Sarah Slean Gets Festive

Enwave Theatre

Toronto, ON

on Dec 20 2008

Shannon Webb-Campbell (CHARTattack)

12/22/2008 4:06pm

Toronto might have been buried in snow this past weekend, but Sarah Slean's annual festive two-night stint at the Enwave Theatre warmed many hearts.

Saturday evening saw Slean clad in a dazzling green dress (that her friend "the mermaid" gave her) performing with some of the cabaret chanteuse's closest musical friends. The Roaring Girl Cabaret's Miranda Mulholland, Gentlemen Reg, NQ Arbuckle, Royal Wood and the Blue Spruce String Quartet added gorgeous flourishes and arrangements to Slean's extensive repertoire.

Slean invited fans to request songs for the set list for both shows. She was forced to dip into the vault and relearn some of her earlier material and admitted during her set that she had created quite a challenge for herself to play what she deemed long forgotten songs.

Mulholland joined Slean on both vocals and violin on Universe's hidden track, "John XXIII." The jazzed-up trio version of "Me And Jerome" could have lured writer J.D. Salinger out from reclusion. Gentleman Reg's vocal accompaniment on "Somebody's Arms" added an ethereal whimsy to the track. The ever-charming Wood, alongside Mulholland, joined in on guitar and backing vocals for "Willow."

Slean and Wood's on-stage chemistry recently poured over to their off-stage lives, as the two got in engaged while in Paris. When the lovebirds shared the piano bench for a classic rendition of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," it was hard not to imagine the musical prodigies these two could create.

NQ Arbuckle's Neville Quinlan sauntered in decked out in a jean jacket, winter boots and wild hair, as he had just spent the day and previous night moving in a snowstorm. While everyone was dressed in their Sunday finest — suits, ties, high heels and all, the scruffy songwriter befit the cover Slean purposely selected for them to perform. Their version of 2007's Academy Award-winning best original song "Falling Slowly" from Irish film Once could have swayed the Oscar voters.

Slean poked fun at her Night Bugs bill-paying single "Sweet Ones," but refrained from having it in the set list. Instead, pop-orchestral pieces "Parasol" and Night Bugs' "Bank Accounts" and "Drastic Measures" elevated the mood created from her more sombre material. In her usual theatrical fashion, Slean charmed audiences with her tall tales and colloquial idioms. She even confessed to going through a wannabe Tori Amos phase, but she's thankfully over it.

"I've spent years in therapy," she said. "We can talk about it now. It's OK."

Wood had technical trouble with his guitar on the first attempt to play "Euphoria," but returned later with a stunning version of Slean's most seductive song. Other tracks from her latest album, The Baroness, included "Please Be Good To Me," "Sound Of Water" and "Get Home."

Prior to starting into her melancholy ode to a lying, two-timing lover — presumably Luke Doucet — Slean explained the sense of release she felt writing "Get Home," not to mention the sweet revenge and embarrassment of having it played on radio stations everywhere.

The true holiday treat was given during the three-song encore. Blue Parade's hidden gem, "I Want To Be Brave (Madeline)," brought forth stories of Slean's elation of returning from recording at Hayden's house and bragging to her high school friends back in the old days in Pickering, Ont. She hadn't performed the song before and nailed every note. "Universe" and a choir-like singalong of "Silent Night" closed the monumental performance.