Jenny Lewis Gets Macabre At Church

At first glance, Jenny Lewis appeared to be taking her ecclesiastical surroundings at Toronto's Trinity-St. Paul's Church to heart. Clad in an elegant black dress, the petite redhead sombrely walked down the centre aisle crooning "Run Devil Run," an a cappella number from her solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat. The statuesque Watson Twins, also in matching black, joined in the churchly procession.

It was a decidedly downbeat opener for Lewis. Since the release of Rabbit Fur Coat in January, the Rilo Kiley frontwoman has been touring the world in sparkly mini-dresses, shimmying and shaking with sultry abandon to her upbeat country and gospel numbers and belting out lyrics that flirt with the macabre.

After launching into a foot-stompin' rendition of "The Big Guns," Lewis and her band quickly picked up the pace and even managed to rouse the fickle Toronto audience from their pews more than once during the hour-long set.

With only one solo album to draw from, it's easy to imagine the band banging it off in its entirety and bidding good night in under 45 minutes. The show certainly seemed to be going in that direction at first. After doing six album songs, the women left the stage, leaving Jonathan Rice, Farmer Dave, Michael Runion and Rilo Kiley drummer Jason Beosel to entertain the crowd.

Emerging moments later in one of those aforementioned sequined-sparkly mini-dresses, Lewis and the Watsons switched gears with a new song called "Fernando," a wildly energetic and girly showstopper that leant itself well to booty-shakin' amateur choreography. The playful mood continued with the cute, silly a cappella call-and-respond song, "Bye Bye Baby."

Things took a darker turn when Lewis rocked out on the Wurlitzer to another new song, "Jack Killed Mom," a raucous soul number that wouldn't be out of place on Nick Cave's Murder Ballads record. As the title partially explains, it's about a guy who kills his mother after sleeping with her.

The final surprise of the night was the appearance of Leslie Feist, who joined in on a cover of the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care."

Lewis' turn from indie rock to more socially relevant country and gospel has often earned her comparisons to Loretta Lynn and Emmylou Harris. In spite of her high-energy and smooth, powerful voice, she doesn't say much to the audience and projects a certain amount of detached cool more in line with indie rock than Nashville. But her go-for-broke attitude to performing is extremely hard to dislike, and her new material is sharp and funny. Let's hope she finds time to record it so the sparkly mini-dresses get another chance to light up a stage — or altar — in Toronto again soon.