Feist Successfully Goes Both Ways

The Sony Centre

Toronto, ON

on May 13 2008

Matt Littlefair (CHARTattack)

05/15/2008 2:30pm

Leslie Feist rolled into The Sony Centre on Tuesday night, offering up yet another stellar performance. It was eerily similar to her show at Massey Hall last spring, right down to the crowd makeup and dynamics. I do need to stress and will probably bring this up again that Feist and her backing quartet are immensely talented and put on a stunning live show. If you haven't seen it, do.

What did strike me about Tuesday night's performance was just how much the tone of Feist's shows have changed over the years. I don't think it's a function of something she's doing per se, not overtly, anyway. But more, it has everything to do with her recent (and rapid) ascension into the mainstream. Between iPods, Grammy performances, Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report, Feist is (deservedly) enjoying a cavalcade of positive media attention. The standard thinking goes that this should be in direct conflict with her indie roots. Herein lies the crux of Feist's key to success, well at the very least the way I see it, and it was perfectly illustrated in her performance on Tuesday night.

For many there exists an abstract and asinine notion of "credibility" for independent artists that seems to hinge on how poor said artist is. The poorer they are, the more credible they are, which only seems to work in the creative realm, otherwise the dude who sits outside my neighbourhood bank with one shoe and a crumpled Tim Hortons cup full of change would be the most credible cat I, or anyone on my block, would know.

The argument usually goes that commercial success=selling out. This isn't a new, nor groundbreaking observation, but it's especially applicable to Feist. On the surface she's done all of the things that would normally warrant piles of crap slung her way by indie elitists (see aforementioned list for reference). But Feist continues, and probably will until she decides to hang up that fire engine red guitar of hers (which is probably never), to enjoy the best of both worlds, cred amongst the skinny jean crowd, coupled with legitimate/financial success that goes beyond mere survival. I'm not suggesting that she's lighting a $400 dollar cigar with solid gold lighters, but she definitely doesn't have to sling coffee during the day to make ends meet.

This is a function of both her work and her audience. On the performance side of things, I like to think it's Feist's rock roots which shone through on Tuesday night, and generally provided the most compelling moments in her 90 minute set. Elements like the aggressive guitar riffs of "Sea Lion Woman" or "When I Was A Young Girl," which came early in her set, are why her indie aesthetic remains intact. They're too twitchy and clever to ever be totally mainstream.

The other side of the coin is that a large portion of her record buying audience couldn't give a toss about esoteric notions of "credibility." Many of those in attendance last night probably didn't know Feist from a Cobb salad before her infamous iPod ad, and they certainly don't care that she doesn't sing punk songs anymore. In fact, they obviously prefer it, otherwise Feist would've been a star a decade ago. Essentially Feist embraces the best of both worlds, she's universal, but edgy, mainstream, but with a CV that contains references to the who's who of Canadian independent music, be it Peaches, By Divine Right or Broken Social Scene.

Speaking of which, part of the fun of going to see a peripheral member of Broken Social Scene perform in Toronto is the hope of a cameo from someone in the band. Alas, the closest we'd get this evening would be Feist's highlight of the night solo acoustic cover of boyfriend Kevin Drew's "Fucked Up Kid." I'm biased in that it's my favourite song on Drew's BSS Presents record, but Feist imbued it with a haunting sentimentality that resonated throughout the evening.

In the end, regardless of which audience she was playing for, they all still came out because Feist's focus seems to be on the music, and if nothing else, that'll ensure that she's bound for continued success.