Final Fantasy
Date: July 9, 2007 Evocation and Transmutation After a fairly busy Sunday at Bluesfest, I limited myself to one artist on Monday. Final Fantasy's headlining set at the Blacksheep Stage proved to be a great success. Owen Pallett seemed to have improved as a performer from when I first saw him; and he had no problem entertaining a sizable crowd. Final Fantasy's music is built around the simple foundation of Pallett's voice and violin playing. With extensive looping of each of those elements, though, Pallett is able to construct songs from the ground up, building several layers to craft a rich-sounding whole. I've seen other musicians employ the technique to some degree but it is integral to Final Fantasy's sound. It is a testament to Pallett's playing and songwriting skills that a solo performance created from such limited ingredients remained captivating throughout a lengthy concert. Assisting in the audience interaction was a girl named Steph who joined Pallett on stage shortly into his set and proceeded to work an overhead projector through most of the night. Like Pallett, Steph's framework was simple, as she manipulated overhead transparencies; but the end result was intriguing. The visuals were a great complement for the music, enhancing rather than distracting. They also echoed the theme of Final Fantasy's last album, He Poos Clouds, which has eight songs loosely based on the eight schools of magic in Dungeons and Dragons. On this night, those songs were introduced with simple black-and-white text projections, proclaiming titles such as "Illusion," "Divination," "Evocation," and "Enchantment." Although that album won the inaugural Polaris Prize, I have to confess that I had not connected with it as strongly as I had the earlier album, Has a Good Home. However, this night changed my impressions, as all of the newer songs came across extremely well; although it was definitely still a treat to hear two of my older favourites, "This Is the Dream of Win & Regine" and "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead," delivered back-to-back. I also have to say that compared to my other live Final Fantasy experience, seeing him open for and play with Arcade Fire two years ago, Pallett appeared to have grown as a performer. While I was impressed with his playing before, he felt like a more complete frontman on this night, with sharper pacing, better vocal delivery, and more confident stage banter. In particular, a story of his sister's run-in with a short-tempered Bob Dylan fan earlier in the festival had the audience laughing. In fact, the entire night was a love-in between an enthusiastic crowd and a performer who seemed appreciative of that energy. A pair of encores, including a cover of Bloc Party's "This Modern Love," ended the night on a strong note. Although I limited myself to only one act on Day 6 of Bluesfest, it was still another great outing, as Final Fantasy came through even stronger than I had expected. <--Prev (The White Stripes) | Next (George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars)-->Return to Concert ListReturn to Main Page |