerade as an entire string section and even imitate the sound of bagpipes.
Little wonder that he is something of a musician’s musician who has worked with feted acts from Arcade Fire to Grizzly Bear to Beirut.
While it was not always easy to hear what he was singing, the musical worlds he conjured up were always compelling and there was the suggestion of whimsy and fantasy about them.
He had previously recorded under the moniker Final Fantasy before releasing the acclaimed Heartland (2010) under his own name. In it, he creates a world in which a young farmer named Lewis is commanded by an all-powerful narrator named Owen.
While he might play god on his latest album, he was eminently approachable in person. Gesturing at the empty space around him, he urged his fans to join him, adding: “I was gonna put pineapple slices to encourage you to come down.”
Occasionally, he would chuckle to himself in the midst of a number, and before launching into The Arctic Circle, he said self-deprecatingly: “I tried this in Tokyo and it was a disaster.”
It was also a reminder of all the hard work he puts into making his performances look effortless. He shared at one point: “My fingers are bleeding now because I didn’t play much over Christmas.”
The set ended with an ace cover of Caribou’s Odessa and the skittering electronica of Lewis Takes Off His Shirt.
Pallett came back for the encore with one more surprise up his sleeve. He ditched the amplifiers and technical wizardry to serve I Want To Be Well and He Poos Clouds on just his violin. And he wowed all the same.
It was a gig that absolutely justified the exclamation point in its title.
(ST)