Feisty...

Last night I went to go and see Feist play at the Opera House at BAM...



It's the first time I'd seen a gig at BAM, it's an amazing building on the outside, and a beautiful venue inside, it's an amazing old Opera House, and an amazing place to see someone like Feist perform.

When I ordered the tickets I didn't know which seats I'd get as they were part of an album bundle from her website, but when I got there and picked up the tickets I found out they were on the front row!!!

When I arrived the support act were still on, they were called The Happiness Project (it was the side project of Feist's new guitarist). From what I could gather, they had interviewed their neighbours (over a long period of time, and in all the place they'd lived) and asked them about happiness. They then played sections of the interview, making melodies from the people's voice, or looping certain sections and playing really beautiful instrumental music over the top. It was really interesting and the music was beautiful - so I think I might look them up and find out a bit more about them.

Then it was Feist's turn...

She started with some songs off her new album, which sounded even better live...

It's always a bit funny going to see a gig and having to sit down. Being on the front row made it good though, but after a couple of songs Feist invited everyone to come and stand down at the front. I think it annoyed all the security guards but everyone else loved it!

It totally changed the atmosphere from being all quite and fairly reserved, to being a proper gig with people dancing around and enjoying the music...

Feist was great at interacting with the crowd and telling stories and working in jokes into her songs, it was great. She was also spotting out people in the crowd, like a man standing behind me who was wearing full skeleton face paint (for the Day of the Dead I suppose!). So she invited him up on stage to dance while she played My Moon My Man...

It turned out that he was a pretty good dancer (he probably practices while listening to Lady GaGa, if you know what I mean!), and stole the show during that song.

The band were absolutely brilliant too, the guitarist and keyboard playing switched round instruments quite a lot, and they changed up a lot of her songs, making some of the more poppy ones sound a little slower to fit in with the sound of her new songs. 

Her backing singers were also really good (a wee bit odd, standing there expressionless for the most part, wearing what looked like monks cloaks with bells on...?). For the encore Feist came back on stage just with her backing singers and a guitar...
 

Then Feist invited everyone to get up on stage for the last couple of songs!

It was great to see Feist play live again, and hopefully she'll play in New York again soon - but knowing that she doesn't play here that much made it even more special... it was such a different gig and Feist and her band sounded absolutely amazing.