MUSIC
Concert Review: Chris Brown and Kate Fenner in Vancouver, Jan. 13, 2004
Tuesday's Vancouver appearance by long-time musical partners Chris Brown and Kate Fenner was ostensibly designed to celebrate the recent release of a pair of solo projects: his Burden of Belief and her Horses & Burning Cars. But these two just can't say no to collaboration, and by the end of their WISE Hall show the stage was packed with Brown, Fenner, opening act Po' Girl, and surprise guest Sarah Harmer, all singing along on the Brooklyn-based duo's anthemic "Resist War", with help, at points, from a large and giddy audience. The last time Vancouver saw so much love was at Lilith Fair way back in 1999, and although necessarily much smaller, the Chris and Kate experience evoked similar feelings of unity, social awareness, and spiritual generosity.
That the night would be magical was apparent not long after Po' Girl took the stage. An earlier, two-piece incarnation of this Be Good Tanyas spinoff failed to impress; the best that could be said about Trish Klein and Allison Russell's folk/roots/ blues act was that in this age of studied incompetence, it seemed the real thing. This hasn't entirely changed: on Tuesday, Russell's clarinet-playing was sketchy at best; violinist Diona Davies didn't always finish her solos; and the band's best musician, drummer Shelley Okepnek, was buried away at the back of the stage and frequently inaudible. But Po' Girl has been on the road a lot of late, and if that hasn't made the group terribly professional--patch cords were stepped on, guitar picks lost, and instruments nearly dropped--it has solidified a deep intimacy between its members. The four Girls clearly love to perform together, and Russell has the makings of a born star: she wasn't the only one who giggled after her "whistle solo" (which won her a kiss from Davies) on one number, and her Billie Holiday tribute, "What Sad Old Song", though somewhat out of sync with the rest of the set, was both mournful and disturbing.
Like Po' Girl, Brown and Fenner have found a way to make the best of their limitations: Fenner's near-complete lack of ability on the guitar, and the fact that much of the time they're trying to play full-band arrangements with one-and-a-half instruments. They solve the latter with the former, treating Fenner's six-string scratching as their rhythmic base and then relying on Brown's remarkable ability to make his Hohner clavinet sound like an electric guitar, an organ, a bass, or even eerie strings. Watching him rock out on the funkier tunes--slapping at his keys and dancing like he's being attacked by biting insects--is a party in itself.
The keyboardist and part-time guitarist also contributed the loveliest song of the night, Burden of Belief's "Superior". Although it's about love, it's grand rather than gushing and strong rather than sentimental, and just as it does on Brown's new record, at the WISE Hall it benefited from Harmer's bittersweet harmonies. Fenner also seems concerned with love on her new solo effort, and not only with the romantic variety: a ballad she described rather cryptically as having been written "for my dads" captured the melancholy ache of watching one's parents, and oneself, grow inexorably older.
Following the rousing spectacle of "Resist War", Brown and Fenner came back for one last duo number, and I have to tell you I've forgotten what it was. But that's only because my attention was diverted by the sight of Russell and Klein waltzing at the side of the stage, temporarily a universe of two. It was a sweet and lovely gesture--and a physical manifestation of what everyone else in the room was feeling.
Concert Review: Chris Brown and Kate Fenner in Vancouver, Jan. 13, 2004
Tuesday's Vancouver appearance by long-time musical partners Chris Brown and Kate Fenner was ostensibly designed to celebrate the recent release of a pair of solo projects: his Burden of Belief and her Horses & Burning Cars. But these two just can't say no to collaboration, and by the end of their WISE Hall show the stage was packed with Brown, Fenner, opening act Po' Girl, and surprise guest Sarah Harmer, all singing along on the Brooklyn-based duo's anthemic "Resist War", with help, at points, from a large and giddy audience. The last time Vancouver saw so much love was at Lilith Fair way back in 1999, and although necessarily much smaller, the Chris and Kate experience evoked similar feelings of unity, social awareness, and spiritual generosity.
That the night would be magical was apparent not long after Po' Girl took the stage. An earlier, two-piece incarnation of this Be Good Tanyas spinoff failed to impress; the best that could be said about Trish Klein and Allison Russell's folk/roots/ blues act was that in this age of studied incompetence, it seemed the real thing. This hasn't entirely changed: on Tuesday, Russell's clarinet-playing was sketchy at best; violinist Diona Davies didn't always finish her solos; and the band's best musician, drummer Shelley Okepnek, was buried away at the back of the stage and frequently inaudible. But Po' Girl has been on the road a lot of late, and if that hasn't made the group terribly professional--patch cords were stepped on, guitar picks lost, and instruments nearly dropped--it has solidified a deep intimacy between its members. The four Girls clearly love to perform together, and Russell has the makings of a born star: she wasn't the only one who giggled after her "whistle solo" (which won her a kiss from Davies) on one number, and her Billie Holiday tribute, "What Sad Old Song", though somewhat out of sync with the rest of the set, was both mournful and disturbing.
Like Po' Girl, Brown and Fenner have found a way to make the best of their limitations: Fenner's near-complete lack of ability on the guitar, and the fact that much of the time they're trying to play full-band arrangements with one-and-a-half instruments. They solve the latter with the former, treating Fenner's six-string scratching as their rhythmic base and then relying on Brown's remarkable ability to make his Hohner clavinet sound like an electric guitar, an organ, a bass, or even eerie strings. Watching him rock out on the funkier tunes--slapping at his keys and dancing like he's being attacked by biting insects--is a party in itself.
The keyboardist and part-time guitarist also contributed the loveliest song of the night, Burden of Belief's "Superior". Although it's about love, it's grand rather than gushing and strong rather than sentimental, and just as it does on Brown's new record, at the WISE Hall it benefited from Harmer's bittersweet harmonies. Fenner also seems concerned with love on her new solo effort, and not only with the romantic variety: a ballad she described rather cryptically as having been written "for my dads" captured the melancholy ache of watching one's parents, and oneself, grow inexorably older.
Following the rousing spectacle of "Resist War", Brown and Fenner came back for one last duo number, and I have to tell you I've forgotten what it was. But that's only because my attention was diverted by the sight of Russell and Klein waltzing at the side of the stage, temporarily a universe of two. It was a sweet and lovely gesture--and a physical manifestation of what everyone else in the room was feeling.
posted by D @ 10:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home