Last night I attended Feist/Grizzly Bear concert at the Fillmore. Yes, first indie show. Pictured left was taken from Tuesday night. Cameras were not allowed, poor Jed. And in that picture would of been Tina, Jed, Jeremy and me chillin. Yes thanks to my cousin for waiting we were standing right in front center. Yes we cut him and like only 30 other people lol. Walked in the Fillmore (first time) and it so reminded me of the Dancing with the Stars ballroom. Very chic. I twirled a bit and secured a spot, in front of the speakers and mic. We had a free apples and my opened water (haha!) and set it on the stage, not forgetting the banana bread. Our own mini picnic. Chronicle has a good review here, but let me give you more commentary if you do care. That Verizon screen saying "Your text here" is a lie. Don't send them text, you won't see it. Hahaha. The crowd was filled with who you would think would be at a indie show, plus a couple of Asians, yee! So the opening act was Grizzly Bear performing over an hour set. I saw them outside but I didn't know what they looked like. They came on and I only recognized a couple of their songs. Very mellow, relaxing music. And their use of instruments ranging from the flute, clarinet, guitar and other machines I never heard of was awesome. But the big sweat droplet almost hitting us from the singer would of be bad haha. The drummer was kind of cute. They ended and still was on stage just putting their plugs and doodads away. We stretched our legs and neck (ouch), the crew placed waters, set lists, mic checks then around 9:30 she came on stage.
This was the second show in two days and I don't know about the first show, but this one was really really great. As she said "this is our night." She performed many songs from "The Reminder" and a couple songs from "Let It Die." She placed a sequined armband around her mic, while the other had a purple unicorn dangling down. Who knew how funny she was? She forgot her lyrics to 'One Evening' and walked off stage and had the lyrics copied onto the bottom of a beer case and restarted. Also she shout outed this guy in a unicorn shirt who was right behind me. For awhile I thought she was looking at me. And she got the sold out crowd (I could not see the end) into it, singing and shouting out SF, Oakland and Sausalito?!
Feist has an incredible live voice, even with the dance hand motions and funny faces, at least it ain't ugly as John Mayer. You really can't find her kind of raspy, seductive voice anywhere on the radio. I think it was during 'The Park' where the whole band made bird noises, very Bambi woodsy ambiance. The crowd cheered during 'I Feel It All' during the "I want to win the war," I don't thing that song has to do with anything political but just the word war gets us riled up. Also some lady tapped danced and I was scared she was going kick someone hahaha.
She encored with 'Lover's Spit' loved it so much. That was the song that really got me into loving her voice. She jumped on the piano with her lyrics and was accompanied by her former band mate of Broken Social Scene on the keys. That got me right here. She continued with the boys of Grizzly Bear in background vocals to 'Sealion' and ended the show with 'Let It Die.' Brillantly beautiful as ever.
The Fillmore is so rockin' I need to check out another show there. Disco balls, Christmas lights, bar - nice. Some girls to the right swooped on the set list then walked slowed on the now sticky floor to the exit. Made my way through the white crowd and sat for 5 minutes to regain blood movement and retrieved Jed's camera. I did not know this, but the Fillmore always gives special limited posters at sold out shows, very cool. The show was so intimate and fun, which made me appreciate her even more. She has proven you don't need the big over the top numbers, wardrobe changes, pyrotechnics to hear a great singer. Check out Feist's music, you won't be disappointed.
