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Review Mon Apr 12 2010
Review: Owen Pallett @ Lincoln Hall, 4/10
No one I have encountered has ever been less than amazed at the power of an Owen Pallett show. His songs have a heartbreaking quality with a loop pedal symphony with lyrics that pluck your heartstrings as quickly as his pizzicato and a voice that soars out to where his gaze is focused. Saturday night's show at Lincoln Hall was just as I suspected it would be — sublime.
Daniela Gesundheit of Snow Blink (photos by Kirstie Shanley)
Quirky duo Snow Blink opened with a lovely set of eerily beautiful songs that warmed everyone as we set in. Singer Daniela Gesundheit rocks a vocal range Kate Bush would envy. One of the highlights of the entire show was their epic cover of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" that made the room spin.
Owen Pallett's set opened with "E is For Estranged" from his latest album Heartland. This song was a heavy choice for an opener being incredibly sad, but it drew in the crowd. Sometimes I wonder if there is subliminal hypnosis laced within his songs, or if he just a very talented musician who has the gift of transporting an audience exactly to where they need to be within the moment of the song.
Owen Pallett (photos by Kirstie Shanley)
Pallett let us know that he was losing a bit of his voice after performing "This is the Dream of Win and Regine" which was pretty flawless. His ability to scream the lyrics "I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to keep the CROWDS AWAY" were just as I recalled them when he made Has a Good Home as Final Fantasy.
He was very charming with how he interacted with the audience. He then told us that sometimes people with beautiful voices are said to make boring music and gave Stevie Nicks as the exception. Pallett's ease with the crowd to share random thoughts was reciprocated with people shouting out favorite requests. Pallett's response was that as if we were all hanging out with him saying things like "Oh yeah, I haven't played that song in a while."
Songs from all of his albums were incorporated in the set giving equal attention to an entire body of work, not focusing on the latest material and allowing fans to hear favorites as well as new material in no particular order. Nor was there any pressure pressure from both sides to just hear the new stuff. "The Butcher" from his 2008 EP Spectrum, 14th Century (a song that nods at his former moniker) was played just before the last song of the set "Lewis Takes off His Shirt" from Heartland.
The expected encore lasted over fifteen minutes with three songs. The last being an adorable cover of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy". The night ended there with a very satisfied audience.