BAT FOR LASHES PERFORMS THE FIRST GIG OF HER ’09 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR (MAY 2, 2009) download open range divx
By Peter Quincy Ng
Photo: Peter Quincy Ng
Bat for Lashes (Openers: Lewis & Clarke) – Mod Club April 25, 2009
Located in the heart of Toronto’s Little Italy, the Mod Club is known for its early concerts due to the fact that this small little concert venue has to prepare for club goers by 11:00PM. . This concert was no exception and at 7:30PM with the club only a quarter full Lewis & Clarke quickly took to the stage kicking off the first leg of her rather short North American Tour.
Decorated by little oddities such as Virgin Mary statues, candles and Native American wolf blankets left for Bat for Lashes, Lewis and Clarke took to the stage with a simple acoustic guitar with soothing campfire vocals. Although Lewis & Clarke played a strong and solid performance for another half-an-hour featuring songs such as ”Petrified Forest” and “Dead and Gone”, the rich cello instrumentation and even the melodica were quickly shrugged off as the chatter of incoming fans flooded in.
As another half-an-hour passes, and Bat for Lashes frontwoman Natasha Khan slowly enters the stage kneeling on the floor as the lights turn a crimson red. Singing the eerie intro to Glass
, suddenly the rapid-fire percussion of snare drums and Natasha springs to life. Hitting high note after another with flawless precision, Natasha quickly silenced the crowd as they cheered and stood in awe of her spine-chilling vocals. After working up the fans a little bit, Natasha immediately toned down to Sleep Alone, while quickly the crew moved in the marxophone in to get ready for her special acoustic version of Daniel. “Daniel” her first single of her newest effort “Two Planets”
was stripped down of percussion with only Natasha playing a few chords with the haunting zither of the Marxophone in the background.
While the crowd was generally pretty docile towards the concert and song recognition was generally poor, Natasha giggled and laughed between interludes as fans screamed her name. Ms. Bat for Lashes despite her rather eccentric demeanor was adorably cute throughout the concert and even stopped for awhile to say hi to her auntie who was attending and made little jokes to herself which no one really got. As Natasha switched through the multitude of instruments; autoharp, bells, chimes, keyboard, marxophone, maracas, tambourines… you name it, she eventually told the crowd to get off their feet and dance to her first ever release the dark yet uptempo “What’s a Girl to Do?”
.
Shortly after the song and playing the galactic and dream-like Pearl’s Dream, Natasha ducked out and disappeared waiting for an encore. After a moderate crowd cheered for Natasha to come to stage, she returns this time seated on the autoharp to play her sophomore single “Prescilla” even smiling as she paused momentarily to slowly scrape her fingers during the last strum across the zither. Another four songs later, Natasha sadly admits that she has one song and guess what it’s “Daniel” again. While most artists would probably be pelted to death and be immediately labeled as a lame duck for milking the same song over and over again, Natasha finally got the crowd actually singing along before she quickly disappeared into backstage.
Despite the rather at times unenthusiastic crowd of youngsters that attended the concert, this performance was nothing short of phenomenal. Natasha whether high or low hit each and every note, every single time as perfect as the word flawless implies. Rather it was a Susan Boyle type experience as I stood in awe of her stunning vocals. There is no doubt that Natasha is talented let alone the multitude of instruments she’s put her hands on. While the lighting and décor was kitschy at times, the sound was clear and audible and I’m almost certain sure people brought home some very good bootlegs. At roughly $15 (and if you were unfortunate enough to buy from ticketmaster – your service charges of course) the show is an absolute steal as I can’t claim to have been to many other shows where the performer’s vocals outdo the CD. There’s no doubt why the show sold out, but a little bit of enthusiasm from the crowd would have been appreciated.
Photo: Peter Quincy Ng
THE SETLIST (AS I PARAPHRASE WORD FOR WORD):
INTRO
GLASS
SLEEP ALONE
*JED MOVE MARX
HORSE & I
DANIEL
TRAVELLING WOMAN
*JAMES PUT AUTOHARP IN
SIREN SONG
WIZARD
SARAH
PIECE OF MIND
TAHITI
WHATS A GIRL TO DO
PEARL’S DREAM
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PRESCILLA
GOOD LOVE
MOON & MOON
TWO PLANETS
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DANIEL (BIG)
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