Olympia Theatre. A beautiful venue. A full house. One opening act, one headliner. Folk and pop holding their hands for one night. An audience on memory lane. Black and white playing with shadows. The 60s peeping out. And love. There was lots of love circulating the last 29th of August: from the bystanders to the bands performing, from the venue to its sound, from Montreal to its music scene once again plonked of talents.
The Shins were on; to open their performance, Joseph. At 8 pm this trio of sisters from Portland opened the games, and it was beautiful to discover something new (at least for me), to get lost in harmonic atmospheres led by a trio of incredible voices. Joseph is an outstanding ensemble made of Natalie Closner Schepman, and the 2 sisters twins Allison Closner and Meegan Closner. With three LPs under their belt already, the first one self-released in 2014, they were surely a surprise for my ears. Incredibly talented, mixing folk with harmonic melodies, the sisters showed to the audience their incredible vocal extensions creating enchanting atmospheres. Outstanding their cover of Toxic (also not at all expected), the introduction of a new song and a grand finale to their exhibition.
At 9 pm The Shins took over. The band was formed back in 1996 with a debut album Oh Inverted World released in 2001. Their influences are varied but strongly anchored to the pop/pop rock genre. There was a perceivable shifting in the energy of the show.
Like a scene taken from shadow puppetry, the band arose. All in white, on a white backdrop, with some gaunt three’s arms to replenish the stage. A grand entrée, followed by 60s synth vibes, to find Joseph again on stage on Weird Divide, backing up the band on New Slang, The Celibate Life, Your Algebra, and the Past and Pending, all from their debut album.
Indeed, the first part of the gig, long and intense, was completely dedicated to Oh Inverted World, as announced by lead of the band James Mercer at the very beginning.
An energetic shift into what I would consider the second part of the show that included pieces from Wincing The Night Away, Chutes Too Narrow, Heartworms, and Port of Morrow, was pushed by Pam Berry, followed by Phantom Limb with an interesting guitar solo and captivating bass lines, followed by something a bit more rock like Australia and Turn a Square.
A great encore with The Fear and Sleeping Lessons with a juicy interlude made of Tom Petty’s American Girl sealed a perfect ending to a gig surely made for aficionados.
Overall, a night of great discoveries.
Review – Francesca Sacerdoti
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