Photos by Greg Wong
I’ve always found a strange comfort in the music and personality of Leslie Feist. Her unique voice that carries enough tender fragility to belie the immense power of its holder’s voice.
Entering the nearly-empty MGM Music Hall was exciting enough in itself, as I had still yet to see the inside of the room. The mezzanine curtains were drawn, so we couldn’t really see how far up and back that went, but we were both surprised as to the size of the GA floor, which seemed smaller than what we were expecting from a 5,000 cap venue.
In the middle of the floor was a small circular stage. If I hadn’t already been notified of this setup, then I would have gone ballistic the second house lights fell and Feist appeared on that small center stage, armed with a mic and guitar. She dove into a little crowd banter as she set up a phone that was rigged to the house’s video feed. Eventually she asked an audience member to hold the phone and record her while she performed. It later turned out that this audience member was a plant from her team, a fact every attendee realized in their own time when we noticed that this random person was actually quite a proficient cinematographer. That’s Feist’s vibe though: a gentle sort of victimless trolling.
For the first eight(ish) songs of her set, Feist was solo on this stage, performing a number of acoustic selections ranging from her whole catalog. During this section, she dove into “Mushaboom,” the first single that really put her on the map back in the mid-2000s. While this section was intimate and showcased the singer’s insipid, biting humor, it was a little disappointing not to hear “The Park” from 2007’s The Reminder, which would have fit into the acoustic portion of the show like a hand in a glove. Oh well, that song fucks me up, so it’s probably for the best.
After that, Feist transitioned up to the mainstage to join her band for the remainder of the set. The songs from her new album Multitudes pack a particular punch, making it seem like she and the band haven’t needed too much time to polish off these new selections and make room for them in a live performance. While she did play “1234” – the song from that iTunes commercial that really helped solidify her status as an indie pop queen – this version sounded almost nothing like the record’s. Instead of the catchy bubblegum pop of the original, Feist and co. gave the live version more of a minor key spin, punching up the drums and rhythm to make it more like a post-punk song than something you’d hear in the Starbucks line.
Check out Greg Wong’s photos from the show below.
