Joanna Newsom's Set Is (Too) Short But Very Sweet

The phrase "short and sweet" has never been more appropriate than at Saturday night's Joanna Newsom affair at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.

Newsom's set clocking in at just over an hour's worth of music — encore included — and totalled less than 10 songs. It was disappointing to the jam-packed venue of people cheering for more who refused to leave, but also understandable as some of the harpist's majestic tunes span seven minutes at times. But if fans — and even Newsom, who regrettably left stage apologizing about the short set — had a choice, we'd stand there all night.

Short set aside, what Newsom did play was complete perfection, from instrumentation to her unworldly voice. She mostly played songs from her new Have One On Me album, and began the night behind the piano and gradually made her way to her signature harp for the rest of her set.

Newsom was backed by a guitarist, two violinists, a drummer and a trombone player, and recreated and reconstructed more condensed versions of her recorded work. Although it may not have sounded as orchestrated, every song was still brilliantly and elaborately played.

Even the chatter was good. While tuning her harp — which apparently takes eight times longer than guitar tuning — Newsom threw things over to drummer Neal Morgan for entertainment and banter.

Morgan, who ended up just answering various random questions thrown at him by audience members, was slyly able to plug his own solo record whilst congratulating Canadians on our Olympic hockey win (which resulted in a select few in the crowd to chant Sidney Crosby's name) and explaining how long he's been playing drums for. It was very charming, but as Morgan reassured the crowd, "We are at a Joanna Newsom concert!"   

Once things picked back up with The Milk-Eyed Mender favourite "The Book Of Right-On" Newsom mistakenly forgot the lyrics mid-song, laughed and jokingly said, "Does anyone even know the words to this song?" of which the audience proved they did by singing the lyrics and helping her out.

Another thing that pleasantly shocked me was the level of respect fans had for Newsom. With the exception of a "Crosby" chant or two you could hear a pin drop in the venue throughout most of her set — which is a seriously tough feat in a chatty room like the Phoenix.

Sure, it was a short-lived high and I'm sure everyone who attended went on to carry on with the rest of their evening past 9 p.m. But the highlight of the night, if not the week for everyone there must've been Newsom's flawless performance.

Her set it was a pleasure to witness, and let's all hope she'll return as soon as possible. We didn't get enough and we want more. Much more.