British
Sea Power builds it up; Feist strips it down
British Sea Power/Feist
Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 16, 2005
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in
The Boston Globe, May 18, 2005
It’s not entirely clear how two acts as different
as British
Sea Power and Feist ended up sharing a bill with one another, but with
their
two-week tour nearing its end with a stop at the Middle East on Monday,
the
contrast between them provided yet more evidence that less can indeed
be more.
That’s something British Sea Power hasn’t yet mastered,
but
it’s a lesson the band seems to be learning. Less ornate than on
record, where it
sounds like a less erudite Decemberists, the band on stage called to
mind another
nautically-named band, late-’80s/early-’90s college rockers the Ocean
Blue,
with its pinging guitars and keyboard wash. The more straightforward
approach underlined
singer/guitarist Yan’s nervous menace and helped the band build up a
good head
of steam by the end of “Childhood Memories,” “Oh Larsen B” and “North
Hanging
Rock.”
Unfortunately, that momentum was isolated to individual
songs and proved hard to maintain throughout the set. Part of the
problem was
British Sea Power’s distracting penchant for mild gimmickry, which
included a
pre-show mix peppered with radio-type promos for their new album Open Season, recordings of ocean-themed
sounds filling the gaps between songs and keyboard player Eamon’s
invasions of
the audience while beating on a drum, occasionally by letting it fall
on his
hardhatted head.
Canadian singer Feist took the opposite tack, stripping the
sad-sounding, vaguely Continental songs on Let
It Die down to the bone and coming out all the better for it.
Bathed in a low
light that barely illuminated her and accompanying herself on electric
guitar,
Feist sang in a hushed, vulnerable voice that was the female equivalent
of Nick
Drake singing like Jeff Buckley.
That voice was a boon to the downbeat material, such as her
mesmerizing take on the traditional folk ballad “When I Was A Young
Girl,” and
it effectively transformed the Bee Gees’ “Inside And Out” into a torch
song. But
Feist showed a playful side too, with the skeletal “Cherry, Cherry”
accompaniment of “Mushaboom,” the on-the-fly samples resulting in
multiple
Feists layered in odd but fascinating harmonies, and the invitation
extended to
an ecstatic audience member to step on stage to scat during
“Gatekeeper.”
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