Feist Metals Review & Photos

Feist fans have definitely been waiting patiently for her to grace us with her presence and graced us she has! Feist produced a dozen short, vague, and just plain cool clips on her listentofeist.com website to give fans a glimpse of what Metals would be like. By the time those videos were widely public, anticipation turned into profound curiosity. And for me, such wonderments would halt on November 12th—the date of her first and only Southern California show.

Arriving to her easily sold-out show in Los Angeles, I made it in time for a familiar opener. Chilly Gonzales is known as a quirky piano genius who is behind a lot Feist tracks and in Feist’s own words, “one of my best friends.” Gonzales played a short and sweet set, which surprised though contented the crowd and myself. When the lights and stage finished rearranging, Feist made her way to the stage alongside a three-piece band and a trio of vocalists (also known as Mountain Man) and with bells mildly jingling and an electric guitar slowly cueing “Undiscovered First”.

The crowd jeered and some swayed in a hypnotic fashion, for her voice effortlessly soothes even the rowdiest of settings. Feist played practically all her new songs alongside a couple of oldies and remakes of what was an almost unrecognizable “Mushaboom” and “So Sorry ” (think less pop infused and more slowly paced).  In addition, a soul-reviving performance of “A Commotion” eloquently portrayed the depth of talent Feist and her Metals album embodies — something akin to delicate yet dark and that’s inviting through instruments and luring through lyrics.

Deep into the show, Feist gave both praise and spotlight to Mountain Man when they sang an old Appalachian folk song a cappella, which was a unique treat.

During the last say 45 minutes of the two-hour concert, Feist invited fans to hop up and sit on stage if they wished to. And after momentary disbelief and chaos of boosts and shoves onto stage, Feist naturally brought back the calm musical euphoria and continued her set, which then lead to an impressive and very generous five-song encore. Many pondered if “their song” would be played yet many more were delighted with her carefully selected song tracks. Starting the encore was the beautifully melancholic, “Cicadas and Gulls,” then she contrasted such wondrous sorrow with the jump for joy tune and my personal favorite, “I Feel it All.”For her very last song, she invited Gonzales to the piano where she stood atop the ivories singing down to Gonzales and out to the crowd with the ideal and beautiful, “Limit To Your Love” as her closer. As hands from the audience shot up with lighters, cameras, and phones, the end was clearly nearing and a communal feeling of utter appreciation filled the auditorium. Though I felt super satisfied and grateful for such the show, I was nevertheless left with a bit of longing perfectly captured in a verse from her show’s opener, “is it wrong to want more?”

Thu, Dec 1st	Toronto, ON	Massey Hall
Sat, Dec 3rd	Montreal, QC	Métropolis
Mon, Dec 5th	Ottawa, ON	National Arts Centre
Tue, Dec 6th	Quebec, QC	Grand Théâtre de Québec