After a pleasant interview with Natasha Alexandra of NLX, I settled in and hung about for an hour or so while the club doors opened and Alexandra got herself ready for her opening slot on this night. She deftly climbed the stage and settled in behind her piano alongside a drummer and plunged into a set that featured those two instruments, as well as a series of chunky and ethereal loops and bloops. Her opening track (specific titles elude me at this point, but I recall the feeling I had at the outset) was thick and loud and clunky. Vocals strong and piano lithe, she travelled through a very well-recieved set of music that was at once feminine and take-no-shit. She communicated easily between songs with her audience, telling them about the music and the tour and thanking everyone, from her onlookers to her headliners, gratefully. With a lilt and no absence of charm, she'd lightly toss her hat-bedecked head back while she pulsed her hands across the keys. I for one was quite impressed. After her set she certainly had no lack of people coming by to pick up music and lend her accolades.















Oi then, David Usher. This man has always been an intense performer, and while I have to say, perhaps his music is less cutting-edge than it once was, his live performance ability has, if anything, gotten better. He was never one to stand still, but my goodness does he ever milk his status now! He is somehow an extraordinary pop idol among the females in the audience. By all means, a striking man, but the sort of hand-to-head fainting type screaming that was going on, the groping hands that clawed at him whenever he approached the edge of the stage, were more on par with a boy band than a rock artist. Frequently, he put himself stagefront and grabbed at, held, shook hands, looked everyone in the eye, smiled, and broke a few hearts, I dare say.













During one of his encores (that's right, 'one of'), Usher mentioned he'd been quite sick and hadn't spoken for four days in preparation for this show. This was not apparent though - while not reaching a couple of outrageous notes, his vocals didn't really appear off in my opinion. Maybe his great stage presence distracted from the voice, who knows. His traveling band has changed over the years, and while he still retains keyboardist and former Moist bandmate Kevin Young, a notable change is in former guitarist Kim Bingham, who used to do that aria in "Black Black Heart" live without a falter. This time around, the aria was present as a barely-audible sample drifting in the background. The focus was definitely on his newer material, but we did get a couple of Moist and "Little Songs" album tracks tossed in for good measure.















Bandmate tomfoolery showing the oldschool cajoling of Usher and Young came up numerous times throughout the night, at one point with the two of them getting into some sort of rabble over Young's age. "This is what it's like to be on a tour bus," Usher explained to the giggling crowd. "You think it's going to be exciting and all, but no, this is it..." A few women died simply because he was talking, his legs got felt up, and then back to the music. He did actually risk wandering full-on into the crowd, which is quite daring if I do say so myself. And such an energetic man, violently tossing out arms and shimmying his body about. He's like a shaken rag doll up there. No wonder he stays so thin. Oh, and a fitting tribute to our Vancouver Canucks hockey team actually doing all right in the playoffs (at least at the time of this writing), one of the band members came out for the encore in an old Harold Snepsts jersey. Sweet.















After that and a brief stop-off at Subeez for some sustenance, it was time to hit up some local goods at the Media Club. The cute cute cute Parlour Steps were on stage at the time, singing songs about something that I wrote down but now can't read - damn you, writing in the dark! But, did I mention they're cute? Girly vocals mix with boyly vocals, everyone smiles and giggles and makes funny faces on stage. They're totally having a good time, and that's what it's about, right?















During a brief break between them and Painted Birds, I notice there's a guy doing face-painting at the side of the stage. Hosts of girls surrounded him and were getting various catlike and patterny things plastered on themselves. Shortly, all of these girls would be seen viciously crowding the stagefront for the Painted Birds. What an audience! Where did this band get this draw? Did they play a lot of rec centres over the last couple of years? These people barely look old enough to be in the room, and they're all dancing mopily with one another in a big, buzzy swarm, covered in cameras and closed eyes.













Oh, and surprise! Dom Coletto is playing with this band too! what are we up to now, 5745 different projects?? Geez. Some of the other guys in the band are playing barefoot. Their bass player is a jittery sort, leg tapping nervous energy. They're pretty funny guys though. The jokes themselves escape me, but they were pretty funny anyhow. Something about there being two Dominics on the stage, so whomever was shouting that Dominic is cute had better get their story straight. They also covered "Airbag" by Radiohead quite adequately, thank you very much.















Okay so finally, Ben Sigston was up to close the night. While he set his stuff up on stage, he hunkered down at his piano to fiddle with whatever needs fiddling, when one of the spacey girls from the horde of Painted Bird dancing fans came up, stood absently in front of him, and reached out an arm to start stabbing a couple of keys on the board. Her face was deadpan and she didn't even look up at Sigston, who was now eyeing her curiously, but just stood there and kept methodically stabbing away at a couple of keys. Sigston soon dropped his wary gaze and continued with his fiddling as though she wasn't even there, until she apparently got bored and left. What??

















Anyways - now having seen this guy play a couple of times, I can definitely say, yes indeedy he's a fine musical gent. His band again is a heap of experienced and grand musicians (second Canuck-support spotting of the night, guitarist Christian Thor Valdson has a Canucks sticker placed on the back of the headstock of one of his guitars), and Sigston himself has a strong and forthright vocal range, coupled with an amazing primary ability for piano. I was informed he is going to finally be recording an actual CD over the coming months out of his stockpile of great tunes, so be on the look out for that. His warm stage presence and powerful words are an instant draw. And he ended the set with a brand new tune (lovely!) that started off with a bit of a snafu that somehow came across as totally endearing.



Some more David Usher....

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : April, 2007.