On the Road Again
Live Reviews:

The Magnetic Fields
September 15, 1999
Lee's Palace, Toronto

How do you follow up a four-year absence after your band released five albums in as many years? For Stephen Merritt, singer/songwriter of Magnetic Fields, the answer is easy: release a three-CD, 69-track boxed set of all-new material. Of course, we're not even counting his three side-projects (including the 6ths, featuring guests from Yo La Tengo, Luna and Sebadoh, among others). Amazingly enough, Merritt still finds time to tour, much to the delight of his devoted fans.

Recently, Merritt and friends performed the aptly-titled 69 Love Songs in its entirety over two nights in New York; fans in Toronto saw an understandably smaller set, with a few "old" (i.e. mid-'90s) chestnuts thrown in. It's frustrating, however, that Merritt chooses to tour without percussion of any kind (barring the sleigh bells he brought out for a free jazz pastiche). While his albums are full of crafty electro-pop and drum loops, their live versions seem more appropriate for an intimate theatre than for clubs. Granted, the audience at Lee's was very attentive, and the Fields' unorthodox mix of guitar, keys, banjo and cello filled the songs out with smooth textures.

Nonetheless, you've got to think that with a plethora of catchy melodies, barbed and humourous lyrics, and a surprisingly rich bass voice, Merritt could garner himself a shred of stardom if he were to reach out and grab his audience. Given his personality, however (a combination of intelligent sardonicism and mellowness bordering on catatonia), it's unlikely Merritt is destined to become well-known outside of a relatively small following.

But what a following it is — apart from some idle chatter from the bemused and uninitiated at the bar, Lee's Palace was just about as quiet as, well, the last time Merritt toured. Quiet enough to hear the sound of glass clinking, of cigarettes being lit, of hearts breaking and patching their wounds through song.