Patrick Watson – Live at Richard’s on Richards, Vancouver
Photograph by Valerio Berdini
Finding a parking spot on a rainy night in downtown Vancouver is about as fun as a root canal. And so is arriving at the venue for a show you’re reviewing exactly two minutes before the act goes on and then finding out your name isn’t on the list.
It would seem luck wasn’t on our side that evening. That was until Patrick Watson began singing.
Although the first two songs of his set were missed (one of them “Fireweed”) and gaining an eyeline of the band over the sea of standing bodies was a test of patience, it was well worth the trouble. Mr. Watson was in especially fine form last Wednesday night.
Richard’s on Richards, one of the best venues for live music in Vancouver, is dying a slow death. The washrooms are in disrepair and no wonder: it’s only a matter of time before the building is demolished and replaced by yet another condo development. An intimate room, its structure allows for good views from almost any location.
There was the obligatory commentary on Vancouver’s rain. “I think you guys can deal with the rain,” said Watson, comparing it to the snow and “brown river” of Montreal. Singing and playing piano from the corner of the stage, Watson was backed by the remarkable Simon Angell (guitar/banjo/mandolin), Robbie Kuster (drums/percussion), and Mishka Stein (bass).
“Beijing”, a beautiful tangle of percussion and piano, allowed Watson’s voice to soar to the rafters, unrestrained, while “Wooden Arms”, with its evocative mandolin part, was like a sleepwalk stumble through the forest. Watson’s compositions are a showcase for his incredible (and M. Ward-like) voice, at times manipulated by megaphones and effects, mechanical and electric, filling empty space with the sounds of vintage cinema and broken AM radios.
Whether adding unexpected touches such as kazoo buzzing, or idiosyncratic stage moves and head shaking, Watson was able to awe his audience, visibly touched by the band’s smooth transitions from symphonic euphoria to cabaret, thunderous and rambunctious to quiet and transcendent. “Big Bird in a Small Cage”, one of the finest on Wooden Arms and allegedly written with Dolly Parton in mind, was brilliantly done, but lacked the dazzling backing vocals of Katie Moore. “Where the Wild Things Are”, written for Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s story, was a lot of fun, as was “Machinery of the Heavens”, introed by the crowd’s males grunting and its females “ahh-ing” to produce a surprisingly exquisite reverberation.
During their encore, Watson shuffled through the crowd, wearing a backpack sprouting five megaphones that his vocal was fed through. The audience clapped along gently to “Traveling Salesman” (“selling the distance between us and the sky”) and sang along to “The Storm” (“eyes wide open, shutters closed”). Watson and his merry men sauntered back onstage to finish the song, with Watson relaxing at the rear of the stage drinking a beer while the band jammed out.
In the calm afterwards, left alone at the piano, Watson gave a heart-wrenching performance of “The Great Escape”, the crowd singing quietly on the “doo doo doo” part.
Maybe luck was on our side after all.
MP3:
Patrick Watson – Big Bird in a Small Cage
Patrick Watson – Where the Wild Things Are
Buy at:
Patrick Watson Shop / Amazon
Tags: concert, Concert Review, live, Vancouver
They better not close Richard’s on Richards, it’s the best venue we have here. We’ve already lost enough of the smaller, more intimate places.