Lowell - AGO First Thursday (Mar 5/15)

The drummer was in place, the guitarist tweaking the laptop in anticipation of the arrival of the lady of the hour.. Lowell snaked through the crowd with white lights draped along her silhouette on her way to appearing on stage with a smile, a semi-transparent white sweater and some horrid pink-eye boxer shorts. Banter was kept to a minimum making for longish breaks between songs and the little interaction that did happen was awkward and forced. (And I like Lowell.) The opener about The Shit We Do For Love was new as was the next tune; both seem to have taken the gloss off for a slightly edgier sound than the majority of We Loved Her Dearly, with beats bordering on bangers. These new songs worked and she sang them earnestly which couldn't quite be said of the core of the set. Something to do with the spaced-out, all-things-are-magical persona detracted from the presentation of 'hits' - The Bells, Money - especially her careless voice cracking. Even on Palm Trees and Cloud 69 I was thrown, though it may have been the underaged kids who had snuck in front of us (therefore directly in front of Lowell) and appeared to be taking advantage of the alcoholic experience. Funnily enough on the finale, written this week, she appeared more sincere than the previously well-worn tunes and though it wasn't the poppiest number it translated well. I implore Lowell to stick with the skills that brought her this far and lessen the cultivation of this image.

Basia Bulat - AGO First Thursday (Jan 3/13)

People lined around the block to get into the sold out First Thursday event at the AGO featuring a performance by Ms. Basia Bulat. They were everywhere as seemingly the majority of the 2000 attendees crammed the atrium awaiting the musical portion of the evening. Finally Basia arrived with simply a guitar and took a place on the floor behind the stage for a (noticeably) unmic'ed opening number all on her own. In fact she was solo for the entire set, a first time for that she admitted, but accompanied by a visual artist, Stephanie Comilang, who used projectors to portray her art on the screens that divided the room and made for an interesting room dynamic. Basia did her best to accommodate everyone by playing on all sides of the screens in what she dubbed "Basia 360".

Her instruments varied from acoustic (where she altered her vocal delivery on Go On), to auto harp (strummed on Gold Rush, but tapped with a springy hammer later in the set), and keys (like on old fave Snakes and Ladders). Among the known catalog she also incorporated a couple from this year's forthcoming new release (!). These are promising and included "First Five Now Four" and a song she was playing for the very first time to an audience, "Tall Shadow", which was quite nice. In the spirit of 'out with the old and in with the new' she closed with an a cappella (stomp/clap) rendition of her favourite old standard, retiring it from her repertoire to make room for her new ideas. An interesting setup, she did a lot with the space and was fairly inclusive considering the circumstances, giving everyone a taste of her wonderful performance.