The Joanna Newsom concerts at the Ukrainian Federation were undoubtedly the indie event of the week. Adam Waito, frontman of shimmering pop act Adam & The Amethysts, was there. He shares his thoughts with Nomag. Hint: he’s totally into it.
The harp itself was impressive. Resembling a cross between a stately oak banister and a huge archaic loom, when you see it in person it’s hard to imagine any human being playing one, let alone a petite 28-year-old from small-town California. But last night at the Ukrainian Federation, Joanna Newsom plucked its 44 strings with outstanding poise and personality, and a classical virtuosity that’s rare in indie music.
The opening act was a long-haired three-piece from Brooklyn headed by Kevin Barker, who sounded a lot like The Band, were The Band a three-piece from Brooklyn. Barker is a frequent collaborator with many names you might recognize, like Joanna Newsom, Devandra Banhart, and Antony and the Johnsons. It seemed no secret to Barker that he lacked the charm and star power of his quirky comrades—not unlike The Band, I suppose—and he appeared quite content and gracious to serve the purpose of being Joanna Newsom’s opening act. His competent down-tempo rural ’70s rock was pleasant, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t spent much of his set staring at the ominous harp looming behind him, wondering how long before it would be played.
Much to the audience’s satisfaction, the headliner appeared on stage and after a brief hello to the crowd, commenced. Moving effortlessly between piano and harp, Newsom and her band played a mix of old and new songs. Her new material finds her distanced from much of the arcane and old-time influences occupying her previous work and while they’re still very much challenging, complex, and deep compositions, her new songs feel more situated within the milieu of 20th-century pop music. I may have imagined it, but even when she performed some of her songs from Ys, she did so with a cadence that was less medieval and decidedly jazzier. The timbre of her voice maintains a lot of its elfin idiosyncrasies, but has gotten smoother and more velvety—as well as more accessible. In any case, she’s definitely evolving as an artist and I’m totally into it.
And I have to hand it to Pop Montreal for pulling this off as a two-night series at the Ukrainian Federation rather than one show at a larger club. It was more intimate, and sound-wise, far different from what I imagine it would have been like at a big, loud rock club. The PA levels and acoustics were such that I felt like I could hear as much of the actual drums and piano resonating from the instruments themselves as I could from the PA speakers. I think this made for a much more immediate and organic-seeming concert experience—at least from where I was sitting—and a refreshing departure from the type of show that I’ve come to expect from a higher profile indie artist like Newsom. It was also just refreshingly quieter than a lot of shows.
Newsom and her band, which consisted of two violinists, a drummer, a trombonist, and a multi-instrumentalist who played guitar, banjo, recorder, and Bulgarian tambura, had a familial onstage rapport that the audience really ate up. At one point they played and sang happy birthday for their tour manager, a 40-something tour-manager-looking guy, and presented him with a cake. Newsom also engaged warmly with the audience, and handled it quite well when the requisite douchebag told her she was hot. The audience gleefully commiserated when she frequently had to retune a pesky new string on her harp.
A concert for an artist with such grandiose aesthetic vision and superior technique could have gotten away with being a lot stuffier than this was. And although the air of the Ukrainian Federation did itself get quite stuffy, after an 80 minute set and an encore, we all entered the cool night air feeling satisfied.
By Adam Waito / photos Rodolfo Moraga
