Feist at the Paramount: Simple, Elegant, Pretty Good

Inside the Paramount Theater, we found our seats near the front and we waited. In the weeks and days leading up to this show, we'd scoured the web, made a few calls, looked for hints in recent reviews from other cities. Nothing. We had no idea who the opening performer was. It was to be a mystery.

The lights came down, the applause came up and a man entered the stage. He was alone, save for a guitar, and clearly a little nervous. Without a word he tore into a lively tune about something or other. His voice was strong, but tempered. His playing, though not technically skillful, was impressive nonetheless for its ferocity. They were heartfelt songs built around simple chord progressions played at the pace of a bullet. According to the many people in the audience screaming his name, he is called Wil [myspace].

Wil would stop occasionally, say "Hi" and "Thank you." He'd look around, seemingly awestruck at the number of people in the crowd. When he'd seem almost overcome by it, someone would yell, "We love you Wil!" and "You're doing great Wil!" Stellar show, Wil. We mean that.

After a long wait, the lights came down again and Feist began what would be a surprisingly beautiful performance. She wasn't quite as demanding with the crowd this time around, but did not only suggest, but require crowd participation on more than a couple songs, which, unfortunately for us, suggested that crowd participation was acceptable during all of the songs that some chick two rows behind us knew all the words to.

To put this show simply, the singing was lovely, the music exceptional. Our favorite parts to the evening occurred during each of the horn solos during a couple of the slower songs.

We will say that what surprised us most about Feist was her voice. When listening to her albums one can clearly hear that she's a great singer, but it's not until you're hearing her live for the first time, that it becomes clear just how incredible a singer she is. Whether cooing apparitional oos and ahhs or sending an emotionally weighted note to the back of the house, Leslie Feist seems perfectly at ease.

Photo courtesy of Ken Eisner.